Coming Soon Page or Real Website? What to Launch Before You Open

You have a date. Maybe the lease is signed, the sign-writer is booked and the opening is pencilled in for a Saturday in December. Somewhere on your list, between the insurance and the card machine, there is a line that says "website", and beside it a note: coming soon page for now, proper site later.

I would like to talk you out of that note.

Not because coming soon pages are wicked. They are simply the wrong tool for the weeks that matter most to a new business, and the reasons are rarely explained to the person who has to live with the consequences. You are in plenty of company, too. Just under 22,000 new companies were registered in Ireland in the first nine months of 2026, a record and up somewhere around 8% on the year before, according to CRIFVision-net figures reported by the Irish Examiner ^[1]. A good few of those owners are writing the same note on the same list right now. So let me walk you through what a coming soon page really does, what it quietly costs you, and what I would put up instead.

What Your Coming Soon Page Is Telling Google

Most coming soon pages on WordPress come from a plugin. Those plugins usually offer two settings that look identical to you and very different to Google.

The first is a coming soon mode. The page sends a normal, healthy response, which leaves Google free to index it. The second is a maintenance mode, which sends a 503 code meaning "temporarily unavailable, try again later". One of the most widely installed of these plugins, with more than half a million active installations listed on WordPress.org, spells out the difference in its own FAQ: coming soon returns a 200 and can be indexed, while maintenance mode returns a 503 and is intended for short spells of work on an existing site ^[4].

Now look at each one through Google's eyes.

If your page sends a 503

Google's documentation is plain. Content from a page returning a 5xx error is ignored, and URLs that keep returning server errors are eventually dropped from the index ^[3]. Its guidance on pausing a website calls a full shutdown an extreme measure for "a few days at most", and warns that ramping back up after a long absence is significantly harder if the site has to be reindexed first ^[2].

That advice was written for businesses already established online. A brand new business is in a weaker position, because there is nothing indexed to preserve. Six weeks of 503 means six weeks in which your domain, as far as Google is concerned, holds nothing worth showing anyone.

If your page sends a 200

Then Google can index it. What it indexes is one line of text and a countdown clock. Google also notes that an empty page can be reported as a soft 404 in Search Console ^[3], which is its way of saying the page looks like an error even though the server claims everything is fine.

What does that mean for you? Someone hears your name on local radio, searches it at the kitchen table, and either finds nothing or finds a page that tells them nothing. A new site takes a while to settle into search results even when it is complete, as we explain in how long a new website really takes to show up on Google. Starting that clock with an empty page burns the weeks you have.

The Weeks Before You Open Are When People Look You Up

This is the part that gets missed. The run-up to opening is not dead time for your website. Relative to how little anyone knows about you, it is often the most searched your business name will ever be.

Think about where that curiosity comes from. The hoarding goes up with your name on it. A neighbour shares your post in the town's Facebook group. Someone notices the shopfitter's van outside. Every one of those people does the same thing next: out comes the phone, and they search for you.

They are asking five plain questions:

• What is it, exactly?
• Where will it be?
• When does it open?
• Roughly what does it cost?
• Can I book, order or ring ahead?

A coming soon page answers one of them, on a good day.

Consider a hypothetical. A bike repair workshop is opening in a converted unit on the edge of a Westmeath town in the first week of December. The run-up happens to be the season when parents are sorting out a bike for Christmas and wondering who will service it, and when commuters caught out by the dark evenings want lights fitted. Each of them searches the name off the sign. With a coming soon page, they get a logo and an email box. With a real four-page site, they get the opening date, a short list of services with prices from, the Eircode and a phone number for booking the first week. One version fills the diary before the shutter goes up. The other leaves the owner hoping people remember.

The cost of the empty page is silent, which is exactly what makes it expensive. Nobody rings to say they could not find your prices. They just book the place across town that already has them online.

Google Will List You Before You Open. Give It Somewhere to Send People

Plenty of owners do not realise Google Business Profile has a proper setting for this. You can enter a future opening date up to a year ahead, and once the business is verified, the profile shows up on Google 90 days before that date ^[5]. During that window you can publish posts announcing the opening, add photos from fit-out to finish, and write your description. Customers cannot leave reviews or suggest edits until you officially open ^[5], which spares you some early mischief.

That profile has a website field, and this is where the coming soon page does the most damage. Google is doing you a favour by showing a business that does not exist yet. The one link it offers leads to a page with less information than the profile itself. The person who taps it learns nothing new, and you have spent the most valuable click you will ever get from them.

A real site turns that link into a next step. They see the services, the prices from, the map and a way to get in touch. That is the difference between a profile that proves you exist and one that brings in the first week's customers.

The Email Sign-Up Box Comes With Rules

Nearly every coming soon template includes a "notify me" box. It looks harmless. It carries obligations most owners never hear about. Under Irish ePrivacy rules, as the Data Protection Commission explains, electronic marketing generally needs the clear, affirmative consent of the person receiving it. The exception for existing customers is narrow, and the DPC states that it does not cover a prospective customer who has not completed a purchase ^[6]. Someone who typed their email into a box before you opened is, by definition, not a customer yet.

In practice, that changes how you word the box. If it says "tell me when you open", you have consent for an opening announcement and a weak argument for anything else. A monthly newsletter, a Black Friday offer or a January sale is a different purpose. So say plainly on the form what you will send, keep a record of when and how each person signed up, and put an unsubscribe link in every message. For anything beyond that, check with your solicitor, because consent turns on the exact wording and the DPC treats unsolicited marketing seriously.

None of this is a reason to avoid collecting emails. It is a reason to collect them on a real website with a clear purpose, rather than on a temporary page whose wording nobody thought about.

Five Things to Deploy Before Opening Day

With the coming soon page off the list, this is what goes in its place.

1. Deploy four honest pages. A home page with the opening date in its first line, a page of what you do with prices from, a find-us page with the Eircode and a map, and a contact page with a phone number someone will actually answer.
2. Write the opening date as text. Put it in the words on the page rather than inside a graphic, so Google, screen readers and AI search tools can all read it.
3. Verify your details match everywhere. The business name, address, phone number and opening date should read the same on your website, your Google profile and your social pages, so nobody has to guess which one is right.
4. Commit to a weekly update. A short post with a photo of the fit-out gives Google a reason to come back, and gives curious locals one too.
5. Stage the opening-day version. Prepare the now-open wording, final prices and booking button in a staging environment where you can test changes safely, then switch it over the morning you open, with the previous version kept ready to roll back to if anything looks wrong.

Early in this job, I used to tell people with a new premises to hold off on the website until the fit-out was finished, so the photos would look right. It sounded sensible. It cost them the run-up, and I stopped saying it.

What a Pre-Opening Website Should Ask of You

Before naming any platform, set the standard. Whatever you use for those weeks should pass five tests:

• It takes less time to build than a coming soon page takes to design.
• It costs next to nothing before you are taking any money.
• You can change it yourself, the same day, because opening dates slip and prices settle late.
• It is a real website that grows into bookings or a shop later, not a temporary page you throw away.
• It runs on hosting quick and secure enough that the first impression is not a slow one.

Ask why coming soon pages exist at all and the honest answer is often an agency timeline. The traditional route, a designer quoting somewhere in the region of €3,000 to €5,000 and several weeks of back-and-forth, cannot deliver a finished site by opening day, so the holding page fills the gap. Then the opening date moves, and every change becomes an email and an hourly charge. You know who loses out in that arrangement, right? The person paying for it, during the weeks they can least afford delay.

Web60 was built to meet that standard. You describe your business to the AI website builder and it produces a fully designed WordPress site in under a minute, which is quicker than choosing a countdown timer. It costs €60 a year with hosting, SSL, nightly backups, security and privacy-first analytics included, so there is no new bill to justify before your first sale. It is full WordPress with the whole plugin ecosystem, so the site you open with is the same one you add online booking or a shop to later. Pages are served through Nginx with Redis and page caching, which in plain terms means the person checking your opening hours from the car park gets the page before they lose interest. If you want to see what that looks like for your own business, watch the AI build a site from your own description before you commit to anything.

When a Holding Page Is Genuinely Enough

I would be overselling if I said a holding page is always wrong. There are honest cases where it is fine, or where you need no website at all yet:

• You have not settled the name or the premises. You have nothing true to say yet. Secure the domain, and build the site once you can answer what, where and roughly when.
• You are running a pop-up for one weekend. A Google Business Profile and a few social posts may well be all you need. A full website would be overkill.
• You are deliberately holding a reveal. If the launch is under wraps until a set date, keep the holding page up for days, not weeks, and still give the area, the date and a contact.

A real pre-opening site also carries one duty a holding page does not: it has to stay true. If the fit-out runs late and the opening slides from early December into January, every page, post and profile that names the old date is now wrong, and Google's results can keep showing the old wording for a while after you fix it. Change the site, the profile and any pinned social post on the same day the date moves.

Before You Write That Note

The weeks before you open are not a waiting room. They are the start of your marketing, and the people looking you up in that window are the warmest audience you will ever have: curious, local and already half sold. A small, honest website gives them the date, the place, the prices and a way to reach you. A coming soon page gives them a promise.

So when you get to that line on your list, cross out the note and replace it with four pages you can have deployed this week.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I put up a coming soon page before my website is ready?

For most new businesses, no. A small real website with your opening date, services, prices from, location and contact details takes little longer to set up, and it answers the questions people actually search for. Keep a holding page for the rare cases where you have nothing true to say yet, such as before the name or premises is confirmed, and keep it up for days rather than weeks.

Does a coming soon page hurt SEO?

It depends on how the page is served. A maintenance-style page returns a 503 code, and Google ignores the content of pages returning server errors and eventually drops URLs that keep returning them. A coming soon page that returns a normal 200 code can be indexed, but a near-empty page gives Google almost nothing to show and can be reported as a soft 404 in Search Console. Neither builds the head start that a real site does.

How early should a new business website go live?

As soon as you can say three true things: what you do, where you will be, and roughly when you open. For a business with premises that is often six to twelve weeks before opening, which sits comfortably inside the 90 days for which Google shows a verified Business Profile with a future opening date. Earlier is fine, provided you keep the details current.

Can I collect email addresses on a coming soon page?

You can, but marketing emails in Ireland generally need clear opt-in consent, and the Data Protection Commission says the existing-customer exception does not cover someone who has not completed a purchase. Say exactly what you will send on the form, keep a record of each sign-up, include an unsubscribe link in every email, and take advice from your solicitor if you plan to use the list for more than an opening announcement.

Can I create a Google Business Profile before my business opens?

Yes. Google lets you set a future opening date up to a year ahead, and once the business is verified the profile appears on Google 90 days before that date. You can add posts, photos and a description during that window, but customers cannot leave reviews until you officially open. Link the profile to a real website so people who tap through find more than the profile already told them.

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