Restricting access to your website

How to keep a site private while you build it, or limit it to people who have signed in.

WordPress shows your site to everyone by default. The Discourage search engines option under Settings, then Reading, only asks search engines to stay away. It does nothing to stop a visitor who has the address, so treat it as a courtesy rather than a control.

Restricting access properly needs a plugin. Which one depends on what you are trying to do.

Hiding a site you are still building

Under Construction shows a holding page to visitors while letting signed-in users see the real site. That suits a new site you are working on in public view.

Limiting a site to known people

Restricted Site Access asks visitors to sign in before they see anything, and can also allow named IP addresses through without a login. That suits an internal site, or one shown to a client before launch.

Whichever you choose, check the result in a private browser window. It is the quickest way to see the site as someone who is not signed in.