How to Make Your WordPress Blog Private

There are several reasons you might want to maintain a private blog. For instance, you may wish to keep your blog private while you’re still configuring it to prevent others from viewing it in its "under construction" state. Alternatively, you may want to create a blog intended for a smaller audience, such as family and friends.

Regardless of your reason, I will show you a straightforward way to password-protect your blog so that only those with the password can access it.

1. Log in to your WordPress dashboard by navigating to [http://www.yoursite.com/wp-admin](http://www.yoursite.com/wp-admin) (be sure to replace “yoursite.com” with your actual domain name).

2. Go to **Plugins** and then select **Add New**. Search for “password protected.”

3.In the search results find the plugin names “Password Protected” and click “Install Now”. Click “Activate Plugin” on the next page.

4.Navigate to “Settings ==> Password Protected”. Check the “Enabled” box and enter in a new password. Click “Save Changes”.

Now anyone who tries to access your blog will be prompted to enter the password in order to view your blog.

Please note: This method does not password-protect image or uploaded files, but someone would have to know the exact URL of the image in order to access it. The primary way someone would learn the exact URL of an image on your blog is through search engines. Because of this, it is a good idea to navigate to “Settings ==> Reading” and check the box that says “Discourage search engines from indexing this site” then click “Save Changes”. This will help to prevent your blog from appearing in search engine results.