Put up a holding page while your site is being built

A holding page is a one-page site that says "Our website is on its way" and shows how to reach you. It keeps your web address from showing an error while the real site is still being made, and it lets people email or message you in the meantime.

The Holding page template shows four things and nothing else: your business name, the line "Our website is on its way.", your email address, and a phone or WhatsApp line.

Start from the template

1. Open your dashboard and click New site.
2. Choose Start from a template.
3. Pick Holding page from the list.
4. Type a name for your site and confirm. The copy takes about a minute, and then the site is in your list of sites.

Make it yours

1. Click Your Business Name and type your own business name.
2. Click the email address and type yours. It is a link, so a visitor who clicks it opens a new email to you.
3. Click the WhatsApp line and type your own number. Change the link too, so it points to your number: https://wa.me/ followed by your number with digits only, for example https://wa.me/6581234567.
4. If you would rather show a phone number than WhatsApp, change the words and use a link that starts with tel:, for example tel:+6581234567.
5. Put your business name in the page title too, so it shows in the browser tab and when someone shares your link. Select the home page, open its search settings and change the title, for example to Bakery SG | Our website is on its way.

Keep "Hide from search engines" on

The home page of this template already has Hide from search engines turned on. Leave it on while the page is a holding page. Google then does not list "Our website is on its way" as your business.

To check it, select the home page and open its search settings. See Search settings for a page.

Publish

Click Publish. If you have connected your own domain, the page shows there. If not, it shows at your free .contentmetric.com address. To connect a domain, see Connect your own domain.

On the Free plan, a small Website by ContentMetric badge shows in the bottom corner, as it does on every Free site.

When your real site is ready

You do not need to move anything. Either build on this same site, or copy a different template and publish that instead.

1. Edit the page, or add your new pages.
2. Select the home page and turn Hide from search engines off. If you forget this step, search engines will keep ignoring your site.
3. Click Publish.

Common questions

Can I use it with Business Email? Yes. Use your new business address on the page. See Business Email.

Can I add more to it? Yes. It is an ordinary site, so you can add text, pictures and pages like on any other. A holding page works best when it stays short.

Does it cost anything? No. It is a site like any other, and the Free plan covers it.