How to ensure that the website displays a custom prompt to users when it is in "shutdown" status?

In website operations, we sometimes encounter situations where we need to temporarily close the website, such as for system maintenance, major upgrades, data migration, or handling unexpected security incidents.For any reason, directly allowing users to access an empty page or an error page will severely affect user experience and even damage the brand image.At this time, it is particularly important to be able to clearly display a friendly prompt to visitors.

AnQiCMS (AnQiCMS) is well-versed in this, providing us with a very convenient and flexible website shutdown prompt solution, allowing us to easily deal with such situations.

First, when the website is closed, it is the first step to inform clearly

When we decide to temporarily close the website, the most basic need is to make sure that all visitors can see a clear notification.The AnQi CMS provides a direct "website status" toggle function and a content editing box for "shutdown tips" in the background settings.

1. Switch the website status:You can find it in the Anqi CMS backend“Background Settings”Under the menuGlobal function settings. On this page, you will see a name called“Website Status”The option. By switching it from “on” to“off”Your website will immediately enter closed mode. This means that all users visiting your website will only see the shutdown prompt you have set.

2. Set the shutdown prompt:Immediately below the 'Website Status' option, there is usually one"Shutdown Prompt"The text input box. This is where you write your message to visitors. You can enter some brief but important information according to your actual situation, such as:

   • The website is undergoing system upgrade, maintenance time expected.
   • Thank you for your patience, the service will be restored soon.
   • If you need urgent assistance, please contact our customer service (and provide contact information).

Through these two simple settings, even if your website is working "behind the scenes", visitors will receive clear feedback to avoid confusion and loss.

Chapter 2: Personalized Customization: Creating a Professional Shutdown Page

If displaying a piece of text is not enough to meet your needs, for example, if you want the closed station page to maintain the brand style or include more complex layouts and images, Anqi CMS also provides powerful template customization capabilities. The system will default to searching for a page namederrors/close.htmlThe template file to display the closed page. This means you can completely control the design and content of this page.

1. Create or modifyerrors/close.htmlTemplate File:In your Anqi CMS template directory, you can find (or create)errors/close.htmlThis file. This file is a page template specifically designed for displaying to users in the offline state.You can design the page like a normal page here, adding HTML structure, CSS style, even JavaScript scripts, to ensure that the closed page also conforms to your brand style.

2. Reference the closed site prompt content in the template:Even if you have customizederrors/close.htmlTemplate, you can still flexibly refer to the content in the 'Offline Tip' input box under the 'Global Function Settings' on the background. By using the system tags of Anqi CMS, you can dynamically display the text entered on the background in your customized page:

   {# 在 errors/close.html 模板中，您可以使用以下代码获取后台设置的闭站提示文本 #}
   <div>
       <p>亲爱的访客：</p>
       <p>{% system with name="SiteCloseTips" %}</p>
       <p>感谢您的理解与支持！</p>
   </div>
   

   This way, you can easily modify the prompt text through the backend, and also flexibly control the overall layout and visual effects of the page through the template file, achieving perfect integration of dynamic content updates and design.

Step 3: Operation Suggestions and Precautions

• Plan in advance:Be sure to prepare the shutdown prompt content and customized page in advance before deciding to close the station, to avoid last-minute preparation.
• Information Transparency:In the shutdown prompt, try to inform the user of the reason for the shutdown, the expected recovery time, and possible alternatives (such as social media accounts, customer service phone numbers, etc.), so that the user feels respected.
• Test acceptance:Before the formal shutdown, it is recommended to switch the website status in the development or test environment first, check if the shutdown page can be displayed normally, and whether the content is accurate and error-free.
• Search engine friendly:For short-term closures (a few hours to a day), search engines usually understand.The shutdown feature of AnQi CMS has taken this into consideration, it will return the corresponding status code (such as 503 Service Unavailable) to search engines, informing them that this is only a temporary situation and should not affect normal inclusion and ranking.If the site is closed for a long time, it is recommended to pay more attention to the inclusion of the website after recovery.

The shutdown feature of AnQi CMS, from simple text prompts to in-depth template customization, provides a multi-level solution that helps you maintain a professional image during website maintenance and maintain trust with users.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. Why is the original HTML code displayed on the front end instead of the rendered effect, as I entered it in the "site closure prompt" on the back end?The “Shutdown Prompt” input box is mainly used to enter plain text information. If you want to display complex HTML structures, images, or styles on the shutdown page, it is recommended that you modify or createerrors/close.htmlImplement a template file. In this template, you can freely write HTML code, and through{% system with name="SiteCloseTips" %}the tag to bring the background input text prompt content into the page.

2. If I have not createderrors/close.htmlWhat will be displayed when the website is closed?If you have not created a customerrors/close.htmlTemplate file, AnQi CMS usually has a default system shutdown page.This page will directly display the content you entered in the "Shut Down Prompt" field under the "Global Function Settings" in the background, but its style and layout may be system preset and relatively simple.To better control the user experience, it is strongly recommended that you customizeerrors/close.htmlfile.

3. Will the closure of the website affect SEO?For short-term (such as a few hours to a day) maintenance shutdowns, they usually do not have a significant impact on the website's SEO.The AnQi CMS shutdown mechanism will return a "503 Service Unavailable" status code to search engines on the technical level, indicating that the service is temporarily unavailable, so that search engines know that it is not a permanent shutdown.The search engine will recrawl your website after a period of time.If the downtime is long, search engines may reduce the crawling frequency, but once the site is restored, it usually reindexes quickly.The key is to provide clear prompt information when the site is closed and ensure that the content and services are normal after the site is restored.