Let’s add more flexibility in managing WordPress user roles
User roles in WordPress allow you (presuming you’re the owner of the website) to create other user accounts with different permissions depending on what you’d like that person to be able to do on your website.
It could simply be someone who helps you write posts on your blog, a shop manager on your online store or a staff member to manage your events/workshops.
The basic roles WordPress offers are:
–Subscriber: this is the most basic one, you can simply access the website and maybe have an account for whatever purpose you may choose
–Contributor: this is great if you wish to have someone create and manage their own posts (like a professional copywriter who helps you by contributing to your blog) but can’t publish them. You then have a role of moderator as you’ll have to publish them yourself if you see fit.
–Author: same as “Contributor” but they can publish their own posts. This is when you’ve achieved a greater level of trust and can let this contributor manage their content in a more autonomous way.
–Editor: same as “Author” except that they can also manage the pages of your website. This time we’re talking about someone who can also edit/delete your website pages so it should only be given to a true collaborator and a trusted one.
–Administrator: this is the top of the pyramid, the one who has access to all (could be you if it’s your own website or your web designer to help you manage and maintain it). You obviously do not want to give anyone who asks for it an admin account as this means this person will be able to have access to all parts of your website. Providing an admin account to your web designer is wise as they would need it to help maintain your website.
How about other roles or custom ones?
Well, you can try the plugin “User Role Editor” to help you create new roles or fine-tune what certain roles have access to.
They even have a pro version to help you have a greater level of granularity in your choices.
Please ensure your read the documentation and you backup your website often when using this plugin so you don’t accidentally delete the wrong role or make a major change in permissions as you could lock ourself out of your own website!
P.S. Is it too late? Have you locked yourself out of your own website? Contact us, we may be able to help.
