What do you do to stop traffic before your site is launched?

For a site I'm working on I don't really want visitors until I get the content up and functioning properly. I don't want people coming to the site half done, thinking that it's just a half finished site, and never return.

I thought I could restrict access with a password and username through cpanel, but from what I see, you can only restrict access to directories under the root, not the actual root directory itself?

What are some other ways I can restrict access until everything is up the way I want it?

You can restrict access to the root directroy itself.

What I do, though, is just leave the domain name with the registrar's default nameservers until the site is done.

A relatively easy thing is to put up a default index.php page that is blank, or mostly blank, then build off index2.php

Technically it is accessible, but its unlikely someone will access it.

Ah..sometimes I wonder where my head is at. lol. Never crossed my mind to do either of those things. Thanks for the suggestions, I think they are just what I need.

I got news for you, most visitors aren't coming back whether the site is finished or not. You are a lot better off having some filler content with ads so once your site actually is launched the traffic is there.

Building a website is not like building a road where traffic slows down your job. When I register a new domain I like to have content up within hours even if its nothing great.

I've also heard rumors that if you do have a site up, any site, it can mean quicker inclusions in Google down the road when you launch. Like Google judges the age of your website by date of first crawl.

Based on my experience, i would put it up and work on it "live."

One thing I've been noticing on some of my sites is that after one year the traffic immediately almost doubles. I have no rational reason for this, but I have tracked it on five different sites and my friend has reported it on one of his sites as well. The only explanation I can think of is that there is some benefit for having a site up and running for awhile.

I think the potential benefits of having it up and running in an incomplete state outweigh the downside of having a surfer stumble across it before you're really ready.

Yeah, some more good points made. Thanks everyone. I guess I will just go ahead and work on it "live" even if it's no finished, and just go with it. I guess it wont make much of a difference either way, and from what I'm hearing now, it may even help.

Thanks

I do like chris does. I throw up an index page that says something like "sexy new redevelopment in the works" and then use index 2 to develop.

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Originally Posted by deronsizemore

For a site I'm working on I don't really want visitors until I get the content up and functioning properly. I don't want people coming to the site half done, thinking that it's just a half finished site, and never return.

I thought I could restrict access with a password and username through cpanel, but from what I see, you can only restrict access to directories under the root, not the actual root directory itself?

What are some other ways I can restrict access until everything is up the way I want it?

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The onlyw ay to be sure would be to just alter the DNS record to be faulty.

How could people find your site if it is under another filename other than the welcome page? Is this an established site?

Either way taking a site down can only hurt you, unless there are legal issues. If you are indexed you may be inindexed.