How to hide a page in WordPress

How to hide a page in WordPress


There are three ways to hide or remove pages in WordPress

1. Remove the page from the menus

  1. Navigate to Appearance > Menus >
  2. Use Select a menu to edit drop down to find all the places the link exists in the menus (i.e., header, footer, mobile, etc.)
  3. Once the link you want to remove is found, remove it from the lists by clicking the expand arrow, then clicking Remove, then Save Menu
  4. Repeat this for all menu locations
  5. NOTE: This method allows you to keep the page live, but visitors cannot get to it from your navigation. Keep in mind that the page may have a link to it on another page on your website or it may be linked somewhere on another website or social media platform.

2. Set the page to draft

  1. Go to the page you want to set as a draft and look in the top, right corner for the (Applies to Basic WordPress Editor view in WordPress).
  2. Alternatively, go to Pages > All Pages and hover over the page you want to change, change the publish setting to Draft and Save.
  3. NOTE: Visitors will see a 404 page if the URL is not redirected to another page on the website.

3. Delete the page completely

  1. To delete a page completely navigate to Pages > All Pages > Browse until you find the page you want to delete, hover over the title, and click the option "Trash"
  2. You can also delete the page from the back-end of the actual page. It will be in the options panel on the right of the page. Options Panel > Move to Trash (Applies to Basic WordPress Editor view in Wordpress).
  3. NOTE: Visitors will see a 404 page if the URL is not redirected to another page on the website.

IMPORTANT!

When deleting or setting pages to draft, it is important to consider the risks involved which can include: 
  1. A visitor may have the page saved
  2. The page may have been shared on social media or other platforms
  3. The page may be linked to from other websites
  4. The page may have SEO value
  5. The page may be linked to from other pages on your website
Consider these factors before hiding, deleting or changing the URL of a page. And if your plan is still to delete or set to draft, consider creating a redirect to a similar page on the website so visitors do not arrive at a dead end.

Also, don't forget take the step to go through your website and update/remove the link that might be in your other pages.

Want to hide the page from search engines, but keep the page live?

  1. To hide a page from search engines, navigate to the page you want to hide, make sure you're using the Basic WordPress Editor, scroll to Yoast SEO > Advanced Settings > Select No Index and No Follow and Save.
  2. NOTE: This is likely only applicable to pages that are internal or not intended to be found by search engines.