Some parts of your web site may be private. For example you may have a family website that has private content or a small business site might have employee only content.
WordPress offer two page protection features That lets you you restrict access to those web pages. They are:
- Password Protection and
- Privacy
WordPress Page Password Protection
WordPress provides password protection of individual pages and posts on a per page basis.
To enable password protection click on the edit link next to visibility.
Enable password protected and enter a password.
Now when someone access the page they will be prompted to enter the password.
The only problem with the built in password protection is that you need to enter a password for each page.
Therefore it is really only suitable if you only have one or two pages you need to protect.
If you need to password protect multiple pages then you might consider using a plugin like password protected.
Using The Privacy Option
You can also designate pages and post as private. If you do this then the visitor will need a user account to view the pages.
They will also need to first login to their account and they will need either the editor or administrator role to view private pages.
Because of this reason you should be careful when using this option.
There are however plugins that utilize this feature but give you more control over the user roles.
See WP Private Content Plus and my private site.
This plugin is a little different and uses short codes to hide/display content to specific user roles.
Summary
WordPress offers two built in privacy features that are useful for small websites.
There are also many free plugins that make these built in features easier to use.
Because password protection is much easier to administer I prefer this option,
Related tutorials and resources:
- How to Create and Manage WordPress Users
- Adding A Contact Form to WordPress
- Adding A Newsletter To a WordPress Website or Blog