Given that Facebook is the most popular social media platform in the world, a small business like yours has to have a presence there… usually.

As a digital marketing rule, we recommend that every small business has an active Facebook page for their business, but we know there are exceptions to every rule. Sometimes, it’s just necessary to unpublish your business’s Facebook page for a while.

This can be due to several reasons—and we’ll get into those later in this blog post. We’ll also outline exactly what it means to unpublish a Facebook and how to unpublish a Facebook page on both web and mobile.

So, if you’re wondering why you might need to unpublish your page or are looking for the steps on how to do it, keep reading!

What’s the Difference Between Unpublishing, Deactivating and Deleting?

Unpublishing, deleting and deactivating—if you’ve been doing any research about getting rid of your Facebook page, you’ve probably come across all three of those terms. So, what exactly is the difference?

Well, it’s all about reversibility and view. When you unpublish your page, you’re only hiding it from everyone who is not an administrator of the page. And if you decide you want to bring your page back, you can easily republish without losing any content, likes or followers. Additionally, when you unpublish, you can still see and make changes to the page (as long as you are an admin.)

Deactivating a page is also reversible— it hides your page from public view, but it also removes it from being seen by anyone, even administrators.

Deleting, on the other hand, is not reversible. Once you delete your page, you won’t be able to recover it and will have to create a brand-new page if you decide you want it again in the future.

This is why our recommendation is to just unpublish your page if you want it out of public view for a while!

Why Would a Business Want to Unpublish Their Facebook Page?

There are many reasons why you might consider unpublishing your Facebook page as a small business owner, including personal circumstances for you as an individual. But here are a few of the most popular reasons:

• You’re working on a rebrand: If you’ve had your business and your business’s Facebook page for a while, you might be due for a rebrand. Companies rebrand to keep up with trends, breathe new life into their brand or stay relevant in the market. You might want to unpublish your Facebook page for a bit while you give it a total refresh with new graphics, brand voice, colors, etc.
• Your audience has evolved: As your business grows, your audience changes and grows with it. You might discover that your Facebook page isn’t getting as much traction as other social media platforms and keeping up with it is taking your time away from creating more content for those other platforms. Studies show that users ages 25-34 years represent Facebook’s largest audience, so if this doesn’t match up with your business’s current audience, you might need to rethink your priorities.
• You’re taking a pause from social media: Running a business is hard and keeping up with day-to-day operations while also maintaining digital marketing strategies just makes it harder. Sometimes, social media might simply not be worth your time. Especially when you consider that while over 66% of Facebook users view local business pages at least once every week, the average engagement rate is less than 1%. That can mean a lot of hard work for just a small reward when you could be putting time into other parts of your business.
• You’re taking a break from your business: Again, running a small business takes a lot of time and energy and sometimes you just need to step away. Unpublishing your business Facebook page during this time is a good idea because it signals to your customers that you’re away and they won’t be trying to reach out to you.

Some Considerations Before Unpublishing a Facebook Page

Before you start the unpublishing process, here are a couple of things we recommend you do first:

• Backup the important stuff: If you’re an admin of your business Facebook page, you should still be able to access anything on it after you unpublish and it should remain on the page once you republish, however, you can never be too careful. We recommend saving a copy of your photos, graphics and anything else you find important before hitting “Unpublish.”
• Inform your customers: If your customers go looking for your page and can’t find it, this can create a lot of uncertainty and a poor customer experience. We recommend creating one last post informing your customers that you’ll be going away for a little while and giving them ample time to see it before you leave. You might also let them know if/how they can keep in touch while your page is unavailable.

How to Unpublish a Facebook Page on a Desktop

Now let’s get into the steps for unpublishing! First, we’ll go over how to unpublish a Facebook page from your desktop computer:

Step 1: Go to your Facebook page.

Step 2: Click on “Settings” near the top of the page.

Step 3: Click on “Page Visibility.”

Step 4: You will see two options, one for “Page Published” and one for “Page Unpublished.” The “Page Published” option should be selected, so you’ll want to click on “Page Unpublished” to select it instead.

Step 5: Click the “Save Changes” button in the same box.

Step 6: Facebook will ask why you’re making your page invisible. Choose your answer, then click “Next.”

Step 7: A question will pop up related to the previous answer you gave. Answer it and then click “Unpublish” to complete the process.

And there you have it! You’ve now made your Facebook page invisible to everyone except those with administrator access.

Follow these steps again to revert your page back to “Published” again at any time.

How to Unpublish a Facebook Page on Mobile

Now, we’ll go through the steps to unpublish a Facebook page on a mobile device. You can only do this through the Facebook Business Suite app, not the Facebook app itself.

Step 1: From the main page, click on the three lines in the bottom right of Facebook.

Step 2: Scroll down, then tap “Settings.”

Step 3: In your page settings you’ll see “Page Visibility,” tap on it.

Step 4: The next screen will show two options, one for “Publish” and one for “Unpublish.” The “Publish” option should have a blue check mark next to it. Tap “Unpublish” to check that option instead.

Your page will still be visible to you in Meta Business Suite, but won’t be visible to the public. Again, follow these steps to revert back to “Publish” when you’re ready!

There you have it! You now have the steps you need to unpublish a Facebook page on both desktop and mobile!

Final Thoughts

If you ever need to hide your business Facebook page from public view for whatever reason, we hope this blog post gave you some insight into why unpublishing your page is the best option for you. Remember that unlike deleting, unpublishing isn’t permanent and can be undone at any time. And unlike deactivating, unpublishing allows those with administrative access to still view and make changes to the page.

Follow the step-by-step guide outlined here to unpublish your page and then republish it whenever you’re ready!

If you found this how-to helpful and you’re looking for ways to simplify other parts of your digital marketing journey, RevLocal is here for you! Simply give us a call today for a free, no-obligation consultation with a marketing expert.