Site status & visibility
Whether your site is reachable, and by whom, is controlled in one place: Settings > Access & Visibility.
Site status
| Status | What visitors get |
|---|---|
| Live | The site, normally. |
| Draft | A "coming soon" page, with your own Coming soon message. |
| Maintenance | A maintenance page. For a planned change, when you would rather explain than show a half-finished site. |
| Archived | Taken offline - the address returns "not found". |
Draft and Maintenance look similar to a visitor but read differently: one says not yet, the other says back shortly. Pick the one that is true.
Site privacy
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Public | Anyone can view. |
| Password protected | Visitors must enter a password you set before they see anything. |
Password protection covers the whole site. To lock a single page instead, use Require a password in that page's settings - see Pages & menus.
It is genuinely useful for showing work to a client, or keeping a site private while you build it - and much better than leaving a live site half-finished.
Geo access
Restrict by country: No country restrictions, Block selected countries, or Allow only
selected countries. Countries are entered as two-letter ISO codes, comma-separated - US, CA, GB.
Use Allow when you only serve certain places, and Block to shut out a source of spam or fraud. Allow is the stricter of the two: anything not listed is refused, including you if you travel.
Good to know
- Private sites and geo controls are premium features - see What each plan includes.
- Status is not the same as publishing. A Live site still shows only the pages you have published - see Publish your site.
- Archived returns a not-found page, which search engines will eventually act on. Use Draft or Maintenance for a temporary absence.
Next steps
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between status and publishing?
Status decides whether the site is reachable at all. Publishing decides which pages it serves. A Live site still shows only the pages you have published.
Draft or Maintenance, which should I use?
Draft says not yet and Maintenance says back shortly. Both show a holding page; pick the one that is true.
Will a password-protected site be indexed by Google?
No. A crawler meets the password like anyone else, which is exactly what you want while you build and exactly what you do not want after launch.
Does Archived delete my site?
No. It takes the address offline and returns a not-found page. The project and its content stay where they are.
Will country restrictions block me too?
Allow-only restrictions block anything not listed, including you if you travel. Blocking selected countries is the safer of the two.
Related reading
- Why your new website is not on Google yet - a site left on Draft or password-protected is the second most common cause.