7/18/2020 How to Make Your WordPress Blog Completely Private

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How to Make Your WordPress Blog Completely

Private
Last updated on April 5th, 2018 by Editorial Staff

Do you want to make your WordPress blog completely private? Often we get requests
from parents who want to use WordPress to share baby photos with friends and
family. In this article, we will show you how to make your blog completely private. We
will also cover how to create a private and password protected post in WordPress for
those who want to have a public blog with a private area.

When and Who Needs a Private Blog?

A private WordPress blog is useful for sharing your family events, wedding photos, baby
pictures, etc. with friends and family. See some of the best WordPress themes for family
blogs for inspiration.

A private blog can be used as your own private diary or journal.

Teams working on projects can collaborate on a private blog.

An under construction website that is not yet fully ready for public viewing.

A classroom website can be made private and accessible only to registered students.

Video Tutorial

How to Make Your WordPress Blog Completely Private

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Making a WordPress Blog Completely Private Bonus: Get access to exclusive

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First thing you need to do is install and activate the My Private Site
(https://wordpress.org/plugins/jonradio-private-site/) plugin. For more details, see our
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step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin

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(https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/step-by-step-guide-to-install-a-
wordpress-plugin-for-beginners/).

Upon activation you need to visit Settings » Private Site page to configure the plugin
settings.

First you need to check the box under ‘Make Site Private’ section to enable the plugin
and make your site private.

The next section is to allow users to register on your WordPress site

(https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/how-to-allow-user-registration-on-
your-wordpress-site/). If you don’t want users to be able to register on your site, then
you can skip this section.

Under ‘Landing Location’ section you can choose which page users will see when
they login. By default, the plugin will return them to the same URL they requested
before login. You can also redirect users to homepage, WordPress admin dashboard,
any other URL on your WordPress site.

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The custom login page section is only applicable if you are using a custom login page
Bonus: Get access to exclusive
(https://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/how-to-create-custom-login-page-for-
giveaways, video tutorials, and more.
wordpress/) on your WordPress site. Simply check the box, and provide the URL of
your custom login page. The plugin will then start using that URL as login page.
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7/18/2020 How to Make Your WordPress Blog Completely Private

My Private Site plugin also allows you to exclude some parts of your website from
being private. For example, if you are using a static front page
(https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-themes/how-to-create-a-custom-homepage-in-
wordpress/) and want users to see it, then you can add it as an exclusion. You can
also add other URLs like a contact form (https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-
guide/how-to-create-a-contact-form-in-wordpress/) or about page into exclusion list.

Don’t forget to click on the save changes button to store your settings.

That’s all, people visiting your website will now be asked to login before they can
view your website. Depending on your settings, users may be able to see excluded
pages or they will just see the login page.

Making Individual Posts Private in WordPress

WordPress comes with a built-in feature which allows you to make posts or pages
private and password protected. Here is how to make a WordPress post private.

You need to start by creating a new post in WordPress or edit an existing one. On the
post editor screen, you will see the Visibility option under the publish meta box. Click
on the Edit link next to visibility.
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There you will see the options to make a post Private or add a password protection to
the post. Choose the appropriate radio button to make a post private or password
protected.

If you choose to make a WordPress post password protected, then WordPress will ask
you to enter a password. Users will need to enter this exact password to view the
post. You can send this password to friends and family by email, and they can view
the post by entering the password.

Important: Please note that users with the user role

(https://www.wpbeginner.com/glossary/user-role/) of Editor
(https://www.wpbeginner.com/glossary/editor/) or Administrator
(https://www.wpbeginner.com/glossary/administrator/) can view a password protected
or private post by logging into the WordPress admin area. However if you are the only
user on your site, then you don’t need to worry about that. For more information
please see our guide on how to add or remove capabilities from user roles
(https://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/how-to-add-or-remove-capabilities-to-user-
roles-in-wordpress/) in WordPress.

We hope this article helped you create a completely private WordPress blog and
posts. It is a great way to share your things with select people on your own website.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel
(http://youtube.com/wpbeginner) for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us
on Twitter (http://twitter.com/wpbeginner) and Google+
(https://plus.google.com/101634180904808003404/posts).
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