WordPress Editor Role

This article serves to inform why it is a good idea to set clients up as Editors only in WordPress.

The vast majority of clients are not specialists in IT and are really only interested in having a website that looks great, therefore presenting a good image of the company. They do not care if their plugins are up to date, or the fact they can have links in their blog roll. In fact most clients have no idea about the difference between WordPress and other content management systems.

The less unnecessary options available to the client, the less opportunities for confusion. This is why we usually give our clients just the Editors login, not the Administrators login.

Editors have the ability to create posts, edit posts and delete posts. They can also add, edit and remove pages, including pages written by other contributors. Uploading files is also included in the capabilities of an editor.

Editors can manage links, categories and comments.

Some of the things Editors cannot do include changing the theme, updating or deactivating plugins, edit the dashboard or modify any users information.

In my experience, there are very few clients who should be given administrators rights. In fact giving administrators rights could cause more grief than it is worth. Part of your maintenance plan with clients should include regular updates of WordPress and the plugins so there is really no reason to give them administrators rights at all.

Try keeping the hand over to clients as simple as possible. This will save you time and money and hopefully minimise the questions fro your client after they launch their new site.

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