How To Login To WordPress And Changing The Login URL

Last updated on August 1st, 2018 at 06:52 pm

Once you’ve installed your WordPress site, it’s time to login and start adding fresh content and setting it up the way that you desire. In this blog post, I am going to walk you through step-by-step on how to login to WordPress as well as changing your login URL of your website.

If this is your first time using WordPress all this will be new to you, if not then maybe you will learn something new.

Using the Common Login Method

1. Access Your WordPress Login Info

Remember when you filled out the WordPress 5 minute installation setup? It asked you for an email, this is where you will find the login credentials for your new WordPress. If you still haven’t setup your blog, you can get started here.

2. Go To The WordPress Login Screen For Your Website

The most common way to login in to WordPress type in “/wp-admin”  (minus the quotes) directly behind your domain name. For instance whenever I want to my own website, I would open up my browse and type in:

3. Enter Your Username and Password

Enter your username and password you chose for your blog when you installed your site.

Click login.

Once you’re logged in, you will see the main dashboard.

This is where you will be spending a lot of your time whenever you’re navigating your blog. When you login, this is the first screen you will see.

Your dashboard will give you a lot of news about your website. It will let you know when WordPress needs to be updated. If you are new to this platform, you can also find highlighted news from WordPress. As you continue using the platform, you will become more familiar with the WordPress dashboard.

Why You Would Want To Change Your WordPress Login URL

If you’ve spent anytime on this site, then you know I am a huge advocate of setting up my WordPress clients sites with a secure WordPress site. I want to take every precautionary step I know how to take to make it difficult for hackers to access my site.

This doesn’t mean that your site won’t ever get hacked. In fact, not too long ago, I had to clean up a WordPress site for a client. You don’t have to do this for all your sites, but if you feel comfortable messing with your WordPress site, then you can follow along.

Before you get started, be sure you make a backup of your website. Don’t blame me if anything happens to your website during this tutorial.

Related: WordPress Backup Buddy Step-by-Step With Pictures

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Changing Your Login URL Without A Plugin

If you wanted to make your login something easier for you to remember, you can do it without a plugin. Let’s say for instance instead of remembering to type in “wp-admin” whenever you wanted to login you wanted to use “myblog” (minus the quotes).

You just need to add some code to your htaccess file.

Add this code to the very top of your .htaccess file

When you’ve added the code it will look like this.

The downside is that this doesn’t hide your login URL. Whenever you use your new login, it will redirect you to the common WordPress login URL, which is wp-admin or wp-login.php.

So this method doesn’t really make it great for hackers. However, it is great if you want to a login that is easy for you to remember.

Change Login URL Using A Plugin

Since we are NOT coders, we want to find something that is easy and quick to use. For this tutorial, I will be discussing a free plugin that one of my clients currently uses on their website.

I’ve personally never used this plugin. However, since managing their site, I can honestly say that it does what it’s supposed to do.

Rename wp-login Plugin

Head on over to the WordPress plugin directory from your dashboard and look for the Rename wp-login plugin. At the time of this writing, it looks like this:

Go ahead and install and activate it. If you are unsure of how to do that, read this WordPress plugin tutorial.

Setting Up The Plugin

As soon as you active the plugin, you will be taken to this screen.

Enter your new login of your choice, be sure to save your changes.

Log Out And Test Your New Login

Once you’ve done that it’s time to test the new login and see if it is actually working. When I attempt to login back in using the wp-admin login, this is what I see.

As you can see the wp-admin login URL no longer works. I have to login with my new URL. Hopefully, you made it easy to remember, otherwise you won’t be able to log back in to your site via the login dashboard.

If a hacker does manage to get a hold of your password, they won’t be able to login because they don’t know your secret login URL.

There are several other plugins you can use to change your login URL. As I mentioned, this is the only one I feel comfortable recommending as I currently use it in my WordPress freelance business.

Best Solution For Your Website

While having a secret login is great. The best thing you can do for your website is to have a current backup of your website. Setup an automatic nightly or weekly backup maintenance plan. and store your backups remotely on your local PC, Amazon or Dropbox.

This way if your site ever does happen to get hacked, you will have a backup on hand.

The Takeaway

Now that you’ve learned how to login to WordPress and change the login URL, it’s never too early to think about security for your blog. Even if you’re just starting your blog, it’s NEVER too early to learn the basics of WordPress.

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So let me know, did this tutorial help you learn how to login to WordPress? Comment below I’d love to see what you’re blogging about.