BugWP logo BugWP
Back to Community
Home / Community / General

How to Remove or Customize the H2 Wrapper Around Your Maintenance Mode Text

32 threads Sep 10, 2025

Content

Many users of the 'LightStart – Maintenance Mode, Coming Soon and Landing Page Builder' plugin have encountered a common issue: the main text content on their maintenance page is automatically wrapped in an <h2> HTML tag. This can cause problems for both design and website semantics, especially if you are adding complex HTML or multiple paragraphs within the text editor.

This design choice by the plugin's developers means that any content placed in the main text area is output within heading tags. While this might be suitable for a short, single-line heading, it is not ideal for longer, formatted text blocks and is considered invalid HTML if block-level elements like <div> or <p> are placed inside the <h2> tag.

Solution 1: Override the Template (Recommended for Advanced Users)

The most effective way to gain full control over the HTML structure is to create a custom template. This method allows you to remove the <h2> tags entirely or replace them with more appropriate HTML elements.

Here’s how to do it:

  1. Access your WordPress installation files via FTP or your hosting provider's file manager.
  2. Navigate to the plugin's folder: /wp-content/plugins/wp-maintenance-mode/views/
  3. Locate the file maintenance.php and make a copy of it.
  4. Place this copy into your active (child) theme's root directory.
  5. Rename the copied file to wp-maintenance-mode.php.
  6. Edit this new file. Look for the line of code that outputs the $text variable. It will likely look similar to this:
    <h2><?php echo $text; ?></h2>
  7. You can now modify this line. To remove the heading tags completely, change it to:
    <?php echo $text; ?>
    Alternatively, you could wrap the content in a <div> with a custom class for styling:
    <div class="my-custom-text"><?php echo $text; ?></div>

By overriding the template, you can also exclude the plugin's default CSS and link your own custom stylesheet directly within the HTML for a fully personalized design.

Solution 2: Use Custom CSS for Visual Adjustments

If you prefer not to edit template files, you can use CSS to visually neutralize the effect of the <h2> tag. This doesn't change the underlying HTML but can make it look like a normal paragraph.

In the plugin's settings, navigate to the Design tab and find the Custom CSS box. Add the following CSS rule:

.wrap h2 {
    font-size: 1em;
    font-weight: normal;
    display: block;
}

This CSS will make the <h2> element inherit the standard text styling of the page, reducing its visual impact as a heading. However, please note that the <h2> tags will still be present in your page's code.

Conclusion

The automatic wrapping of text in an <h2> tag is a known characteristic of the 'LightStart – Maintenance Mode, Coming Soon and Landing Page Builder' plugin. For users who require valid HTML or specific design layouts, overriding the default template provides the most flexibility. For a quicker visual fix, custom CSS can be applied directly in the plugin's settings.

Related Support Threads Support