Normally, updates to WordPress, themes, and plugins are fast and easy — you click the update button and, a few seconds later, the process is over and you’re happily moving on with your day. But if you’re reading this, chances are things didn’t go as expected.

While updates usually don’t cause issues, things can sometimes go wrong during the update process, especially during a major upgrade. This may be something as minor as an update not completing fully or it may be something that breaks your site entirely, making it unreachable.

These issues can be pretty scary for a website owner. If you find yourself experiencing problems after an update — don’t panic. Fixing the most common update issues is often quick and painless.

Performing updates and maintenance tasks is important to keep your WordPress website secure and running smoothly. Yet when you’re in the process of making changes to your site, you may not want visitors to access it.

Fortunately, putting your website into maintenance mode can help inform visitors that it’s currently under construction and they should come back again soon. This can also prevent them from landing on a broken site or page that isn’t working. 

In this post, we’ll explain what WordPress maintenance mode is and when you should use it. Then we’ll show you three methods for activating it in WordPress. Finally, we’ll teach you how to create a more custom maintenance mode design using a page builder.