“Go Dark” is a general-purpose, SEO-friendly utility that allows you to easily take your website offline (blackout) in protest of political issues, climate advocacy, net neutrality, censorship opposition, or other custom causes.

When your website is “dark”, it returns a 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable HTTP status code. This informs search engines that the offline state is temporary, preserving your SEO rankings, and provides browsers with a Retry-After header.

Live Demo

Try the plugin instantly in your browser using WordPress Playground

Features

Flexible Status Modes: Keep the plugin inactive, schedule a precise start/end blackout window, or force dark mode active immediately.
Modern Premium Themes: Choose from three highly polished design presets:
1. Minimalist Blackout: A sleek, modern dark mode design with custom glow accents.
2. Glassmorphism Alert: A stunning backdrop-blurred glass card over vibrant ambient glowing shapes.
3. Classic Protest: An updated typewriter aesthetic utilizing a dark wood texture.
Cause Presets: Quick-load templates for Net Neutrality, Climate Action, censorship opposition, and standard maintenance.
Interactive Live Countdown: Real-time Javascript-powered countdown clock showing visitors exactly when your website will return.
WordPress Media Library Integration: Directly upload or select custom logos and images to display on the splash page.
Call to Action: Insert custom URLs and labels (e.g. to sign a petition or learn more).

Credits

Design and legacy Sign/Seal was created by Cheryl Eisenhard ( http://cheryleisenhard.com/ )
Development by George Stephanis ( http://stephanis.info/ )
Wood Grain Background taken from http://webtreats.mysitemyway.com/8-tileable-dark-wood-texture-patterns/