How to Allow User Registration on Your WordPress Site: An Expert Guide

Allowing visitors to register user accounts on your WordPress site comes with many potential benefits. But improper implementation can also introduce moderation headaches and spam risks.

In this comprehensive guide, we‘ll cover everything you need to know to safely allow user registration on your WordPress site. I‘ll be drawing on my 15+ years of experience running WordPress sites to provide tips from an expert perspective.

Why Allow User Registration on Your Site?

Here are some of the most common reasons site owners enable user registration:

Foster a User Community

Allowing visitors to register makes them invested community members instead of anonymous viewers. According to industry research, active commenters have 68% higher engagement on average.

Registered users are more likely to:

• Comment and participate in discussions
• Contribute user generated content like posts, photos, etc.
• Return and interact with your brand regularly

This sense of community keeps users engaged over the long-term.

Collect User Data

Registration forms require users to provide details like:

• Email address
• Name
• Location
• Interests/hobbies

This data is very valuable for segmenting your audience and improving marketing efforts. For example, you can categorize registered users by interests and send targeted emails.

Offer Exclusive Content

You can restrict access to premium content just for logged in users. For example:

• Members-only blog posts and videos
• Discount codes and special offers
• Entry to webinars or online events

These exclusive benefits encourage visitor registration to gain access.

Build an Email List

Every new registration can also be added to your email subscriber list. This allows you to:

• Send newsletters and promotions
• Engage users through regular communication
• Drive traffic back to your site

Email is still one of the most effective marketing channels, so growing your list is important.

Typical User Registration Rates

Exactly how many of your visitors will register accounts? According to data from Mailchimp, the average conversion rate is:

• Homepage to email signup: 0.6%
• Blog post page to email signup: 2.9%
• Resource offer page to email signup: 11.1%

You can expect fairly similar conversion rates for user account registrations. The key is providing motivation through exclusive content, community benefits, etc.

For example, a blog post view to user registration conversion rate of 2-4% is reasonable for most sites.

Step 1: Enabling User Registration in WordPress

Allowing users to register accounts in WordPress is quick and easy. Just follow these steps:

1. Login to your WordPress dashboard.

2. Go to Settings > General.

3. Under "Membership", check the box for Anyone can register.

   

4. Select the default user role from the dropdown.

   • Subscriber is recommended to limit permissions for new users.
   • Be very careful with roles like Author and Editor that allow post submissions.
   • Never assign the Administrator role by default!

5. Click Save Changes at the bottom.

And that‘s it! Now anyone can register for an account on your WordPress site.

You may also want to enable reCAPTCHA on the settings page to prevent spam signups. I‘ll cover more advanced protection later in this guide.

Next let‘s go over some options for adding registration and login forms.

Step 2: Adding Login and Registration Forms

When open registration is enabled, you need to provide forms for users to create accounts and log in. Here are 3 great options to consider:

1. Meta Widget

Many WordPress themes include a Meta widget with handy links for:

• User login
• Registration
• Comments RSS
• etc.

To add it, go to Appearance > Widgets and drag the Meta widget into your sidebar. Then users will see these quick links:

Pros

• Automatically included with most themes
• Fast and easy to add

Cons

• Very limited customization options
• Basic design lacks branding

The meta widget works best as a temporary option before installing a plugin.

2. WPForms – Flexible Custom Forms

For full customization of the design, fields, and features, a dedicated plugin is recommended. My top choice is WPForms.

WPForms makes it easy to:

• Build registration and login forms to match your branding
• Select fields like name, email, location, interests, etc.
• Integrate with email marketing, payments, surveys, etc.
• Add multi-page forms and conditional logic

It takes just a few minutes to create stylish, optimized forms like this:

WPForms seamlessly handles integrating with WordPress for registrations, logins, form processing, and customization.

Pros

• Create fully customized forms
• Choose from pre-made templates
• Integrates with other tools like email services, payment processors, etc.

Cons

• Requires the Pro license ($39+ per year)
• Extra setup time compared to meta widget

Overall WPForms is my top choice for flexible and beautifully designed registration/login forms.

3. SeedProd – Custom Landing Pages

Plugins like SeedProd take custom form building even further.

SeedProd lets you create entire landing pages with drag and drop ease.

To make registration or login pages:

• Pick a template or custom layout
• Drag and drop sections and elements to build your page
• Tie into WordPress user accounts
• Publish and redirect to the new URL

You can match your branding and include additional content beyond just the forms.

Pros

• No coding or design skills needed
• Drag and drop editor to customize pages
• 100+ professionally designed templates

Cons

• Templates lack WordPress feel
• Learning curve with extensive options

SeedProd offers an advanced option for complete customization. It may be overkill if forms are your only focus.

Step 3: Managing Registered Users

Once open registration is enabled, you gain access to the full User management menu in WordPress:

This menu allows you to:

• View all user accounts
• Edit profile details
• Change roles and permissions
• Reset passwords
• Ban or delete accounts

Some key points for managing your registered users:

• Check new registrations daily for spam accounts. Delete suspicious users and use a reCAPTCHA as precaution.
• Reset passwords frequently for compromised accounts.
• Be very careful when assigning increased permissions through roles like Author or Editor.
• Use a plugin like User Role Editor for advanced user management and permission controls.

With the power to manage user accounts comes responsibility. Use your best judgment to nurture a thriving community.

Now let‘s go over some pro tips and best practices for getting the most out of user registration.

Pro Tips for Maximizing User Registrations

Here are some expert tips for driving registrations, creating premium experiences for users, and managing your new community:

Increase Conversions with Benefits

Clearly communicate the exclusive perks and premium content available to registered members. For example:

• Display notification banners for members-only content.
• Create benefit-focused landing pages highlighting offers for registered users. A page builder like SeedProd is great for this.
• Add "Registration required" popups on premium content.
• Show registration forms directly on relevant posts using a popup plugin.

The more you showcase the value of registration, the more signups you‘ll get.

Craft Registration Emails to Deliver Value

Sending a well-designed welcome email when users register is crucial. Be sure to:

• Thank new members for joining
• Share links to exclusive content
• Introduce yourself and the community
• Ask for feedback on what they want to see

Further nurture relationships with regular "member update" emails highlighting new features, content, and site changes.

Send targeted emails based on member interests for higher engagement. Tools like Mailchimp make this easy.

Moderate New Users

Manually approve all new registrations to prevent spam signups. This takes more effort but is worth it.

I recommend the User Registration Approval plugin to automate approval workflows.

Only approve real users, then delete any spam accounts that slip through. Limiting spam reduces moderation overhead later.

Segment and Incentivize

Split registered members into separate email lists by attributes like:

• Date joined
• Number of comments
• Content interests
• Whether they converted from subscribers

Then target each segment with tailored content and offers.

For example, send new registrants an onboarding series. Or reward loyal commenters with access to a private discussion group.

Get creative with incentives to increase engagement!

Continuously Optimize Registration

A/B test your registration forms, landing pages, incentives, and emails to incrementally improve conversions.

Try variations like:

• Long vs short form
• Different fields
• Single vs multi-step
• Coupon code vs content unlocked

Small changes can often boost registrations significantly. Measure results with Google Analytics goals.

Developing Custom Registration Functionality

For developers, WordPress offers many hooks to customize registration behavior programmatically.

For example, here is code to redirect newly registered users to an onboarding page instead of the default wp-login.php:

function custom_registration_redirect() {
  global $wp;
  if ( isset( $wp->query_vars[‘register‘] ) ) {
    wp_redirect( ‘https://www.yourdomain.com/onboarding/‘ );
    exit;
  }
}

add_action( ‘login_form_register‘, ‘custom_registration_redirect‘ );

You can also hook into registration approval actions:

function approve_user( $user_id ) {

  // Approve user programatically

  wp_update_user( array( ‘ID‘ => $user_id, ‘role‘ => ‘subscriber‘ ) );

}

add_action(‘register_new_user‘, ‘approve_user‘);

See the WordPress codex for details on all available user registration hooks.

FAQ about User Registration

Here are answers to some common questions when enabling user registration:

Does allowing registration slow down my site?

Generally not. Efficiently coded themes and plugins have minimal impact. But lots of spam bots could potentially slow things down. Use reCAPTCHA and moderation to prevent that.

Can I moderate new registrations?

Yes, you can manually or automatically approve new users with plugins like User Registration Approval. Requiring approval is a good idea to limit spam.

What permissions do new users get?

By default, users are assigned the role you select during registration setup, typically Subscriber or Customer. See the Roles and Capabilities section of WordPress Codex for details.

How do I limit spam signups?

Use reCAPTCHA on registration forms. Moderate and manually approve users. Block user emails from known spam domains. Limit registration attempts per IP.

Can I require admin approval for all new users?

Yes, leave the "Anyone can register" box unchecked in your general settings. This will force all users to be approved by an admin first.

How can I customize the registration process?

Use a form builder plugin like WPForms to add custom fields, design, logic, and integrations. For developers, WordPress has many hooks to customize registration behavior.

Conclusion

Allowing visitors to create user accounts on your WordPress site can provide many benefits. You can build a community, collect user data, offer exclusive content, and more.

But it also introduces moderation responsibility. Follow the tips in this guide to maximize legitimate registrations while limiting spam accounts.

The most important steps are:

• Enable registration in your general settings
• Funnel users to register using popups and landing pages
• Create custom registration and login forms to match your branding
• Moderate new users carefully to avoid spam
• Continuously optimize your registration process for higher conversions

What questions do you still have about allowing user registration on your WordPress site? Let me know in the comments!