Have Blog Page Active, But Hidden??

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  billericaholidayfestival · Member · Sep 18, 2015 at 3:43 pm

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  Is it possible to have a page on my blog be hidden and only accessible if the person has the direct link (URL) to that page?

  Thanks!

  The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

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  auxclass · Member · Sep 18, 2015 at 4:00 pm

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  Yes – create a custom menu – then make the secret PAGE (not Post) and do not put the secret page in the custom menu

  Menus

  https://en.support.wordpress.com/widgets/custom-menu-widget/

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  ehtis · Staff · Sep 18, 2015 at 4:05 pm

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  The above can work, however, it will still be visible via search engines and people can get to it if they do a search of your website.

  To truly hide a page or post, it can be password-protected. You will have to give the password to authorized visitors.

  Setting a page to private won’t work either, because it’s only visible to administrators or editors.

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  auxclass · Member · Sep 18, 2015 at 4:14 pm

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  Good point on a search of the site – but I am not sure that a Page would show up in a search engine, since Pages don’t send a note to search engines – so a Page should be low visibility until someone puts a link to the page somewhere else on the web

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  ehtis · Staff · Sep 18, 2015 at 4:28 pm

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  @auxclass, in case of posts and pages, they’re included in the sitemap which is automatically submitted to Google. That’s one reason why WordPress.com blogs are often quickly indexed. ;-)

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  billericaholidayfestival · Member · Sep 18, 2015 at 4:36 pm

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  I am not concerned about it showing up in search engines. It is going to be a Thank You page that I want to only be visible to those after they Checkout of PayPal.

  I am confused about the Custom Menu instruction. I create a menu then don’t put the page in the menu? Can you please elaborate on this?

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  auxclass · Member · Sep 18, 2015 at 4:36 pm

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  OK – forgot the part on the site map – thanks

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  ehtis · Staff · Sep 18, 2015 at 7:21 pm

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  @billericaholidayfestival, what auxclass meant was just create the page but don’t put it in the menu, where “Home”, “Contact us” etc. pages are currently added. Similarly, don’t add it to your sidebar or anywhere else.

  @auxclass, no problem, you’ve helped so many here already, sometimes we do forget things. :)

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  auxclass · Member · Sep 18, 2015 at 7:25 pm

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  I have a couple of real old pages that are archives but the list is not updated – so I took them out of the menu so you would really need to search hard – but the pages were not deleted or set to Private – I did not want the 404 page not found from search engines – – so hidden from visitors –

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  auxclass · Member · Sep 18, 2015 at 7:29 pm

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  PS – the forum is a group effort – we all check each other and add when necessary so the people with questions get accurate answers and I think we have a good track record overall

  thanks for your help also

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  ehtis · Staff · Sep 18, 2015 at 7:33 pm

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  Yep, in a case like this, not adding it to the menu (or any other visible place on the blog) would work. For super-secret pages though, passwords are the way to go, IMHO.

  Thanks and cheers! :)