Coming soon page: what to put on it before launch

You could keep the domain empty until launch. The problem is that launch day then starts from zero: no list of interested people, no indexed page, no link preview that looks finished when someone shares your domain.

A coming soon page fixes three things early:

• An audience. Every sign-up is a person you can email on launch day, ask for feedback, or invite to a beta.
• A signal for search engines. A real page on the domain gets crawled and can be found by people searching your product name.
• A test of your message. If nobody signs up after a few weeks of sharing it, the promise is unclear or the audience is wrong. Better to learn that before the build is finished.

Keep it to one screen on desktop and a short scroll on mobile.

1. Product name and a one-line promise. Name the audience and the outcome, not the technology. "Invoices for freelance designers, sent in two clicks" beats "AI-powered billing platform".
2. Two or three supporting points. What changes for the user, in plain words. A screenshot, a short demo loop or a sketch of the main screen helps more than a paragraph.
3. The expected launch window. A month or a season is enough. Only show an exact date or a countdown if the date is fixed.
4. One email field and one button. The button text should describe the result: "Get notified at launch", not "Submit".
5. A consent line and a privacy link. Say what you will send and how often.
6. Who is behind it. Your name, a photo or a link to your profile. People trust a page more when a real person signs it.

What to leave off

Long feature lists, fake counters ("2,000 people waiting"), testimonials from people who never used the product, and pricing you have not decided. Anything invented will be checked by the first curious visitor and remembered.

The Nielsen Norman Group's form usability guidelines are blunt: remove fields that can be collected later or not at all, because every field you cut makes the form easier to complete. On a coming soon page that means one field, the email address. Ask for a name, role or company size later, in the welcome email or during onboarding, when the person has a reason to answer.

If you want to segment early, use one optional question after sign-up ("What would you use it for?") rather than adding fields before it.

If you have visitors from the UK or the EU, consent rules apply to marketing email. The ICO's guidance on valid consent says consent needs a clear affirmative action and rules out pre-ticked boxes. In practice:

• No pre-checked "send me news" box. The sign-up itself should be the clear action, with a line under the button such as "One email when we launch, plus occasional updates. Unsubscribe anytime."
• Do not bundle the waitlist with unrelated marketing.
• Keep a record of when and where each person signed up.

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the rules that apply where your visitors live.

A common mistake is to block the placeholder with noindex or to return an error status until launch. Google's guidance on pausing or disabling a website says a 503 status is only for disabling a site for a day or two. For longer periods it recommends an indexable home page as a placeholder. So:

• Serve the coming soon page with a normal 200 status on the URL that will become your home page.
• Do not block it in robots.txt.
• Give it a real title and a meta description that describes the product. Google may use that description in search results when it describes the page well.

When you launch, replace the content on the same URL rather than moving to a new one.

Most early visits come from links you post yourself on X, LinkedIn, Slack or forums. Those platforms build the preview card from Open Graph tags: og:title, og:type, og:image and og:url are the basic properties. Add a 1200 by 630 image that shows the product name and promise, and test the preview before you share the link anywhere.

The list is only valuable if your launch email arrives. Google's email sender guidelines ask every sender to set up SPF or DKIM authentication and to keep spam rates reported in Postmaster Tools below 0.3%. Larger senders have stricter requirements, including DMARC and one-click unsubscribe.

Three habits keep a small list healthy:

1. Send a short confirmation email right after sign-up, so people remember who you are.
2. Send a real update every few weeks: a screenshot, a decision, a question.
3. On launch day, send one plain email with a direct link and one thing you want them to do.

The structure in how to write a product launch announcement works well for that email.

When the product opens, the coming soon page becomes your home page, and the list becomes your first users. Use the launch checklist to prepare the rest, and read how to prepare your first product launch for the sequence of the week. If you are shipping a mobile app, the release steps in how to launch an app apply as well. Then list the product on MegaLaunch so it has a permanent page the day it goes live.

Should a coming soon page be indexed by Google?

Yes, if the wait is longer than a day or two. Google recommends an indexable placeholder for longer periods and a 503 status only for very short outages.

What is the minimum a coming soon page needs?

The product name, a one-sentence promise for a specific audience, an expected launch window, a single email field with a consent line, and a privacy note.

Should I show a countdown timer?

Only if the date is fixed. A countdown that resets or expires before launch damages trust.

How do I avoid my launch email going to spam?

Authenticate your sending domain with SPF and DKIM, only email people who opted in, include an easy unsubscribe link, and send a confirmation email right after sign-up.