All You Need to Know About Logging Into Your WordPress Website
How do I Log into My Site?
If you are like me and setup WordPress websites, it’s inevitable to be asked, “How do I log into my site?” Just about every WordPress website owner I’ve worked with has asked me this. So, here’s how.
The Recipe
Adding /wp-admin to the end of your homepage link
Let’s use TechCrunch’s website as an example. TechCrunch.com is a startup & technology news site. The TechCrunch website is a showcase site for WordPress. Their homepage is located at this URL https://techcrunch.com
If we follow the /wp-admin recipe for getting to TechCrunch’s WordPress admin dashboard, all we need to do is add /wp-admin after https://techcrunch.com to become https://techcrunch.com/wp-admin/. Try it.
- Bring up https://techcrunch.com in your browser.
- Add /wp-admin to the end of the URL in the browser’s address bar.
I Forgot my Password (you should never have to ask someone for your own password)
The second most popular question I get from WordPress website owners is, “I forgot my password, do you have it?” I don’t keep owner’s passwords for two reasons.
- For security. It’s a need-to-know basis. Also, the site owner can change their password anytime. That would blow me out of the water if I was in their admin area doing some work.
- I have my own admin account for access. This is good practice. Avoid sharing accounts and passwords as much as possible.
The good news is, that ever since I can remember, login pages have provided a lost your password? link. Soooo freaking nice, ya? This means you, as the website owner, are always empowered to reset your password. You can reset your password any time you want. You never need to wait or ask anyone for your password. You are a liberated being. Yay!
Always click on the ‘Lost your password?’ link for instant happiness. This is so zen.
Other WordPress Related Logins
What adds to the “How do I log into my site?” confusion (and rightly so) is there are two other but related logins. In total, there can be up to three separate accounts needed to have one WordPress website.
- WordPress admin account that we covered above.
- Web hosting provider’s account. This is where your WordPress site is hosted e.g., WP Engine, SiteGround, Bluehost, GoDaddy, HostGator.
- Domain hosting provider’s account. This is where your domain name is hosted — can be one in the same with your web hosting provider. E.g., GoDaddy.
Pop Quiz
In general, each hosting provider’s homepage provides a login or sign in link at the upper right corner of the page. See if you can spot the login/sign in links below.
Pop Quiz #2
Can you find the links below that will empower you to reset your passwords if you forgot them?
Wrapping up
- To log into your WordPress admin dashboard, add a /wp-admin to the end of your homepage URL.
- Your website hosting provider admin dashboard is different from your WordPress admin dashboard. Examples of popular WordPress hosting providers are WP Engine, SiteGround, and Bluehost.
- Your domain hosting provider may be different from your website hosting provider. But, some website hosting providers like GoDaddy can do domain hosting too. Another popular domain hosting provider is Namecheap. Namecheap does website hosting as well. WP Engine does not do domain hosting. WP Engine only does website hosting.
- Don’t know your password to your WordPress, web hosting, or domain hosting admin site? Have no fear, reset your password instantly. You never have to ask or wait on anyone. And, resetting your password is always way more secure.
Enjoy!
Before you go
- This article is written for WordPress.org (self-hosted) sites. So, if you have a WordPress.com site, the /wp-admin recipe will get you to your WordPress dashboard and your hosting dashboard. It’s an all-in-one with WordPress.com.
- If you are a WordPress developer, you will also need to know how to log into FTP and phpMyAdmin (i.e., MySQL database login). These two logins accounts are out of scope for this article.
