WordPress has been a remarkable CMS for individuals, offering an easy way for anyone to share their stories, ideas, and business through WordPress sites.
However, there are times when you may need to keep something private and hide a page in WordPress.
This could be for personal use, exclusively for VIP members, under maintenance, or to protect sensitive content that you might not want to reveal to the general public, either temporarily or permanently.
If any of these reasons resonate with you, let’s explore the art of hiding a page in WordPress.
Whether you’re a beginner or an advanced user, we’ll guide you from the basics to more advanced techniques for hiding a page in WordPress.
So stay tuned and keep reading this post until the end.
WordPress is an open-source CMS, which means developers around the world are free to contribute and this collaborative attitude has helped WordPress evolve into a more intuitive and feature-rich CMS.
The reason we’re saying this is because WordPress also addresses the common user concern of hiding web pages by providing built-in settings that allow you to control the visibility of your pages.
This can be the best solution for those who are wondering, ‘How do I hide a specific page in WordPress?’ these settings offer the best solution.
1. How to hide a page using WordPress Native Settings?
WordPress offers two Native settings through which you can easily hide a page,
Enabling Page Visibility to Private Mode
Enabling Page Password Protected
Let’s check out the steps on how you can implement them.
Enabling Page Visibility to Private Mode
When you enable Page visibility to Private in WordPress only people who are logged into your site with special permissions can see it.
This is one of the easiest ways to hide a page in WordPress and keep it hidden from everyone else, such as your visitors and unauthorized users. However, it will still be visible and easily accessible to admins or editors with the necessary permissions.
Here’s how you can implement it:
Log in to WordPress: Start by logging into your WordPress account.
Go to the Pages Section: On the left side of the dashboard, find the “Pages” section and click on it.
Open the Page You Want to Hide: Find the page you want to keep private and open it.
Find the Visibility Settings: On the right side of the screen, look for a box that says “Publish.” Under that, you’ll see a “Post Visibility” option.
Set the Page to Private: Click “Edit” next to “Public,” choose “Private” from the dropdown menu, and then save your changes.
Turning Page’s Visibility to Private
After following these steps, the page will no longer show up in your website’s menus or search results. But anyone who has the right permissions and is logged in can still see the page if they have the link.
Enabling Page Password Protected
Another method you can try to hide a page in WordPress is to set it password-protected. It means anyone who wants to access or view the content needs to enter a password.
Here’s how to set a page as password-protected:
1.Log in to WordPress: Start by logging into your WordPress account.
2.Go to the Pages Section: On the left side of the dashboard, find and click on “Pages.”
3. Open the Page You Want to Hide: Find the page you want to protect and open it.
4. Find the Visibility Settings: On the right side of the screen, look for the “Publish” box and besides that click on the settings as shown.
Page Settings option in WordPress
Now you will have two options, Post and Block. Click on the Post > click on “Public,” a popup window will appear in which you have to choose “Password protected” from the dropdown menu, and then enter a password.
Enabling Password Protection on a Page
5. Save Your Changes: Click “Update” to save your changes.
This method is very useful if you want to share the page with only a specific group of people and keep it hidden from the visitors.
2. How to Hide a page in WordPress using robots.txt file (Not for beginners)
If you are exploring other options to hide a page in WordPress beyond the methods mentioned above, you can try editing the robots.txt file.
However, keep in mind that this method is not suitable for beginners or those who are not technically proficient. This is because any mistake made during formatting can severely harm your website’s SEO.
Due to this risk, even does not encourage using this method solely to hide a page in WordPress.
Google’s Warning on using robots.txt file as a means to hide web pages
Here’s how to use this method:
Step 1: The first thing you need to do is to locate your robots.txt file either via File Manager or an FTP client such as FileZilla. (You will generally find it in the root directory of your website)
Step 2: Now open the robots.txt file in a text editor and paste the following lines that block or prevent search engine crawlers/bots from crawling and indexing the page you want to hide.
User-agent: * Disallow: /your-page/
For example, if you want to hide a page with the URL: http://yourdomain.com/2024/10/my-post/
the code would look like this:
User-agent: * Disallow : /2024/10/my-post/
Step 3: After adding this code, save the changes to your robots.txt file and upload it back to your server.
Note: This method instructs search engines not to index the specified page but can affect your site’s visibility in ways that might not be desirable.
3. How to Hide a page in WordPress from search engines? (Using WordPress Plugin)
If you prefer not to use the robots.txt method and are looking for more advanced options with additional features to hide a page in WordPress, consider using a WordPress plugin.
There are plenty of WordPress plugins available that allow you to hide a page, and you can easily find and install them directly from the WordPress repository. However, choosing the best one can be confusing.
As WordPress experts and a managed WordPress hosting provider with years of experience, we recommend you consider any one of these two popular plugins: RankMath and Yoast SEO.
For demonstration purposes, we will use RankMath to show you how to hide a page in WordPress.
Here’s a simplified step-by-step guide:
Step 1: First, If you haven’t installed Rank Math yet, you can do so from the WordPress repository. Activate the plugin once it’s installed.
Step 2: After that, Go to your WordPress dashboard and navigate to the post or page you want to hide.
Step 3: On the post-editing screen, look for the Rank Math meta box. If you don’t see it, Read Rankmath’s official document on making the meta box visible.
Hide a page in WordPress from search engines Using WordPress Plugin
Step 4: In the Rank Math meta box, switch to the Advanced tab.
Enabling Nofollow and No Index settings for a Webpage using WordPress Plugins Rankmath
Step 5: Under the ROBOTS META section, choose “No Index” and “Nofollow” to prevent search engines from crawling or indexing the page.
Step 6: If you’re editing an existing page, click the “Update” button. If it’s a new page, click “Publish”.
Now you can successfully hide your page in WordPress from the search Engines.
4. How to hide a page in WordPress from the menu?
WordPress also provides customization and editing options to delete or add web pages. You can also use these features to hide a page in WordPress. Here’s how you can do it.
Step 1: Start by logging into your WordPress account.
Step 2: In the dashboard, go to the “Appearance” menu on the left-hand side and select “Menus.”
Step 3: Choose the menu that you want to modify. If you haven’t created one yet, you can create a new menu.
Step 4: In the “Pages” panel on the left, locate the page you want to hide.
Hide a page in WordPress from the menu
Step 5: Uncheck the box next to the page to remove it from the menu.
Step 6: Click the “Save Menu” button to apply the changes.
Note: By removing the page from the navigation menu, you make it no longer visible to visitors, which reduces its accessibility. However, remember that this only hides the page from the menu; if someone has the URL, they can still access it.
5. How to hide a page by user role in WordPress?
WordPress also has a built-in feature that allows you to assign roles and specify permissions and capabilities for each one. You can use this feature to hide a page in WordPress from certain user roles.
For more advanced settings, you can use WordPress plugins like ‘User Role Editor’ to create custom roles and simplify the setup.
Hiding a page by user role in WordPress
After creating a custom role, you can assign users to it and configure page visibility settings accordingly. This way, you can make certain pages accessible to specific groups while hiding them from others.
This method offers you more control and advanced settings over Page Visibility in WordPress.
6. How to hide a Page in WordPress using CSS
CSS or Cascading Style Sheet is one of the powerful tools that makes your website look visually appealing by controlling the layout, colors, fonts, and overall design.
But you might be surprised to know that, with the help of CSS you can also hide specific elements or sections of your website.
This method is great for those who want to hide certain elements or content within a page.
Note: But you should also keep in mind that, this method only hides the content from being visible in the browser. The page is still accessible if someone knows the URL, and search engines may still index it.
Now, let’s see how you can do it:
Step 1:Find the Element’s ID or Class: First, you need to know the specific element on the page you want to hide. You can do this by using the “Inspect” tool in your web browser. Right-click on the element, select “Inspect,” and look for the CSS class or ID that is assigned to it.
Step 2:Add Custom CSS: Go to your WordPress dashboard, and navigate to “Appearance” > “Customize” > “Additional CSS.” This is where you’ll add the custom CSS code.
Step 3:Write the CSS Code: In the “Additional CSS” section, write a simple line of code to hide the element.
For example: .page-element-class { display: none; } In this code, replace .page-element-class with the actual class or ID of the element you want to hide.
.page-element-class { display: none; }
Step 4:Save and Refresh: After adding the CSS, save the changes. Then, refresh your website to see that the element is now hidden.
Tip: Be careful when using CSS to hide elements. It can change how your website looks and works, so make sure it doesn’t cause any unexpected problems.
What are the reasons that you should consider Hiding a page in WordPress?
Although you might be hiding a page in WordPress for some general and common reasons, it’s important to be aware that it can also be helpful for other reasons as well.
Here is a list of reasons why hiding a page in WordPress can be helpful:”
Sure! Here’s a simplified explanation of each point about why you might want to hide pages in WordPress:
1. Helpful in creating Draft Pages:
Purpose: When building your website, you might create pages that are still a work in progress.
Why Hide: Hiding these draft pages keeps them invisible to the public so only your team or clients can see them while you’re still working on them.
2. Testing Page Layouts:
Purpose: You might want to try and test different designs or layouts for your pages.
Why Hide: By hiding the test pages, you can experiment without affecting the visitor experience on your main website. This helps you see what works best before making it public.
3. Sensitive or Private Content:
Purpose: Some pages might contain information meant only for specific users, like exclusive offers or sensitive details.
Why Hide: Hiding these pages ensures that only people with the right permissions can view them, adding extra security.
4. Creating Pages for Marketing purposes
Purpose: You might create special pages for marketing campaigns to attract leads or customers which are temporary.
Why Hide: Hiding these pages from the main website navigation helps you drive traffic to them through targeted marketing efforts, keeping them separate from regular pages.
5. Restricting Access to Specific Groups or Paid Members
Purpose: If you have a membership site, online store, or website for training purposes, some of the pages might only be for registered users or paying customers.
Why Hide: Hiding these pages ensures that only authorized users can access them, maintaining exclusivity and protecting the content.
6. For Verification pages:
Purpose: You have created a page for verification purposes and it has nothing to do with the visitors. For example, you have created a privacy policy page or created a page to verify ownership of the website to get an SSL Certificate
Why Hide: Hiding such pages keeps your website cleaner and ensures that visitors only see relevant and useful content.
Conclusion
In conclusion, hiding a page in WordPress from people or search engines can serve various purposes that we have discussed, such as keeping sensitive content hidden, keeping underdeveloped content private, making your website clean and aesthetically pleasing, and providing exclusive access to certain groups.
We have shared some of the best methods to hide a page in WordPress for both beginners and advanced users.
Simply choose the technique or method that suits your needs and explore the power of WordPress to hide pages.
In case you have any doubts or suggestions regarding this post, please feel free to write in the comment section below.
Rahul Kumar is a web enthusiast, and content strategist specializing in WordPress & web hosting. With years of experience and a commitment to staying up-to-date with industry trends, he creates effective online strategies that drive traffic, boosts engagement, and increase conversions. Rahul’s attention to detail and ability to craft compelling content makes him a valuable asset to any brand looking to improve its online presence.
