When visitors come to your website and are greeted with a login page, what information do you want to convey to them?

The answer likely depends on which type of visitor is coming to your site.

• Some will come to your site already knowing the password. They don’t need any additional information.
• Some will come to your website not yet knowing the password, however they are your intended audience members. These visitors need information to help them obtain the access password.
• Some visitors will come to your website but are not intended audience members. These visitors need information to help clarify that they are not supposed to proceed further on your site.

This post suggests messaging that you can use on your Hide My Site login page to reach these visitors. You are able to set the message for your login page via the Custom Notification Message on the Hide My Site Settings page. Note that you have to be using Hide My Site premium in order to set a custom notification message.

Here are some ideas to get you thinking:

Suggest a public alternative

Hello, you’re trying to enter a site where access is restricted to Bob’s Pizza Shop Employees. If you’re looking for information on Bob’s Pizza Shop you should go to www.BobsPizzaShop.com.

With this notification message, you are informing the visitor about whom the site is intended for. In this case, Bob’s Pizza Shop Employees.

If the visitor is not an employee, you can suggest for them an alternative site that would likely be more useful. In this case, it’s probable that a member of the general public might find this site while searching for Bob’s Pizza Shop’s public-facing website (perhaps because they want to view the menu, or are looking to place an order), so it’s helpful to link to the public site.

Inner Circle Notice

This site is restricted to Apply Valley PTA members. If you need help accessing the site, please email our webmaster at admin@applevalley.org

This text is similar to the previous example, though this one doesn’t list an alternative site for the public. The purpose of this notification message is to inform the visitor as to whom is the website’s intended audience: In this example, members of the Apple Valley PTA. If the visitor is not a member, they now know that they have no business going any further on the site. If the visitor is a PTA member, but they don’t yet have the password, they are provided with an email address they can use to request access.

Keep It Vague

This is a private website. Contact Bill or Kelly for the password.

Notice there is no contact information listed for either Bill or Kelly. That’s because visitors to this site are assumed to already know Bill and Kelly (the site owners), and also how to contact them. Moreover, there is no information listed about what the website is about. That’s because if the visitor doesn’t know either Bill or Kelly, and they don’t already have an idea about what the website is, then Bill and Kelly don’t want them on the site in the first place.

Thanks for taking the time to read this post. Hope you find it helpful. These are only three suggestions but there are lots of other great ideas that you can use for your notification messages. Please let me know if you have any of your own suggestions, questions or other feedback in the comments.