A Coming Soon or Under Construction page, is a placeholder page used to block public viewing of your website while it is in the process of being built and/or tested live on the hosting server.

The default pages that all servers will initially look for and display onscreen when accessing your website are as follows (in order of priority):

– index.htm
– index.html
– index.php
– default.htm

1. Create an Under Construction Page

– Login to your cPanel
– Select the File Manager root folder (if it is the primary domain, use public_html)
– Click New File – Name it appropriately e.g. underconstruction.html
– Click Create New File

2. Edit an ‘Under Construction’ Page

– Select the filename and click HTML Editor
– Create the page and ensure that you include all your relevant contact information and a short paragraph about your company/products
– Click Save

3. Change your default Index Page in .htaccess

The .htaccess file is a hidden text file within your hosting account that can modify the usual behaviour of your website.

– In File Manager click on Web Root (addon domains use the dropdown and select the correct domain name)
– Ensure Show Hidden Files is ticked
– Click Go
– Right the .htaccess file
– Select Edit option and paste the following code at the beginning of the page use your filename e.g. underconstruction.html

#Alternate default index page
DirectoryIndex underconstruction.html

– Click Save
– Test it online to ensure you have done it correctly

4. Additional .htaccess Info

As an added precaution, you can add additional filenames to the above code and the server will check them in order from left to right. refer example below:

Alternate default index page
DirectoryIndex underconstruction.html index.htm index.html index.php default.htm