Unpublishing a page or post means it's no longer visible to visitors but remains stored in your WordPress dashboard for future use. Deleting a page permanently removes it. If you might need the page/post later, unpublishing is the better choice.
When in doubt, unpublish rather than delete.
Can I unpublish a page or post and bring it back later?
Yes. You can set a page/post to "Draft" or "Private" in the WordPress editor.
- Switch to "Draft" status to work on content without public visibility
- Use "Private" status to restrict viewing to logged-in administrators
- Both options preserve your content while removing public access
These options remove the page/post from public view but keep the content intact and ready for re-publishing when needed.
What happens to my site’s navigation when I unpublish/delete a page or post?
If you unpublish a page or post, any links to that page in your site's menu will break. To avoid this:
- Update your navigation menus in Appearance > Menus.
- Contact the website support team to redirect broken links to relevant content.
Will an unpublished page still show up in Google search results?
Unpublishing a page/post will not immediately remove it from Google search results. To minimize impact, contact the website support team to:
- Set up 301 redirects to guide visitors to a similar page.
- Submit a request to Google Search Console to remove the URL from search results.
What happens if I delete a page by mistake?
If you accidentally delete a page/post, you can usually recover it from the WordPress Trash folder (found under Pages or Posts) as long as it hasn't been permanently deleted. If you can't find it, contact the university website support team for assistance.
Remember: The Trash is automatically emptied after 30 days, so don't delay if you need to recover something important.