How to Unpublish Your Wix Site

You’ve had a long run, but now you are considering unpublishing your Wix site. There can be multiple reasons why you end up making this decision. Maybe you don’t want to have your website on a public platform, there are some inaccuracies in your website, or you are looking to rebrand. 

Whatever your reason for deciding to unpublish the website, I am here to show you how you can do it. Better yet, I will show you an easier way to unpublish your Wix site. 

How Do I Unpublish My Wix Site?

Start by accessing your Wix account and logging in. Once you’re in, go to the ‘Settings’ tab on the sidebar. This shows you the settings on your dashboard. Go to the ‘General’ section, select ‘Website settings’, and open it. 

Once it opens, you can see a line indicating that your Wix site is published. Click on the ‘Unpublish’ button on the tab, and you are almost there. You will see another pop-up asking if you want to unpublish your website. Click the final ‘Unpublish’ button, and there you go! You are now Wix-free!

Your website is inaccessible to viewers, and your readers cannot interact with it on the internet. However, as the previous pop-up says, you can always publish the site again through the Editor if you ever change your mind.

Republishing a Wix Site

The process is just as simple as unpublishing. Open Wix again and log into your account. Navigate to the Wix Editor on the top right corner of your site and click ‘Publish.’ It’s in a big blue button; you can’t possibly miss it.

Why Might I Unpublish My Wix Site?

There are endless reasons why you might decide to unpublish your site. Unpublishing is not the same as deleting it. Deleting your site means you altogether remove it from the internet and Wix’s servers as well. This is a step you cannot undo, and you will not be able to recover your data ever again.

Deleting also means you might never get your domain name in the future. It cuts all your ties to the previous website, losing your information on the worldwide web. It is a permanent break. 

On the other hand, unpublishing is just like taking a break from the site. It removes the site from the public eye, turning it dormant while all your information still stays in the Wix dashboard. You can make changes to the website, access it, and even republish it when you are ready to get back into it.

The most common reason that makes Wix users unpublish their sites is to carry out a little bit of maintenance. When you unpublish your site, you can fine-tune the settings and adjust the layout and content as you want.

It is easier to rebrand your site when it is unpublished, as it doesn’t show any of the changes to your viewers. It is a more effortless and less messy way to revamp your site, republishing it once you are done making all the changes. It is a practical solution if your site has heavy traffic.

You should consider unpublishing your Wix site to let your team optimize it to cater to Google’s Core Web Vitals update. This allows you to make test runs to see whether the site is running at the right pace and uptime, with the added bonus that it hides all this from your viewers. You can make a big reveal once you’re done without confusing your viewers.

Top Tip!

Keep in mind that unpublishing your Wix site does not cancel your website’s domain or end your subscriptions. This means that you will still be paying for Wix’s paid plans even when your site is off the internet.

You can delete both commitments by turning off auto-renewal. Find the auto-renewal information on the site’s backend. You can also check out Wix’s policies concerning canceling a domain and the premium plan.

What are the Risks of Unpublishing My Wix Site?

As with most things, unpublishing a Wix website comes with its risks. One of the risks is that you are likely to lose your rankings the longer your site stays unpublished. 

There is a constant stream of responsive websites that Google and other search engines will prefer. They will turn to those that post consistent content and have a higher uptime. Your SEO ratings will drop considerably as more interactive websites take your place; you might come back to find yourself at the bottom of the list.

There is also the risk of damaging your brand. The brand that you worked so hard to build can only take a few days to completely destroy. Your Wix website might count as your main identity, and leaving it offline for a long time makes people forget about it. 

If a potential client or investor cannot reach your site when they want to, they will lose confidence in your brand. The more time passes, the more their trust in your brand erodes and can eventually disintegrate, turning your brand visibility to zero. This can cost you your profile and even your profits as well!

To counter these risks, you might decide to unpublish your site for only a few hours at a go. Be moderate when you unpublish or do it alternatively, finding other avenues that can help you out.

What Are the Alternatives to Unpublishing My Wix Site?

What other options can you use if you don’t want to take the unpublishing route?

Deleting Your Wix Site

As previously discussed, deleting your site is a permanent solution, a decision you can’t go back on. Deleting can be the solution for you if you don’t want to own the website entirely. Deleting the site fits:

• Those who aren’t looking to resume or reinstate their website ever again
• Those who don’t need their Wix site anymore, for example, someone considering closing their operations permanently.
• Someone who doesn’t want their data on Wix’s servers or on any internet location.

To delete the website, go to the Wix Editor. This is the area you actively engage with your audience or edit your site; once on the Editor, go to the top left corner and click on the ‘Site’ button. This will prompt a drop-down menu, select ‘Move Site to Trash,’ and you have permanently deleted your site.

Note that this is not the best solution if you are not sure of where the website is heading. If you think you might still have a need for your site, it would be better to just unpublish it till a later date.

Non-indexing Your Wix Site

What if you don’t want to unpublish or delete your website? What other option can you explore? Non-indexing your Wix site is the perfect option for you. When you non-index your site, you remove it from Google search results. However, the site will still be accessible to people with a direct link. 

This option keeps your Wix site available, but only to a select audience. Follow these steps to non-index your Wix site:

• Start by going to the Wix dashboard’s sidebar and selecting ‘Marketing & SEO.’ 
• Once this opens the menu, choose ‘SEO Tools’; it is usually the third on the list. 
• Scroll down and select ‘General SEO Settings.’ 
• When you can access the settings, untick the slider switch that says ‘Let search engines read your site.’ This stops sites like Google and Bing from showing your website when someone searches for particular keywords.

Non-indexing your Wix site doesn’t stop Google’s ‘spiders’ from finding your site, but it stops them from indexing it. 

Most people choose to non-index their Wix site for maintenance purposes. You can make changes to your site after non-indexing it, and they won’t be visible during the searches. If you want some feedback on the changes you are making, you can give a select few individuals access to the site.

Send them your site’s URL to give them full visibility into your site. This enables them to look at your progress and give any feedback on the changes you are making.

Top Tip!

Your site can still show up in SERPs (search engine result pages) even after you non-index it. This should not alarm you; it simply means that the ‘spiders’ might still have access to the site if it was published when you non-indexed it. Give it some time, a few days tops. This gives the databases a chance to update, and then it will take your pages off the SERPs.

Using a “Coming Soon” Page

The final option you can consider is using a “Coming Soon” page. Doing this relieves you of the stress of unpublishing or non-indexing your Wix site. You can put a “Coming Soon” template to let your audience know that the site will be back up soon.

Wix has a host of templates that you can get for free to do that for you. This way, you can still have your site up while making some changes. The public will also have access to your Wix site whenever they want and it shows up in search engines. 

It also doesn’t redirect traffic to your page and allows Google and other search engines to index it. This means you won’t have to fear losing your ratings. It is a simpler option but be advised that your audience will see the changes you are making, and it might not make for a comfortable read.

How to Unpublish Your Wix Site: Summary

So, to go through what we have covered, you can easily unpublish and republish your Wix site in just a few simple steps. Unpublishing your website removes it from the public view, leaving you free to make changes and rebrand without interfering with the viewer experience.

You might choose to unpublish your page for maintenance purposes, letting you fine-tune and make adjustments to your layout and content and come back with a better website. You can then choose to republish it after the changes are done and get back to your normal operations.

You can also decide to delete your Wix site, but this completely wipes off any traces of your site from the internet. You will not be able to recover the site ever again, and all the information that was on it is lost forever.

Other alternatives to unpublishing your website include non-indexing it so that only those with a link can access it. This lets them view your progress, but search engines will not have access to it. The other option is using a “Coming Soon” page.

The page lets your users know that you are making some changes but will be back once you are done. Make sure that the option you choose is one that you really want and won’t end up regretting after a few days. 

Further Reading:

• Wix Membership Site: What to Expect? (Pros & Cons)