Google: Avoid Using "Coming Back Soon" Pages For Site Migrations

May 2, 2023 - 7:41 am 4 by

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Google's John Mueller said he would "try very hard to avoid having a "coming back soon" page during a revamp." He said if you must have the "coming back soon" page then do so for a day or so but serve a 503 server status code.

John wrote this on Twitter, "I'd try very hard to avoid having a "coming back soon" page during a revamp. I don't think you'd gain a lot by bouncing it back & forth." "If you need it for <1-2 days, I'd just 503. For anything longer, it's going to be painful regardless of how you do it," he added.

Back in 2009 John said something similar, saying, "Tip of the day: If you have a generic "your site will be hosted here soon" page, use "noindex" or 503 result code, thanks!"

But John is now clarifying that the 503 should not be used for more than a couple of days. In fact, previously, John said 503s are for hours, not a solution for something that will take place for weeks. We covered the topic of 503 status codes a lot here over the years.

Here are these tweets:

Forum discussion at Twitter.

 

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