When you create a website, you always want as many visitors as possible to come to your website. To achieve this, you need to consistently publish content and ensure that your pages and posts are visible to both search engines and users.
So what sense does it make to make WordPress sites private? How can users find your protected content if it is shielded from the public?
In this article, we’ll discuss how people argue about the benefits of private WordPress sites. Then, we’ll show you how to create a private page for your WordPress site with and without a plugin.
What are private WordPress sites used for?
Private WordPress pages are not visible to the public. Even if visitors have the page URL, they cannot see the page itself – if they click through to the page, they will see a 404 not found error message or a password form, depending on your settings. Only authorized users, e.g. administrators or editors, can access these pages.
Why would you need private WordPress pages? Well, there’s a variety of reasons, such as:
- Internal team communication or training – Instead of sending emails back and forth, many companies choose to share internal information via private pages. This page protects your company’s confidential information from outsiders while allowing employees to read them.
- Private product pages – To build a good relationship with premium customers, you can offer them limited edition or higher value products, and then only allow priority customers to see and buy these private products.
- Controversial content – Another potential instance where you can make WordPress pages private is with controversial content that you may not want the public to access.
- Membership content – If you run a membership site, private pages allow you to restrict content to paying members only, creating exclusive value that incentivizes subscriptions.
- Work in progress – When developing new content or website sections, you might want to keep pages private until they’re ready for public viewing.
- Client approval process – Web designers and developers can use private pages to get client feedback on designs before publishing them publicly.
- Limited-time offers – Create private pages for special promotions or time-sensitive deals that you only want specific customers to access.
- Course materials – Educational content can be kept private and accessible only to enrolled students.
- Pre-launch content – When launching a new product or service, you might want to create a private page for early access or beta testers.
- Personal documentation – Some website owners use private pages as personal reference materials or documentation that they don’t want publicly indexed.
How to create a private WordPress page
You can set up a private page in WordPress in 2 ways: using the visibility option built into WordPress, or by installing a private page plugin. One of them is a basic solution, whilst the other gives you a more advanced way to make your pages private.
WordPress built-in private options
Once published, your pages are accessible to the public by default. WordPress allows you to hide page content using the page’s visibility feature.
To do this, go to Pages in your WordPress navigation menu. Then, select the desired page and click on Edit. In the top right, you’ll see the Status option, and this is where you can make your pages private.
Here, you can choose between Public, Private, and Password Protected. WordPress requires that you only set one password per post, and all user roles must use this password and open the content.
If you have many users on your website and want everyone to use a different password to unlock the content, you can use a password like PPWP.
Password Protection Plugin for WordPress (PPWP)
Password Protect WordPress, which is available for free on WordPress.org, allows you to protect your sites with multiple passwords. Unlike the standard WordPress password protection function, PPWP also allows you to set roles for each password.
To use the plugin and protect your sites with more than one password, you first need to install it from within the Plugins section in your WordPress dashboard.
Once installed, go to Pages in the WordPress sidebar and visit the page you want to protect with a password. In the top right-hand corner of the page, find the Password protection for WordPress section and click Edit.
Enter your passwords. Each password must be displayed on a separate line. You can set roles for each password if required.
While global passwords allow all users to unlock the content, role passwords require certain logged in user roles to complete the password form. Other roles will see an error message even though they have entered the correct password – this is a good way to sharing especially sensitive information.
You can also choose to protect multiple pages with a single or master password, users can use this password to unlock all content at the same time.
Make WP Private pages visible to subscribers
Subscribers refers to a user role in WordPress that can leave comments or receive additional information and premium content without having to enter passwords. Although they have very limited access to WordPress sites, it’s a good option if you offer a subscription model. It’s also easier for you to convert these potential prospects into customers than to try and get non-subscribers to make purchases.
There are two ways to make private WordPress pages visible to subscribers: Either you edit the functions.php file of the theme, or you use the PPWP plugin.
Edit the functions.php file
With this method, you can go to Appearance and click on Theme Editor in your WordPress sidebar. Now, locate the functions.php file in the Theme Files menu on the right-hand side.
Paste the following code into the file:
/**
* Make Private Posts visible to Subscribers
* Typically only visible to admin or editor
*/
function whitespider_private_posts_subscribers() {
$subRole = get_role('subscriber');
$subRole->add_cap('read_private_posts');
$subRole->add_cap('read_private_pages');
}
add_action('init', 'whitespider_private_posts_subscribers');
Once this is done, click on update file.
Use the WordPress plugin for password protection (PPWP)
The downside of the above method is if you make a mistake, it can break your website. For this reason, some users choose to use a plugin. As mentioned earlier, PPWP allows you to set user roles for passwords.
With PPWP, you can simply select the subscribers in the Password Protection for WordPress field. You can create an unlimited number of passwords for your content. Enter a password and click Submit to repeat the process.
Another way to use PPWP to allow subscribers to access your secure content without having to enter passwords is to set up whitelist roles. This method forces you to upgrade the plugin to the Pro version.
To set the whitelist role to subscribers, go to the plugin Settings page.
Here you can choose Logged-in users in the role dropdown.
After you have defined the whitelist roles for subscribers, you must protect your pages from others with a password. When they’ve registered and logged in, subscribers can read your private pages without having to enter passwords.
In addition, the plugin blocks the indexing of your protected content by Google and other search engines. The private pages will not be displayed on the search results pages.
WordPress page only visible with links
PPWP Pro offers an advanced feature that helps you grant users direct access to secure content without the need to enter a password. With this method, unlike the whitelist role approach, users no longer have to log in at all
All you need to do is lock WordPress sites with passwords, generate access links and share the link with users. They can then click on these links and browse the content without restrictions.
Start by going to the Pages section and search for the desired page, and then click on the Password protection link next to the Date column. Click on the Password protection button for this page in the Password protection pop-up window.
Your page/post is now protected with a random password generated by the plugin. You can add your own passwords by clicking on the New password tab.
Automatically generate an access link
Once a page is protected, its passwords and access links are managed in a pop-up window. Simply click on the Copy access link icon in the Action column to get the access link for the post.
If you have already protected a page or post and want to copy the access link, follow these 3 simple steps:
- Visit the Pages or Posts section and select the desired page/post.
- Click on the Manage passwords link.
- Copy the access link in the Password protection pop-up window.
Now users can see the hidden content in two ways: either they access the content directly via the access link, or they enter the correct password in the password form.
Why are private WordPress pages still visible?
If you have set the private status or password protection for your WordPress pages, some pages are still visible to the public. There are 2 main reasons for this: either you are using a cache plugin, or you have set private status for WooCommerce store pages.
If you’re running a cache plugin, it’s likely storing a public version of your page from when it was previously accessible. What’s happening is that the cache plugin has essentially taken a “snapshot” of your page and continues serving this cached version to visitors, completely bypassing your new privacy settings.
The fix is straightforward enough, though:
- Clear your site’s cache completely
- Temporarily deactivate your caching plugin
- Verify your private pages are now properly hidden
- Reactivate the plugin once everything’s working correctly
WooCommerce Store Page Exceptions
WooCommerce store pages don’t always play by WordPress’s standard rules. These often ignore typical visibility settings, which can catch you by surprise.
Unlike regular WordPress pages, setting WooCommerce store pages to “private” often doesn’t do what you’d expect. Instead, you’ll need to set these pages to “draft” mode to properly restrict access. This ensures only administrators and editors can view them.
If you need a better solution that allows customers to still use your store while maintaining privacy, consider using PPWP Pro to password-protect your entire site while preserving essential functionality.
Conclusion
There are several ways to protect your WordPress pages. The default page visibility of WordPress allows you to lock individual pages with a single password, but this is quite basic. With the PPWP Pro plugin, you can assign multiple passwords for a private page. You can also make private pages visible to subscribers.
Remember though if you use a cache plugin, your private content may still be visible to the public, so make sure you clear the cache to fix this error. In addition, the WooCommerce store page does not follow the WordPress visibility settings, so set it to draft mode or use a plugin to do this for you.
