In Next.js 14, you can't set a 503 status after rendering a page — middleware must return early, which blocks content. To serve full pages and return a 503, handle it at the server or proxy level (e.g., with a custom Node.js server or edge function). And this method is good cus this preserves SEO and avoids hurting your link building efforts by keeping content crawlable while signaling temporary unavailability.