How to Set Your WordPress Website to Private?

WordPress is one of the most popular Content Management Systems (CMS) available today, and it’s easy to see why. The word itself means “wordpress” in English, and it’s derived from the contraction of the phrase “content management system.” Essentially, it is a blogging platform that’s been around for a while and has maintained a lot of popularity.

The thing about WordPress is that it’s incredibly easy to use, as long as you follow a few simple steps. For instance, if you’re just getting started, you might not know how to set up a WordPress website. You might not have all the necessary software needed to do so. Or, you might not have the time to devote to learning how to operate a CMS.

Thankfully, that’s where we come in. Keep reading for some helpful tips on how to set up a WordPress website privately, so that only people you invite can see what’s there. Before you begin, make sure that you’ve read our general blog post on how to create a website, otherwise, you might be asking yourself questions like: “How do I get my website to show up on the internet?” or “How do I secure my website?”

Step One: Establish a Theme

One of the first things you’ll want to do is to establish a theme for your site. A theme, as the name suggests, is an umbrella term that covers the look and feel of your entire website. When establishing a theme, you’re choosing the colors, fonts, layout, and so on, that will govern the appearance of your site. You can choose from a variety of free and premium themes that already have a built-in look and feel, or you can establish your own. When choosing a theme, it is very important to look for one that is flexible and easy to work with. Avoid anything overly complicated, as you’ll most likely end up having to make major changes later on.

Step Two: Install WordPress

Now that you have a theme established, you can move on to the next step and install WordPress on your server. To do this, visit the WordPress website and download the archive containing the latest version of the CMS. Extract the contents of the archive to a location of your choosing (we’ll be using /var/www/), and then simply follow the on-screen instructions to make sure that WordPress is installed successfully. Restart your web server after the installation process is complete.

Step Three: Configure WordPress

Once WordPress is installed, you can begin configuring it using your web browser. To do this, visit the WordPress dashboard and click on the “Settings” icon (top right corner). From here you can choose your language, go through the necessary settings to connect to your web server, and more.

Step Four: Determine your homepage

While you’re on the WordPress dashboard, click on the “Reading” tab to access the posts published on your site so far. Here, you can determine the homepage for your site by clicking on the “Settings” icon and choosing “Reading” from the drop-down menu. When viewing a post, you’ll see the category (in this case, “News”) and the date at the top. From here, you can click on one of the categories to see a listing of the posts within that category.

Step Five: Build your first page

Once you’ve established your category (News in this case), you can start building out your content. The best approach here is to simply start a blog post with a compelling headline and a few paragraphs of engaging content. To get things started, you can use the WordPress dashboard to create a brand-new page, or you can use the “Add New” button at the top of any page and begin typing. Once you’ve typed a few words, you can click on the “post button” to write your first blog post.

As you’re building out your page, remember to link to other relevant pages within your website (e.g., about us, contact, etc.). When you finish, click on the “Publish” button to publish your blog post, and then watch your website grow!

Step Six: Secure your WordPress installation

To secure your WordPress installation, you’ll want to perform the following steps:

• Click on the “Settings” icon in the WordPress toolbar.
• Go to “General” Settings.
• Scroll down to “Password” and change the value to a memorable and complex combination of words.
• Click “Save Settings”.
• Go back to the dashboard and click on the “Login” link in the admin bar.
• Enter your new password in the form, then click on the “Login with Welcome Mat” button.
• Take a minute to read the instructions that appear alongside the “Login with Welcome Mat” button.
• Click on the “Activate” button.
• You’ll need to wait a few minutes for the secure login process to complete before you can start using your WordPress site.

Once you’ve done all of that, you can sit back and enjoy your new private website!

If you have any questions about this process or if you’re stuck at a particular step, feel free to leave a comment below! We’ll get back to you as soon as we can.