WordPress Private Visibility Guide
Posted: Sun Dec 15, 2024 10:11 am
WordPress Private Visibility Guide
If you choose to make a post or page Private instead of Password protected, then the only people who will be able to see the post are logged in users with the user role of Administrator or Editor:
Users who are logged in and have those user roles will be able to see the post. The only difference is that WordPress adds Private: in front of the post’s title (instead of Protected: like with the password example above):
WordPress private post
Additionally, when you make a post Private, it will not show special lead up in your blog archive page. Again, that’s another difference from password protection.
If someone tries to access the private post’s URL directly, they’ll see a standard 404 error page like this:
private post error
Like password protection, I have another neat trick for you to make this functionality more powerful:
If you want people other than administrators and editors to be able to see your private content, you can use a free plugin called User Role Editor to give them that ability.
For example, to let regular logged in users see private posts, you can:
Go to Users → User Role Editor (after installing and activating the plugin)
Make sure that you see Subscriber in the drop-down (this is the default role for regular users at your site)
Check the boxes for read_private_pages and read_private_posts
Click Update to save your changes
Private post error
Now, even your regular WordPress users will be able to see all of your private posts and pages (as long as they’re logged in).
If you choose to make a post or page Private instead of Password protected, then the only people who will be able to see the post are logged in users with the user role of Administrator or Editor:
Users who are logged in and have those user roles will be able to see the post. The only difference is that WordPress adds Private: in front of the post’s title (instead of Protected: like with the password example above):
WordPress private post
Additionally, when you make a post Private, it will not show special lead up in your blog archive page. Again, that’s another difference from password protection.
If someone tries to access the private post’s URL directly, they’ll see a standard 404 error page like this:
private post error
Like password protection, I have another neat trick for you to make this functionality more powerful:
If you want people other than administrators and editors to be able to see your private content, you can use a free plugin called User Role Editor to give them that ability.
For example, to let regular logged in users see private posts, you can:
Go to Users → User Role Editor (after installing and activating the plugin)
Make sure that you see Subscriber in the drop-down (this is the default role for regular users at your site)
Check the boxes for read_private_pages and read_private_posts
Click Update to save your changes
Private post error
Now, even your regular WordPress users will be able to see all of your private posts and pages (as long as they’re logged in).