Do you want to hide your WordPress blog completely private?
You can make your blog fully private, meaning that only you and your chosen readers will be able to see the stuff you post.
We’ll teach you how to make your WordPress blog entirely private in this article.
Why Should You Make Your WordPress Blog Private?
When you create a new blog post in WordPress, you’ll usually want to publish it for everyone to view.
There are instances, though, when you may wish to create a private blog or make particular articles private and only accessible to certain individuals.
There are a variety of reasons to make your WordPress blog private, including the following:
- A blog that is in the process of being developed or maintained, and hence is not yet available for public consumption.
- A family blog where you may share photos from family gatherings, weddings, and babies, among other things.
- A private blog for your personal journal or diary.
- A private location where teams can work on projects and collaborate away from the public eye.
- Only registered students have access to a classroom website with courses and notes.
Method 1: Using SeedProd to Make Your WordPress Blog Private
Using the SeedProd plugin is the simplest method to keep your blog entirely private. It’s the most popular WordPress theme builder and drag-and-drop page builder, with over 1 million websites using it.
It allows you to quickly construct coming soon and maintenance mode pages to make your WordPress blog private, as well as build your email list while you’re doing so.
It also comes with 150+ templates that you can use to create custom pages such as 404 pages, webinar registration pages, and even full custom WordPress themes without having to write any code.
Your coming soon page can assist evaluate user interest, develop hype, and capture leads in addition to keeping your blog private.
You can keep your blog private for as long as you like now that your coming soon page is live. While your blog remains secret, you can design your coming soon page to act as a home screen.
See our tutorial on how to put your WordPress site in maintenance mode if you wish to put your blog in maintenance mode for a while.
Once your site is in maintenance mode, you can make whatever changes you like or even start over with a new blog. Search engines are also prevented from crawling and ranking your site when in maintenance mode.
Only the maintenance mode screen will be shown to your visitors.
Method 2: Using MemberPress to Create a Private Members-Only Website
You can also make your blog private by creating a membership blog that is only accessible by members.
The MemberPress plugin is the best way to do this. It’s one of the top WordPress membership plugins, with developers earning over $600 million in just the last year.
Within the WordPress block editor, you can effortlessly create online courses, set access permissions, and add lessons.
It also connects with the most popular WordPress page builder plugins, allowing you to add drip content to premium pages in WordPress, create content paywalls, and lock free content to select users.
Method 3: Using My Private Site to Make Your WordPress Blog Completely Private
You can also use the My Private Site plugin to make your WordPress blog private. This plugin makes it simple to hide your blog and is ideal for personal blogs and businesses who do not intend to make their content public.
It can also be used to create a coming soon or under construction page when your website is under construction, however the SeedProd approach above does a far better job.
The first step is to install and activate the plugin. See our beginner’s guide to installing a WordPress plugin for more information.
To configure the plugin settings, navigate to My Private Site » Site Privacy after activation.
Then, make sure the ‘Enable login privacy’ box is checked, and the plugin will make your site private.
Then, on the ‘Save Privacy Status’ button, confirm your selection.
When people try to enter your website with this option enabled, they will see your site login screen.
Then select ‘Landing Page’ from the menu.
You can choose where users will be sent after logging in successfully.
Simply check the box in the ‘Landing Page After Login’ section or type a specific URL into the ‘Specified Destination URL’ box.
Then select ‘Save Landing Page’ from the drop-down menu.
After that, select ‘Home Page’ from the menu.
To make your homepage accessible to visitors, check the box in the ‘Site Home’ section.
We’ll leave this box unchecked, but it can be useful if you want to display a message to your visitors while hiding the remainder of your website.
If you make any changes, click the ‘Publish Page’ button.
Then select ‘Membership’ from the drop-down menu.
You may choose whether or not users should be able to register for your blog here.
Both boxes must be checked to allow visitors to register and access your blog. Leave both boxes unchecked if you don’t want users to be able to register.
Then select ‘Update Options’ from the drop-down menu.
Your WordPress blog will be entirely private after that.
Only users who have access to your login credentials will be able to access and read your blog.
Method 4: Using WordPress Settings to Make Individual Blog Posts Completely Private
You can utilize the built-in WordPress options to make individual blog articles fully private if that’s all you want.
Simply open the blog post you’d like to make private or start a new one. Then, in the ‘Status & visibility’ meta box on the post editor screen, you’ll see a ‘Visibility’ option.
Then you must select the ‘Public’ option.
This opens a drop-down menu where you may choose ‘Private’ or make your post password-protected.
Simply select the best solution for your needs by clicking the radio button.
You’ll need to enter a password if you choose to make your post password protected. To see the post, your users will need to enter the password you set.
To make your post private, click the ‘Update’ or ‘Publish’ option once you’ve completed making changes.
When signed into the WordPress dashboard, only admins and editors will be able to see the post.
You don’t have to worry about this if you’re the only one who visits your blog. However, if you have other users, ensure sure they have the appropriate user role to see the post.
We hope that this article has shown you how to entirely hide your WordPress site.
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