WordPress’ built-in password protection is great for smaller sites. Simply set a password for any page or post and its content will be hidden on the front end, replaced with a single form field where users must enter the password to see the restricted content. But sometimes when you want to restrict content you need more granular control or, as in one client’s case recently, a security audit flags the simple-password-approach as being too simple.

Restrict Content with WordPress Plugins

Restricting content on a user/role basis can be complex and there are an overwhelming number of plugins to address the needs, with a bewildering variety of feature-sets and approaches.

I tried a terrible plugin and I tried an excellent plugin. Here’s what I found.

Simple Membership 3.3.7

On the back end, Simple Membership’s user table does not integrate well with the standard WordPress Users table. More crucially, the plugin did not send registration emails to new users or to the site administrator. I checked the plugin support page at wordpress.org and saw some of the bug reports from other users, and a few responses from the developer. I knew it was time to move on.

Ultimate Member 1.3.72

I should have installed this one first. Installation is a cinch. It integrates any existing users and provides an easy-to-use systems for both front end users who need to register or log on, and for back end site managers who need to approve new memberships. The automated emails are easy to edit and there are many options that can be set with simple toggle switches.

• Front-end user registration
• Front-end user login
• Front-end user profiles
• Custom form fields
• Conditional logic for form fields
• Drag and drop form builder
• User account page
• Custom user roles
• Searchable member directories
• Custom e-mail templates
• Content restriction
• Conditional menus
• Show author posts & comments on user profiles
• Mobile adaptive & responsive
• SEO optimized
• Developer friendly with dozens of actions and filters
• Multi-site compatibility

Copy Protect Website Text & Images

One more layer of protection you can add to your site is to disable simple copy-and-paste functions on a visitor’s computer. This means they can’t easily copy your text or images. It’s not perfect but it prevents casual/lazy theft. The following plugin is popular with over 40,000 installs and is free.

WP Content Copy Protection & No Right Click 1.5.0.6

• Protect your content from selection and copy.
• No one can save images from your site.
• No right click or context menu.
• Show alert message, Image Ad or HTML Ad on save images or right click.
• Disable the following keys CTRL+A, CTRL+C, CTRL+X,CTRL+S or CTRL+V.

Note: this tutorial is assuming your entire site will be (if it has already, this will be of no help, except for future occurrences) hacked, crashed and wiped entirely. We’ll be walking through, first backing your site up and then restoring it from nothing.

I get this question all the time: how do I backup my site? Should I pay $15/mo to have my hosting company do it for me? What do I do with the files? How do I restore my site? Why would my site crash? And so on.

Rightfully so, I suppose. Before we begin, let me say this: I’ve never had someone who has actually had a site crash with all their data and had everything wiped to the point where they need a full restore. Better safe than sorry, I suppose. What should also be noted is that if you back up your site too often (ie daily or hourly) it can cause a massive burden on your server. To the point where your site is actually loading slower just because it’s constantly being backed up.

For most small businesses, backing your site up once a month should be sufficient. Hell, I back my site up once a year. That’s not to say the content on it is changing, it’s just to say that after the original content, it doesn’t change that often or substantially to require further backups. Additionally, should something go wrong it would take less than an hour or two to get the site back up and running to it’s current state. I feel this is true for most small businesses (especially those without blogs) and the additional space required on the server isn’t worth it.

The first thing we’ll have to do is download a plugin to backup both our database and our files. I’ll be working with a plugin called: BackUpWordPress. You can either download it via that link, or do a search under Plugins > Add New for “BackUpWordPress” and it’s the first option.

Once the plugin is installed you’ll find the options for backing up under Tools > Backup. You can see the size of your database and manage the options for how often everything is backed up. I just run the manual ones, however you may want to run monthly or even weekly backups. You can also set how many backups are stored. All of this can be changed by clicking settings, or “+ add schedule.”

The difference between the database and the files is quite simple: the database manages how your files are used. First, you need the files to have all the content and foundation. Once that is there, your database backup will allow those files to interact with each other and display the proper content.
Note: your posts and pages are actually entries in the database, NOT physical files. 

After you schedule your backup, or manually back everything up, you have to download a .zip file. You can see it can be quite large: it literally has the entire WordPress file system within it, as well as all your uploads, themes, etc. Lets take a look at restoring your site, should it completely crash.
Note: individual articles for each of these steps coming later. 

1. Unzip the downloaded file.
2. Upload your files to the root directory (folder).
3. Add a database with the credentials in your wp-config.php file. If you can’t use those exact credentials, change the wp-config.php to match the database.
4. Import the .sql file found in the unzipped folder

That’s a lot to handle to get everything back up and running. The thing to know, though, is that you can do it. Even if it takes a little bit of time, you have all the necessary pieces.

There are a million and one different scenarios and environments in which WordPress can be installed, but there are two main ones:

1. The famous 5 minute install
2. One click installers

Lets walk through each one. First, you’re going to need to make sure you have hosting setup. If you haven’t bought hosting, make sure you follow my hosting guide, so you can use a one click installer (this will make your life much easier). If you already have hosting, without a one click installer, we’ll have to install WordPress the old fashioned way.

Note: before proceeding with the steps below make sure you don’t have a one click installer (something like fantastico, or WordPress, or Simple Scripts).

1. Download WordPress and unzip it.
2. Login to your hosting account
3. Create an FTP user and password. By default some hosts will create a new folder for you. Thus, if I make a user ‘kegan’ my FTP user will be put in a folder called ‘kegan’ thus creating something like keganquimby.com/kegan. That’s not what we want. Make sure you’re in public_html or the highest level possible.
4. Create a database and a database user. Each host is entirely different with creating and editing databases and their users. Make sure you write down the database name, user, password, and host (for a lot of hosts it’s just ‘localhost’, but for GoDaddy, and some others, it can be different.)
5. Download an FTP client. The easiest to work with is Filezilla, it’s totally free and pretty easy to use. Login with your FTP credentials from step 3. Sometimes the user needs an @domainname appended on the end of it. Thus, if my user was kegan, I may need to actually do [email protected]
6. From where you downloaded WordPress, rename the wp-config-sample.php to wp-config.php and then open it with a text editor. Enter in all the database info from step 4 (make sure everything stays within single quotes).
7. Get some salt for your database. Copy that and replace lines 45-52 in your wp-config.php file.
8. On the right side are the files on your server, and on the left are the files on your computer. There should be nothing on the right side. Navigate to where you downloaded and unzipped WordPress and open the folder called ‘wordpress.’ We want the files inside the folder, not the actual folder itself. Select all the files and drag them over to the right hand side of FileZilla (effectively putting them on your server).
9. Navigate to your site with /wp-admin on the end and finish the install!

Now for the one click installers!

1. Login to your hosting account
2. Find the applications that come installed with your hosting
3. Look for the WordPress installer. Can also be called: Fantastico, Simple Scripts, or just WordPress. If you can’t find it, but have hosting from above make sure to look in the FAQ section for WordPress installers.
4. Follow the guide from the installer.
5. That’s it!

There are a ton of different combinations of hosting platforms, that all give you different access levels. If you don’t know what to look for check out my article on WordPress hosting. If you don’t have hosting make sure it comes with a one click installer for WordPress and costs about $5-$10 per month.

WordPress’ built-in password protection is great for smaller sites. Simply set a password for any page or post and its content will be hidden on the front end, replaced with a single form field where users must enter the password to see the restricted content. But sometimes when you want to restrict content you need more granular control or, as in one client’s case recently, a security audit flags the simple-password-approach as being too simple.

Restrict Content with WordPress Plugins

Restricting content on a user/role basis can be complex and there are an overwhelming number of plugins to address the needs, with a bewildering variety of feature-sets and approaches.

I tried a terrible plugin and I tried an excellent plugin. Here’s what I found.

Simple Membership 3.3.7

On the back end, Simple Membership’s user table does not integrate well with the standard WordPress Users table. More crucially, the plugin did not send registration emails to new users or to the site administrator. I checked the plugin support page at wordpress.org and saw some of the bug reports from other users, and a few responses from the developer. I knew it was time to move on.

Ultimate Member 1.3.72

I should have installed this one first. Installation is a cinch. It integrates any existing users and provides an easy-to-use systems for both front end users who need to register or log on, and for back end site managers who need to approve new memberships. The automated emails are easy to edit and there are many options that can be set with simple toggle switches.

• Front-end user registration
• Front-end user login
• Front-end user profiles
• Custom form fields
• Conditional logic for form fields
• Drag and drop form builder
• User account page
• Custom user roles
• Searchable member directories
• Custom e-mail templates
• Content restriction
• Conditional menus
• Show author posts & comments on user profiles
• Mobile adaptive & responsive
• SEO optimized
• Developer friendly with dozens of actions and filters
• Multi-site compatibility

Copy Protect Website Text & Images

One more layer of protection you can add to your site is to disable simple copy-and-paste functions on a visitor’s computer. This means they can’t easily copy your text or images. It’s not perfect but it prevents casual/lazy theft. The following plugin is popular with over 40,000 installs and is free.

WP Content Copy Protection & No Right Click 1.5.0.6

• Protect your content from selection and copy.
• No one can save images from your site.
• No right click or context menu.
• Show alert message, Image Ad or HTML Ad on save images or right click.
• Disable the following keys CTRL+A, CTRL+C, CTRL+X,CTRL+S or CTRL+V.

Note: this tutorial is assuming your entire site will be (if it has already, this will be of no help, except for future occurrences) hacked, crashed and wiped entirely. We’ll be walking through, first backing your site up and then restoring it from nothing.

I get this question all the time: how do I backup my site? Should I pay $15/mo to have my hosting company do it for me? What do I do with the files? How do I restore my site? Why would my site crash? And so on.

Rightfully so, I suppose. Before we begin, let me say this: I’ve never had someone who has actually had a site crash with all their data and had everything wiped to the point where they need a full restore. Better safe than sorry, I suppose. What should also be noted is that if you back up your site too often (ie daily or hourly) it can cause a massive burden on your server. To the point where your site is actually loading slower just because it’s constantly being backed up.

For most small businesses, backing your site up once a month should be sufficient. Hell, I back my site up once a year. That’s not to say the content on it is changing, it’s just to say that after the original content, it doesn’t change that often or substantially to require further backups. Additionally, should something go wrong it would take less than an hour or two to get the site back up and running to it’s current state. I feel this is true for most small businesses (especially those without blogs) and the additional space required on the server isn’t worth it.

The first thing we’ll have to do is download a plugin to backup both our database and our files. I’ll be working with a plugin called: BackUpWordPress. You can either download it via that link, or do a search under Plugins > Add New for “BackUpWordPress” and it’s the first option.

Once the plugin is installed you’ll find the options for backing up under Tools > Backup. You can see the size of your database and manage the options for how often everything is backed up. I just run the manual ones, however you may want to run monthly or even weekly backups. You can also set how many backups are stored. All of this can be changed by clicking settings, or “+ add schedule.”

The difference between the database and the files is quite simple: the database manages how your files are used. First, you need the files to have all the content and foundation. Once that is there, your database backup will allow those files to interact with each other and display the proper content.
Note: your posts and pages are actually entries in the database, NOT physical files. 

After you schedule your backup, or manually back everything up, you have to download a .zip file. You can see it can be quite large: it literally has the entire WordPress file system within it, as well as all your uploads, themes, etc. Lets take a look at restoring your site, should it completely crash.
Note: individual articles for each of these steps coming later. 

1. Unzip the downloaded file.
2. Upload your files to the root directory (folder).
3. Add a database with the credentials in your wp-config.php file. If you can’t use those exact credentials, change the wp-config.php to match the database.
4. Import the .sql file found in the unzipped folder

That’s a lot to handle to get everything back up and running. The thing to know, though, is that you can do it. Even if it takes a little bit of time, you have all the necessary pieces.

There are a million and one different scenarios and environments in which WordPress can be installed, but there are two main ones:

1. The famous 5 minute install
2. One click installers

Lets walk through each one. First, you’re going to need to make sure you have hosting setup. If you haven’t bought hosting, make sure you follow my hosting guide, so you can use a one click installer (this will make your life much easier). If you already have hosting, without a one click installer, we’ll have to install WordPress the old fashioned way.

Note: before proceeding with the steps below make sure you don’t have a one click installer (something like fantastico, or WordPress, or Simple Scripts).

1. Download WordPress and unzip it.
2. Login to your hosting account
3. Create an FTP user and password. By default some hosts will create a new folder for you. Thus, if I make a user ‘kegan’ my FTP user will be put in a folder called ‘kegan’ thus creating something like keganquimby.com/kegan. That’s not what we want. Make sure you’re in public_html or the highest level possible.
4. Create a database and a database user. Each host is entirely different with creating and editing databases and their users. Make sure you write down the database name, user, password, and host (for a lot of hosts it’s just ‘localhost’, but for GoDaddy, and some others, it can be different.)
5. Download an FTP client. The easiest to work with is Filezilla, it’s totally free and pretty easy to use. Login with your FTP credentials from step 3. Sometimes the user needs an @domainname appended on the end of it. Thus, if my user was kegan, I may need to actually do [email protected]
6. From where you downloaded WordPress, rename the wp-config-sample.php to wp-config.php and then open it with a text editor. Enter in all the database info from step 4 (make sure everything stays within single quotes).
7. Get some salt for your database. Copy that and replace lines 45-52 in your wp-config.php file.
8. On the right side are the files on your server, and on the left are the files on your computer. There should be nothing on the right side. Navigate to where you downloaded and unzipped WordPress and open the folder called ‘wordpress.’ We want the files inside the folder, not the actual folder itself. Select all the files and drag them over to the right hand side of FileZilla (effectively putting them on your server).
9. Navigate to your site with /wp-admin on the end and finish the install!

Now for the one click installers!

1. Login to your hosting account
2. Find the applications that come installed with your hosting
3. Look for the WordPress installer. Can also be called: Fantastico, Simple Scripts, or just WordPress. If you can’t find it, but have hosting from above make sure to look in the FAQ section for WordPress installers.
4. Follow the guide from the installer.
5. That’s it!

There are a ton of different combinations of hosting platforms, that all give you different access levels. If you don’t know what to look for check out my article on WordPress hosting. If you don’t have hosting make sure it comes with a one click installer for WordPress and costs about $5-$10 per month.