How to Restrict Content with Ultimate Member Plugin

Tutorials Updated November 18, 2025

Content restriction is essential for membership sites. It lets you protect your valuable content and create member-only areas. Ultimate Member makes content restriction easy, whether you want to protect individual pages or entire sections of your site.

In this tutorial, I’ll show you exactly how to restrict content step by step. We’ll cover everything from basic page protection to advanced role-based access control. Let’s get started!

Understanding Content Restriction

Content restriction lets you control who can access specific content:

  • Individual pages and posts
  • Entire categories
  • Media files
  • Custom post types

You can restrict based on login status, user roles, or individual users.

Restricting a Single Page or Post

Let’s start with the simplest form of restriction:

Step 1: Edit the Content

Edit the page or post you want to protect:

  1. Go to Pages or Posts in WordPress admin
  2. Click “Edit” on the content you want to restrict
  3. Look for the “Ultimate Member” meta box

Step 2: Set Restriction Options

In the Ultimate Member meta box:

  1. Choose who can access (Logged-in Users, Specific Roles, or Specific Users)
  2. Select roles or users if applicable
  3. Set a custom access message
  4. Save your changes

The content is now restricted to your chosen audience.

Restricting by User Role

Role-based restrictions are powerful for membership sites:

Setting Up Role Restrictions

To restrict content to specific roles:

  1. Edit the content
  2. In Ultimate Member meta box, select “Specific Roles”
  3. Choose which roles can access
  4. You can select multiple roles
  5. Save your changes

This creates tiered access where different member types see different content.

Common Use Cases

Role-based restrictions work well for:

  • Free content for all members
  • Premium content for paid members
  • Admin-only content
  • Role-specific resources

Setting Custom Access Messages

When someone tries to access restricted content, show them a helpful message:

Creating Access Messages

In the Ultimate Member meta box, you can:

  • Use the default message
  • Write a custom message
  • Redirect to a specific page

Good messages explain why content is restricted and how to gain access.

Message Best Practices

Effective access messages:

  • Explain why content is restricted
  • Tell users how to gain access
  • Include a call-to-action
  • Are friendly and helpful

Poor messages just say “Access Denied” and leave users confused.

Global Content Restrictions

You can set site-wide restrictions:

Setting Global Restrictions

Go to Ultimate Member → Settings → Access:

  • Set default access for all pages
  • Set default access for all posts
  • Restrict entire post types
  • Restrict media files

Global settings are useful for sites where most content is member-only.

Overriding Global Settings

Individual page/post settings override global settings. This gives you flexibility – set a default, then customize specific content.

Restricting Categories

You can restrict entire categories:

Category Restrictions

To restrict a category:

  1. Go to Ultimate Member → Settings → Access
  2. Find category restriction options
  3. Select categories to restrict
  4. Choose which roles can access
  5. Save your changes

This is useful if you have content organized by category.

Using Shortcodes for Content Restriction

You can also restrict content within pages using shortcodes:

Restriction Shortcodes

Wrap content in a shortcode:

[um_show_content roles="premium-member"]Your premium content here[/um_show_content]

This lets you mix public and restricted content on the same page.

Testing Content Restrictions

Always test restrictions thoroughly:

  1. View content as different user roles
  2. Test while logged out
  3. Verify access messages display
  4. Check redirects work
  5. Test on mobile devices

It’s easy to accidentally lock yourself out – testing prevents problems.

Common Issues

Here are common restriction problems:

Content Still Accessible

If restricted content is still accessible:

  • Check restriction settings are saved
  • Verify user roles
  • Clear cache
  • Test with different browsers

Access Messages Not Showing

If messages don’t appear:

  • Check message settings
  • Verify Ultimate Member is active
  • Check for theme conflicts

Best Practices

Tips for effective content restriction:

  • Be clear – Tell users why content is restricted
  • Provide value – Make restricted content worth accessing
  • Guide users – Show them how to gain access
  • Test thoroughly – Verify restrictions work
  • Don’t over-restrict – Leave some public content

Next Steps

Now that you can restrict content, consider:

  • Setting up role-based access tiers
  • Creating custom access messages
  • Using shortcodes for flexible control
  • Integrating with payment extensions

Content restriction is a powerful tool for building membership sites. Use it thoughtfully to create value for your members while protecting your content.