Website closed for update

Veronicaschwarz

New Member
What's a good way to close a website for a major overahaul and direct visitors to a page telling them what's happening and get them eager to return to see what you've been doing? I currently use the Wix platform.
 
If you must close it down (don't see the point either) then you can get 'holding' pages where it shows a countdown etc.... but I'll be honest, a change of website isn't going to suddenly make people want to come back if they've already left it.

Personally I'd just build it and then upload when done but then I wouldn't be using the wix platform to do it and I'm guessing it can't do that.
 
If you must close it down (don't see the point either) then you can get 'holding' pages where it shows a countdown etc.... but I'll be honest, a change of website isn't going to suddenly make people want to come back if they've already left it.

Personally I'd just build it and then upload when done but then I wouldn't be using the wix platform to do it and I'm guessing it can't do that.
Thanks,Levi. That is what I am doing now. Fortunately, Wix does allow me to do that. I have shied away from using template-based web builders for more than twenty years but updating or buying new "start from scratch" software has now gone beyond my financial means hence my use of Wix. I was always somewhat contemptuous of such platforms but have been pleasantly surprised by Wxs. I still tend to scrap the template and start from scratch anyway. Old habits die hard. So it's It's good to have an expert confirm I am doing the best thing in the circumstances. Just a bit of clarification: I considered closing the website temporarily because, after a lengthy interruption to my tender care, it is now very out of date and somewhat misleading. I am not considering an alternative holding page because people have left my website. If that were the case, they wouldn't see my curiosity-arousing temporary measure anyway. My reasoning was to prevent them dropping off while waiting. Thanks again. It's great to have such a forum,
 
If you are doing a holding page to take down misleading information - you can always put in a temporary page.
Just make sure you put in a contact form - to capture data of anyone who has come to the site.

Launching a new site can be fun - you can have a few weeks leading up to it promoting it on your social media channels.

Plus the contact form is a great way to get feedback on what people are coming to your site for - consider the contact form having a space for what they're looing for, a free text area, or a drop down list.

You could also get some excitement by promoting on your social media channels with a short survey and chances to win something for completely the surveys etc.
 
"start from scratch" software has now gone beyond my financial means hence my use of Wix.
Have a look at Sparkle. Terrible name, but a surprisingly good WYSIWYG builder for a very reasonable price. I use it for smaller, static sites. Naturally with anything large / heavily dynamic i’d go the XD / Sketch – Developer route. I use XD, not Sketch, (though I have thought about giving it a try), but Sparkle will import Sketch files too.

For me this is not an issue, but it may be. Currently, it is Mac only.

Sparkle does have some capacity to drop snippets of code in if you wish, but it if you don’t want to / aren’t able to play with the nuts and bolts of coding (I can, but I decided, life’s too short!), you can build an entire site with ever seeing a DIV tag. I have never had to use it to incorporate dynamically-served content, so I can’t comment on this. As I say, if I need this, I’d usually go the XD/developer route. One day I’ll test it out.

I did a lot of hunting after the demise of Muse and found this the nearest replacement for building static sites. There are some limitations / irritations but it gets better and better with each release. I can genuinely start with a blank page and build sites with up to five breakpoints, which can either be custom built, or the software scales to suit pretty well (I always go the custom route though).

Finally, though this gushing account sounds like I do, I have no vested interest them, other than they are a great little company with a great product and they make my life a great deal easier. It’s run by a small team in Italy (English speaking and hugely helpful). Worth a look.

Anyway, I hope this is of some use.
 
Thanks,Levi. That is what I am doing now. Fortunately, Wix does allow me to do that. I have shied away from using template-based web builders for more than twenty years but updating or buying new "start from scratch" software has now gone beyond my financial means hence my use of Wix. I was always somewhat contemptuous of such platforms but have been pleasantly surprised by Wxs. I still tend to scrap the template and start from scratch anyway. Old habits die hard. So it's It's good to have an expert confirm I am doing the best thing in the circumstances. Just a bit of clarification: I considered closing the website temporarily because, after a lengthy interruption to my tender care, it is now very out of date and somewhat misleading. I am not considering an alternative holding page because people have left my website. If that were the case, they wouldn't see my curiosity-arousing temporary measure anyway. My reasoning was to prevent them dropping off while waiting. Thanks again. It's great to have such a forum,
notepad++ is free but thats all about hand coding.

Why not quickly change the 'incorrect' information while you're finishing the new site....
 
Have a look at Sparkle. Terrible name, but a surprisingly good WYSIWYG builder for a very reasonable price. I use it for smaller, static sites. Naturally with anything large / heavily dynamic i’d go the XD / Sketch – Developer route. I use XD, not Sketch, (though I have thought about giving it a try), but Sparkle will import Sketch files too.

For me this is not an issue, but it may be. Currently, it is Mac only.

Sparkle does have some capacity to drop snippets of code in if you wish, but it if you don’t want to / aren’t able to play with the nuts and bolts of coding (I can, but I decided, life’s too short!), you can build an entire site with ever seeing a DIV tag. I have never had to use it to incorporate dynamically-served content, so I can’t comment on this. As I say, if I need this, I’d usually go the XD/developer route. One day I’ll test it out.

I did a lot of hunting after the demise of Muse and found this the nearest replacement for building static sites. There are some limitations / irritations but it gets better and better with each release. I can genuinely start with a blank page and build sites with up to five breakpoints, which can either be custom built, or the software scales to suit pretty well (I always go the custom route though).

Finally, though this gushing account sounds like I do, I have no vested interest them, other than they are a great little company with a great product and they make my life a great deal easier. It’s run by a small team in Italy (English speaking and hugely helpful). Worth a look.

Anyway, I hope this is of some use.
Thanks, sprout. I appreciate your reply. I will check out Sparkle but for now, I am happy with Wix. I do pay for a Premium version but am managing. Wix also has the capacity to let me get behind the scenes and tinker with coq
notepad++ is free but thats all about hand coding.

Why not quickly change the 'incorrect' information while you're finishing the new site....
I can't be bothered with coding these days. I find most WYSIWYG programs do a good job without it.

My problem was that it was more a change of emphasis and out of date stuff rather than incorrect information. All good now. I have changed the main pages and hidden the yet-to-be updated subsidiary pages and their links. I will now add them as they are completed. Thanks again for your support.
 
notepad++ is free but thats all about hand coding.

Why not quickly change the 'incorrect' information while you're finishing the new site....
Have a look at Sparkle. Terrible name, but a surprisingly good WYSIWYG builder for a very reasonable price. I use it for smaller, static sites. Naturally with anything large / heavily dynamic i’d go the XD / Sketch – Developer route. I use XD, not Sketch, (though I have thought about giving it a try), but Sparkle will import Sketch files too.

For me this is not an issue, but it may be. Currently, it is Mac only.

Sparkle does have some capacity to drop snippets of code in if you wish, but it if you don’t want to / aren’t able to play with the nuts and bolts of coding (I can, but I decided, life’s too short!), you can build an entire site with ever seeing a DIV tag. I have never had to use it to incorporate dynamically-served content, so I can’t comment on this. As I say, if I need this, I’d usually go the XD/developer route. One day I’ll test it out.

I did a lot of hunting after the demise of Muse and found this the nearest replacement for building static sites. There are some limitations / irritations but it gets better and better with each release. I can genuinely start with a blank page and build sites with up to five breakpoints, which can either be custom built, or the software scales to suit pretty well (I always go the custom route though).

Finally, though this gushing account sounds like I do, I have no vested interest them, other than they are a great little company with a great product and they make my life a great deal easier. It’s run by a small team in Italy (English speaking and hugely helpful). Worth a look.

Anyway, I hope this is of some use.
Thanks, sprout. I appreciate your reply. I will check out Sparkle but for now, I am happy with Wix. I do pay for a Premium version but am managing to cover the cost. Wix also has the capacity to let me get behind the scenes and tinker with code. I expand a bit in my response to Levi if you're interested in what I ended up doing. Great to have this forum and to have friendly people happy to help. Thanks again.
 
If you are doing a holding page to take down misleading information - you can always put in a temporary page.
Just make sure you put in a contact form - to capture data of anyone who has come to the site.

Launching a new site can be fun - you can have a few weeks leading up to it promoting it on your social media channels.

Plus the contact form is a great way to get feedback on what people are coming to your site for - consider the contact form having a space for what they're looing for, a free text area, or a drop down list.

You could also get some excitement by promoting on your social media channels with a short survey and chances to win something for completely the surveys etc.
Great stuff. Thanks, hankscorpio.I'll add those good ideas to my plans.
 
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