As a Shopify store owner, you may want to hide your store from public view for a variety of reasons. Perhaps you are still setting up your store and aren’t ready to launch yet. Or maybe you want to password protect your store while you run it in test mode. There are a few different ways to make your Shopify store private so only people you invite can view it.
Why hide your Shopify store?
Here are some common reasons Shopify store owners choose to hide their stores from public view:
- Your store is still in development mode and you aren’t ready to launch yet
- You want to test your store functionality before the official launch
- You want to run your store in beta mode and get feedback from a small test group
- You want to give access to only wholesale customers with a password
- You want to take your store down temporarily for maintenance or updates
Whatever your reasons, Shopify gives you a few options to easily hide or password protect your store when needed.
Hide Shopify store with password
One way to hide your Shopify store from public browsing is by password protecting it. This allows you to give access to certain customers by providing them with a password, while keeping the general public out.
To set up password protection for your Shopify store:
- Login to your Shopify admin
- Go to the “Online Store” settings
- Click on “Preferences”
- Under the “Store availability” section, toggle on “Password protect your store”
- Enter the password you want to use in the field
- Click “Save”
Now when anyone tries to access your store URL, they will be greeted by a password prompt. Only those you provide the password to will be able to view and access your store.
Tips for password protecting your store
- Create a strong password that is hard to guess but easy to share with permitted users
- Make sure your password protected page still looks professional with your branding
- Consider adding a notification about your store being password protected during development or maintenance
- Disable password protection when you are ready to launch your live store
Un-publish your Shopify theme
Another option is to un-publish your Shopify theme, which will make your store inaccessible to the public. Your store data and admin will still be available to you through the Shopify dashboard, but visitors will not be able to view your products or make purchases.
To un-publish your Shopify theme:
- Go to “Online Store” in your Shopify admin
- Click on “Themes”
- Locate the active theme and click “Actions” > “Unpublish”
Your online store will now display a “Store under maintenance” message for any visitor trying to access the URL. Only you can see the full store by previewing through the Shopify admin.
Tips for unpublishing your theme
- Add a maintenance page with custom text and images to improve the visitor experience
- Consider adding an email signup form to the maintenance page to collect leads
- You can publish the theme again at any time when you are ready to reopen your store
- Use this option if you want to keep your store published long-term but closed to customers
Disable Shopify store in settings
The most direct way to hide your Shopify store is by disabling your online store altogether. This will take down both your theme and online buying capabilities. Your products and orders will remain viewable in the Shopify admin, but public visitors will see nothing at your store URL.
To disable your Shopify store:
- Go to “Sales Channels” in Shopify admin
- Click on “Online Store” channel
- Toggle the switch off to disable your online store
With online store disabled, your Shopify URL will now just show a default “Store not found” type of page.
Tips for disabling your online store
- Use this method if you want to completely take down your storefront for an extended time
- You can toggle the setting on again at any time to reactivate your online store
- Consider adding a custom domain redirect during this offline period
- Disable your online store before making major changes to avoid errors
Redirect traffic to another URL
An alternative to completely hiding your Shopify store is to redirect traffic to a different website or landing page. This allows you to send visitors somewhere else while you work on your store in the background.
There are a few ways to set up redirects for your Shopify store domain:
- Forward your custom domain to another URL in your domain manager
- Use the Shopify redirect app to forward traffic from your store domain
- Manually install a redirect script on your store that forwards visitors
Some examples of where you could redirect your domain include:
- Your Shopify blog or specific product page
- A standalone landing page for collecting emails
- Your Shopify support page
- Your brand’s Facebook or Instagram page
Tips for redirecting your store
- Make sure your redirect destination is mobile-friendly
- Use 307 temporary redirects in case you want to undo it later
- Redirect to relevant pages so you don’t lose all traffic
- Consider adding a notification bar at the redirected page about your store status
Disable Shopify store indexing
You may also want to hide your Shopify store from search engines during your offline period. Otherwise search engines could index placeholder or error pages from your store URL.
To prevent search engine indexing of your inactive Shopify store pages:
- Install a meta tag app or SEO app like Metafields Editor
- Add a “NOINDEX” meta tag to your theme HTML using the app
- Apply the meta tag to any page you don’t want indexed
It’s also a good idea to set your products to “Do not index” in the Shopify admin to keep them out of search temporarily. Just remember to undo this later!
Tips for changing SEO meta tags
- Add NOINDEX tags to category, cart, and checkout pages
- Use NOFOLLOW tags for header navigation links
- Reset your meta tags when bringing your store back online
- Submit your store URL for re-indexing once it’s live again
Hide Shopify store with apps
The Shopify app store has some great apps to help hide or disable your online store:
- Hidden Store: Immediately hides your storefront until you disable the app
- Hide My Store: Password protects your store with custom visitor notifications
- Incognito: Disables your store theme, shopping cart, and checkout
- Stealth Mode: Generates a custom “Site Under Maintenance” page
These apps make it easy to hide your store with just a few clicks. Look for apps that have solid ratings and user reviews for reliability.
Benefits of using a Shopify app
- Requires no coding or programing skills to install
- Apps handle all the technical aspects of hiding your store
- Easy to enable/disable store visibility settings
- Additional customization features like maintenance pages
Test hiding your Shopify store
Before you block access to your Shopify store, it’s a smart idea to test that your chosen hiding method is working properly. Here are some ways to confirm your store is successfully hidden:
- Browse your store as a logged out user would
- Access your store on mobile devices and different browsers
- Do Google searches to ensure your store doesn’t appear
- Check indexing status using Google Search Console
- Ask friends or colleagues to check if they can access the store
Address any issues with visibility before launching your public store. It can also help to enable error capturing apps or services during your testing.
Tips for testing store hiding methods
- Test multiple pages like product, cart, and blog
- Confirm custom redirects go to right place
- Check speed of redirect or loading of maintenance page
- Make sure password prompt works correctly
Notify customers when hiding store
When temporarily hiding your Shopify store, you’ll also want to notify any existing customers or followers. This maintains positive relationships and avoids confusion.
Here are some ways to inform customers that your store will be down:
- Announce maintenance times on your store blog or social media
- Add a banner notice to your store in advance
- Send an email to your customer mailing list about store closures
- Update your support center pages with closure details
- Add notifications about closures to your email auto-responder
Be sure to communicate the duration of your store being hidden when possible. Customers will be understanding as long as you keep them informed.
Tips for informing customers
- Provide alternative purchase options like phone orders
- Emphasize when your store will reopen for business
- Offer incentives to customers to re-visit when the store is back
- Redirect customers to your social pages to stay engaged
Conclusion
Hiding your Shopify store from public access is easy to do using various built-in options and apps. Some common scenarios where you may want to disable your store include setting up a new development store, running beta tests, or conducting maintenance.
By password protecting your store, unpublished themes, disabling your online store sales channel, setting up redirects, or using a hiding app you can keep your Shopify URL private. Just remember to notify customers of closures and re-enable public access again when you are ready to resume ecommerce sales.
