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Avoid empty pages
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Every now and again I come across a blog that includes one or more of the following statements:
- Under construction.
- Pardon our dust.
- Coming soon.
They comments usually appear on a page with no other content. Sometimes there's a link that goes nowhere - you click it and you stay on the same page.
To me, "pardon our dust" is just a fancy way of saying "I got distracted and didn't finish this".
Readers don't want to find dead links. They don't want to know something will be "coming soon", they want to see the content. Or at the very least, they want a date when the page will have something a bit more useful on it.
If you are still building your site, that's fine, just don't give out the link yet. My blogging newsletter is online, for instance, but I've only shared the link with the potential contributors. There's nothing to read yet apart from a very short About page. So there is no point announcing the new URL yet.
If a page hasn't been built, don't add it to your navigation bar. Readers are much more likely to notice a new link with a page behind it than a link that's been there for ages but only just had some content added.
That's just my view - what do you think?
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Comments on Avoid empty pages
I hadn't really given this issue much thought but I CAN tell you when I hit a page under construction, the odds are I won't go back again. Interesting and thank you for this post. I'm getting ready for a "makeover" of my blog and chances are I would have used this trick. What does a person do when they have an existing blog and have to pull it to install a new web design? Thanks Ben. Always like your prose. With gratitude, Laurie B.
Those "under construction" pages are quite common, and makes the editor/admin look very unprofessional.
Why not finish the page and then publish it, no one likes to see that it is under construction anyway.
i always did wonder why people set up links to pages that don't yet exist. i felt that i'd rather they not post the link at all, until the page is finally set up. when i see something like this, like the previous comment said, i don't usually go back.
Thanks for the comments guys - and welcome to the newest members. :)
I had an "under construction" post showing for less than 24 hours on my blog. It's better than seeing the "closed for maintenance" screen that some people use in WordPress.