Before requesting review, open the production domain in a private browser and check whether it displays a maintenance page, password prompt, staging banner, or “coming soon” screen. WordPress plugins and hosting dashboards can enable these modes separately. A site owner who is logged in may see the full site while the public sees a maintenance message, so logged-out testing is essential.
Google’s site-not-ready guide lists an unreachable site among common readiness issues, and its approval guidance notes pages under construction or behind restricted access as possible navigation concerns. Make sure you are checking the intended live domain, not a staging subdomain that is blocked or privately accessible.
Example: A developer finishes the redesign on production, but the Hostinger “Coming Soon” toggle remains on. Administrators can browse normally because they are logged in; reviewers and visitors see the placeholder. Turn off the mode only after the public site is ready, then test the homepage and a representative article while logged out.
If you need to keep a staging environment private, keep that restriction on staging and verify that production does not inherit it. Update robots and password controls carefully; do not expose staging copies with unfinished content or private data.
Run SiteReadyScore against the production URL to check its public response and content signals, then compare the result with a logged-out browser visit. The scan cannot toggle Hostinger settings or know whether a site is meant to be private.