Perhaps you’d like to run a WordPress site with an exclusive readership, with all the content hidden from the rest of the internet.

Let’s have a look at how to make a WordPress site private.

Why set WordPress to private?

  • If your site not quite ready for public consumption, you can set it to private mode until you are ready to go live.
  • A couple who would like share their wedding photos with their guests, but not show them to the world, could use a private WordPress blog.
  • Teams collaborating on a project can use a private blog to keep track of their project and communicate.
  • Teachers can make resources available online only to fully paid up students.

How to make the entire site completely private

To make the site accessible only to registered users, you can install a plugin called My Private Site and activate it. For more details about configuring the plugin, you can watch the short tutorial video above.

How to make an individual post private

Alternatively, you might only want to make one page or post on your site private. In this case, it’s pretty easy, as WordPress has that feature built-in.

When you are editing a post or a page in your site’s dashboard, you can find an option called Visibility in the upper right hand side. It’s above the blue Publish or Update button.

If you click the edit button beside that, you will see the option to make the post private or add password protection. If you use password protection, you can send your chosen few the password to enable them to unlock the content.

I hope that helps, feel free to get in touch via hello@focalise.ie and consider attending one of our in-person WordPress training sessions.

We also offer web design, web hosting and search engine optimisation services here at Focalise.

Good luck with your website.