When using WordPress, there may be times when you want to hide a page from public view.
Maybe it’s a work-in-progress, an exclusive VIP page, or simply a page that you’re not ready to reveal yet, hiding it can be a useful feature.
In this article, I will guide you through the various methods you can use to hide a page in WordPress, including Rank Math, password protection, and robots.txt.
Why hide a page in WordPress?
There are several reasons why you may want to hide a page in WordPress.
Let’s explore some scenarios where hiding pages can be useful:
- You may have a page or pages that are a work-in-progress or maybe have messy content, hiding them can help you present a polished and professional website to your visitors.
By hiding incomplete pages, you can ensure that only the final, refined versions are visible to the public. - Hiding pages allow you to create exclusive areas on your website, accessible only to specific groups or VIPs.
This can be beneficial if you want to provide special content or experiences to loyal customers, subscribers, or members of your community. - If you’re planning a surprise announcement or event, hiding related pages can help you prevent spoilers.
With this, you can build anticipation and ensure that the surprise remains intact until you’re ready to reveal it. - Hiding pages can also be a useful tool for behind-the-scenes organization.
With hidden pages, you can focus on improving and refining them without the pressure of immediate public scrutiny.
This allows you to take the time you need to create the best possible content.
Whatever your reasons, you can leverage the page hiding feature to your advantage to maintain control over your content and provide a seamless experience for your website visitors.
How to Hide a Page in WordPress (3 ways)
There are the methods you can use to ensure that specific content remains hidden from public view; using your page’s Visibility settings, plugins, and robots.txt.
Tip: Remember to back up your website before making any changes to it.
Let’s look at them in detail in this section:
How to hide a page in WordPress by setting it to private
You can also hide your page from everyone but your website admins and editors.
This will especially come in handy if you want to keep your page from the public until you finish editing it.
You can achieve this by setting the page Visibility to Private instead of Public.
To do this:
Open the page you want to hide in the page editor and on the right, go to Visibility and select Private, then hit the Update button.
Hiding a Page in WordPress by Password Protecting It
If you want to hide a page in WordPress and restrict access to it entirely, password protection is an effective method.
Password-protecting a page can help you ensure that only people with the correct password can access its contents.
To password-protect a page:
Log into your WordPress dashboard and go to the page editor via the Pages option, find the particular page you want to hide, and select the Edit option.
When your page opens up in the editor, locate the “Visibility” option and click on it then select the “Password protected” option and enter a password of your choice.
When you are done entering your password, click the Update button.
Once saved, the page will require visitors to enter the password before they can view its content.
How to hide a WordPress page from search engines
If you want to hide your page or pages and keep them from being crawled by search engines, you can use a couple of methods:
1. You can do this with the help of plugins like Rank Math or Yoast SEO; popular SEO plugins for WordPress that help you optimize your website for search engine rankings and provide a feature to control page visibility.
To hide a page using Rank Math, you simply need to navigate to the page editor in your WordPress dashboard and scroll down to the Rank Math settings.
From there, you can toggle the “Noindex” option, which instructs search engines not to index the page.
To use Yoast SEO; open any page or post after installing the plugin, at the end of the post you’ll find the Yoast SEO section.
Go to Advanced, and under Allow search engines to show this post in search results select No, the Update.
These steps effectively hide the page from search engine results, ensuring that it remains hidden from public view.
2. Another method to hide a page in WordPress is by utilizing the robots.txt file.
The robots.txt file tells search engine crawlers which pages to include or exclude from their index.
To hide a page using robots.txt, you need to access the file through your website’s hosting provider or FTP client.
From there, you can add a “Disallow” directive for the specific page you want to hide.
This will prevent search engine crawlers from accessing and indexing the page, effectively keeping it hidden from public view.
With these page-hiding techniques, you can have complete control over the visibility of your WordPress pages and create a professional and polished appearance for your website.
FAQ
Yes, hiding pages from the navigation menu is another way to hide WordPress pages.
To hide a page from the navigation menu, go to Appearance > Menus, find the page, and uncheck the box that says Add to Menu.
What’s the difference between making a page “Private” and “Password protected”?
A “Private” page is only visible to logged-in users with appropriate permissions, while a “Password protected” page requires a password for anyone to access it.
Will hiding a page affect its existing links?
Hiding a page using methods like “Noindex” may impact its visibility in search results, but it won’t break existing links.
Password protection, however, restricts access completely.
Are there any SEO considerations when hiding a page?
Yes, if you’re using methods like “Noindex,” it may affect the SEO ranking as search engines won’t index the page. be sure it aligns with your SEO strategy.
However, hiding a page using other methods like password protection typically doesn’t impact SEO.
Also, consider updating internal links to maintain a logical site structure.
Conclusion
In summary, effectively managing the visibility of pages in WordPress can help you control access and optimize your user experience.
Whether you are looking to temporarily hide a page or you want a more permanent solution, these strategies will empower you to tailor your content’s visibility to align with your goals and requirements.
Be sure to carefully consider the SEO implications, particularly when using methods like “Noindex.”
Remember to update internal links to ensure a seamless experience for both visitors and search engines, and it’s performing regular backups to safeguard against unforeseen complications.
