How to Share WordPress Access with Your Web Designer

Sharing access to your WordPress website is a deceptively awkward situation. It doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, but let’s face it: you feel a little uncomfortable handing over your personal username and password.

It’s not that your designer is going to steal your passwords and take control of your online accounts. It’s just a little scary to share your most confidential account information.

Don’t worry. We feel a little uncomfortable accepting it, too.

People tend to reuse the same usernames and passwords on multiple accounts (even though it makes you vulnerable to hackers). I feel weird knowing that I might also be holding the login to your email or your bank account.

Really guys, I’m glad that you trust me, but I do NOT want to know your personal passwords.

I’ve seen some people get around this by having the client temporarily change the password on their account. The client can share the temporary password with the designer. When the designer is done, the client can change the password back to something private.

Sure, this works But it sounds EXHAUSTING, doesn’t it?

What if you have multiple people who need access to your website? Maybe you also hire a virtual assistant or a search engine optimizer. Are you supposed to sit around all day changing and re-changing your passwords?

I certainly don’t have time for that. I’m guessing you don’t either.

As you know, I’m all about efficiency around here. So I will not suggest that you try this.

Instead, I have a simple method for sharing WordPress access with your designer. Read on, my friends. This is a good trick to have in your arsenal.

Related: 9 WordPress Secrets for Blogging Better, Faster, and Smarter

You Don’t Have to Share Your Personal Login

Yep, you read that correctly. You don’t have to share your personal username and password (that you use for everything, even though you know better) to give your web designer WordPress access.

I have an easy and secure way to share WordPress access with a web designer or developer without compromising your login information.

You can quickly create a temporary account to share with your designer. You can give them access for a day, a week, a month–however long you need–and delete it later.

How to Set Up a New User Account

WordPress lets you create an unlimited number of users. This means you can create separate user accounts for your web designer, your SEO, your VA, and any other web professional who needs access to your WordPress website.

Here’s how to safely share WordPress access:

1. Sign into your WordPress website. From your WordPress dashboard, navigate to Users > Add New. You’ll be taken to a page with a blank form that looks like this.

2. Enter the following information for your designer:

1. Username (required) — Select a username for your designer. This cannot be changed later, so pick a good one.
2. Email (required) — Enter your designer’s email address.
3. First Name (optional) — Enter your designer’s first name.
4. Last Name (optional) — Enter your designer’s last name.
5. Website (optional) — Enter your designer’s website.
6. Password (required) — Click Show Password to generate a password for your designer. You can replace this with a password of your choosing, but I recommend using the suggested password. You can never be too safe when it comes to web passwords, and the WordPress generated passwords are both strong and unique.
7. Send User Notification — Select this box to send your designer an email with their new account information.
8. Role — Select a role for your designer using the dropdown box. Most likely, your designer should be an Administrator, which gives them full access to your website.

3. Click the Add New User button to create the account. Your designer will receive an email with their password and instructions on how to log in to your WordPress site. They can update their password and fill in the rest of their profile.

How to Delete a Temporary User Account

If you plan on having an ongoing relationship with your designer, you can leave this user account open for them. If not, you can delete the account after they have completed their work.

Here’s how:

1. From the WordPress dashboard, navigate to Users > All Users. You’ll see a screen that lists all of the user accounts associated with your website.

2. Hover over the user that you want to delete. Click delete.

Note: You cannot delete the user that is currently logged in. If you hover over that username, you will not see the delete option.

3. If there are any posts or pages associated with the user account, you will see a screen with two options:

• Delete All Content — This will delete all content that the user has created.
• Attribute All Content To — This will reassign all of the user’s content to a different user.

Most likely, you don’t want to lose any of the content on your website. Select attribute all content to and choose a different user to assign it to.

4. Click Confirm Deletion to permanently delete the account.