Often times when you create a personal site, you come across situations when you want your websites to be private so that only friends and family could see what you share on your blog. You have constantly avoided the hassle of turning your WordPress blog private because we think that it is a lengthy and difficult process. How wrong were we? Completely wrong!
WordPress is a platform that adapts to our needs and requirements and thus has become one of the leading website platforms over the internet. And when we struggled with turning our sites private with the inbuilt function, WordPress also provided us with plugins to achieve it in no time. Not only this but with WordPress, you also have the option to password protect your content if you wish to.
So before we get into the privacy settings, we want to give you a clear picture of what a private site means. When you change the settings to private, your site or post will be visible to only those who you wish to view the contents. It is like the visibility settings that allows you to choose the audience whether it’s your members, all your viewers or only specific people.
Why would you want to make your WP site or post private?
When you have the access to turn your website private, you do not have to filter what you want to post because there would not be unwanted audiences. If you want to share private pictures or memories or contents limiting to only your friends and family, this will make the task easy.
Imagine if you need access to your team members talking about your work, then your own website can be a great platform. When you have a private website, no one else can interrupt your discussions. Not only this, but you can save important memos and notes that you do not want to miss or lose. No one else can see it. You can even password protect it if you want.
Either way, making your website private can be advantageous to you, giving you the option to choose your audiences.
Watch Video Tutorial
If you want to make your WordPress site private then follow any of the methods given below. The thorough and to the point tutorial will make you the expert in no time!
Make WordPress site Private by using Plugins
WordPress provides a range of free plugins that you can use to make your website or contents private. Here we have taken the example of how you use the plugin- My Private Site.You can download this directly from the official WordPress website for free.
After downloading and activating you will now find the plugin working on the settings of your site. If you have problems installing the plugin, you can check out our tutorials on Installing a Plugin.
After installing the plugin, go to Settings and then on the new option for Private Site.
You will be redirected to a new page where you will see an option to edit your privacy settings. Check the option at the end of the page to make your site private. Easy as that. You can then go ahead and press Save Changes.
The next step is to edit the Self-Registration Settings. If you do not want users to be able to register, then you can go ahead and skip this step. But if you want them to register, go ahead and tick off the box for that option.
You can also edit the page that your users will land on. When it is in default, the users usually land on the same URL they request before logging in. But you can redirect them to the homepage, dashboard or any URL on your site. Just select the option you want and you are done.
Once you have configured the settings to your requirement, be sure to save the changes and your WordPress site will be set to private.
Make Specific Posts Private using the inbuilt feature
WordPress allows you to choose your audience when you post a post. If you haven’t set the audience, you can also change and edit the settings later. Not only this, but WordPress allows the users to even set a password protection if you wish to. It is an easy process that allows you to make your specific posts private in a matter of minutes!
First, login to your Admin WordPress account and go to your Dashboard. Then go to Posts then on Add New.
You will be redirected to the Add new post. You can add the title and the content you want to be private. On the right-hand side, you will see the Publish Box. There you can choose your audience whether you want the post to be public or private. You will also have the option to have your content Password protected if you want it to be.
Just choose the option for Password Protected and set a password. After you finish your content and customize your setting, you can publish it. Your post is set private or password protected whatever you set it to.
Easy to do and only a matter of minutes, you can now easily make WordPress site private and choose your audience with whom you want to share your contents.
Wrapping It Up!
As we have discussed, you know the advantages of having a private website, and now you can even achieve this with no difficulty! We hope that our tutorials helped you through the process of adapting to private settings of your WordPress website. If you are looking for more content related to WordPress tips and tricks be sure to check out our other articles!