Curious about Coming Soon Page SEO? If your site feels outdated or mid-redesign, it’s super tempting to just take the whole thing offline while you wait for your new design. But should you use a Coming Soon page, or could it actually hurt your visibility?
If your business relies on search traffic (or you want it to), taking your website down, even temporarily, can disrupt your visibility, confuse potential clients, and undo months (or years!) of SEO progress. And we’d never want you to lose the good SEO rankings you’ve already earned.
In this post, we’ll explore whether Coming Soon pages are ever a good idea, how they affect SEO, and what to do instead when redesigning your website.
What is a Coming Soon page (and how does it impact SEO)?
A “Coming Soon” page is exactly what it sounds like: a placeholder that tells visitors a new site is on the way. It’s typically used when:
- A brand is launching a new website from scratch
- An existing business is rebranding or overhauling its site
- A team wants to take down their current site during a redesign
On the surface, it seems practical. Keep things simple, let people know change is coming, avoid showing off a half-baked site. But from an SEO perspective, it’s almost always a mistake.
Should you use a Coming Soon page during a redesign?
Using a Coming Soon Page is almost always a bad idea, especially if you leave it up a long time. Here’s why:
1. They don’t rank
Search engines need content to crawl. Coming soon pages lack meaningful content, keywords, or internal links, so Google simply skips over them. From the perspective of people looking for a realtor, an interior designer, or financial services…a Coming Soon page doesn’t really match the search intent of what they need. And Google won’t continue to send them to your site. If your whole site is replaced by one of these placeholders, you’ll likely lose existing rankings and make it harder to build new ones.
2. They frustrate your visitors
If someone searches for your business, clicks a link, and lands on a “Coming Soon” page…they’re not sticking around. This not only drives up your bounce rate but can also hurt your credibility. Especially in industries like wellness, coaching, and creative services, where trust is everything and you’re doing a lot of your business online. When people show up on your site, they want to know what you do, how you can help, and how to contact you now, not someday.
3. They can be seen as low-quality
Search engines assess whether a site is active and well-maintained. A “Coming Soon” page that lingers too long sends the opposite message. It can look like a project that’s been abandoned, especially if there’s no launch date or context. This may result in lowered domain authority or even removal from search indexes.
4. They create duplicate content risks
If you’re working on a new version of your site and copy/paste from the old one, but launch with placeholder text or “Coming Soon” messages instead of your real content, you risk confusing search engines. Improper handling of this transition can create duplicate content issues, broken links, and other technical SEO headaches.
Does redesigning a website affect its SEO?
Yes, but (and this is a big but!) that can go positively or negatively.
A website redesign can be a huge SEO boost if you:
- Improve site speed and mobile responsiveness
- Add new keyword-rich content
- Clean up your navigation and structure
But it can tank your rankings if you:
- Change URLs without setting up 301 redirects
- Strip out optimized page titles, headers, or meta descriptions
- Replace content that was helping you rank
- Launch with incomplete or thin pages (i.e., the Coming Soon pages in question)
Think of your current website as a garden. Even if it’s overgrown, it’s still producing fruit. Tearing it out without a plan for replanting means you’re starting from scratch. And that’s exactly how Google sees it.
Wondering when the best time to do SEO is? Read more about it here!
How to redesign your website without losing SEO rankings?
A site redesign doesn’t mean you have to start from ground zero with SEO. It’s possible to redesign your site without losing SEO rankings you’ve already worked so hard for. Here’s how:
1. Keep your existing site live
The simplest way to avoid SEO drops? Don’t take your current site offline. Instead, build the new version in a private staging environment (your web designer or developer can help with this) and only push it live when it’s fully ready.
2. Preserve your URL structure
Try to keep your existing URLs the same, especially for high-performing pages. If you do need to change them (like moving from /services.html to /offerings/), set up 301 redirects so visitors and search engines are automatically sent to the new page.
3. Copy and improve your metadata
Before launching your new site, make a list of all your current page titles and meta descriptions. These are often overlooked during a redesign, but they’re a big deal for SEO. Bring them over to the new site and update them to reflect any changes in your keywords, branding, or services.
4. Optimize for speed and mobile
A redesign is the perfect time to make sure your site loads quickly and looks great on mobile devices, because these are two factors that directly affect rankings. Compress your images, choose clean themes, and test your site’s performance before launch.
5. Test everything
Click every link. Submit every form. Read through every page. The more thorough your testing, the smoother your relaunch. SEO tools like Screaming Frog or SEMrush can also help you spot broken links or crawl errors before they hurt your visibility.
6. Submit a new sitemap to Google
Once your new site is live, head to Google Search Console and submit an updated sitemap. This gives Google a fresh blueprint of your site structure and helps it index your new pages more quickly.
Wondering what to do if you’re moving to a new domain and want to keep your SEO? Learn more here!
What if you’re launching a brand new business?
Okay, so what if your business isn’t live yet? What if you don’t have any traffic, customers, or content, but you do have a new domain name and you’re not quite ready to launch? Should you use a Coming Soon page then?
In this case, a minimal “Coming Soon” page can be okay, but only if you:
- Include a short explanation of what’s coming
- Add a contact form or offer a freebie with an email opt-in
- Make it clear when the full site will be live
- Use basic on-page SEO (like a proper page title and meta description)
The goal is to build credibility and capture early interest, not just fill space. But if you don’t expect any traffic yet, you may also consider keeping your site private (or using a password-protected staging version) until you’re ready to go.
Read more about the best SEO practices for new websites here!
Coming Soon page SEO (just say no)
In short: a Coming Soon page has almost no SEO benefit, and a whole lotta risk if you’re redesigning an existing site. If search visibility matters to your business (and trust us, it does), the better move is to keep your current site live while you work behind the scenes to make it even better.
Ready for that fresh website feeling, without Losing Your SEO?
Whether you’re rebranding, refining your offers, or finally making your website feel like you again, we’ve got your back.
At Southern Creative, we help creative business owners and service providers like you launch search-friendly websites that are as strategic as they are beautiful.
With our Launch Week service, you can have a beautiful (and search-worthy) new site in as little as one week. Reach out here, and let’s make sure your next launch is built for search & conversions.
