Here at emagine, we know a thing or two about WordPress. So believe us when we say, nothing ruins a killer B2B website like assigning the wrong user role for your various internal users.

While the idea of assigning specific roles for internal organization users may seem standard to some, many businesses fail to adequately define their users roles for a streamline collaboration process. So with your new B2B website up and ready for new traffic, we’ve defined the various roles that you can assign users to ensure your website is ready to handle the influx of new content and updates.

What are User Roles?

According to codex, Roles are designed to give the site owner the ability to control what users can and cannot do within the site. A site owner can manage the user access to such tasks as writing and editing posts, creating Pages, defining links, creating categories, moderating comments, managing plugins, managing themes, and managing other users, by assigning a specific role to each of the users.

TL;DR: Roles define that specific user’s responsibilities within the site.

Defining WordPress User Roles

  • Administrator: the CEO of your B2B website. When a user is assigned ‘admin’, they are assigned full access to a single site, including: adding and deleting pages, content, plugins, categories, links, as well as assigning user roles. Because admins are the only users who can add or remove users, It is best to only assign ONE admin who can be trusted to not delete any valuable information from your B2B website or assign users with the improper role.
  • Editor: the VP. An editor can manage and publish anyone’s post or page, including his or her own. They have executive decision on whether or not the updates or posts made by other authors or contributors are ready to go live.
  • Author: the manager. The author of your site is responsible for assigning tasks (updates or new posts) to your site to be submitted to the editor. They have full access to their own work and can oversee work from other contributors.
  • Contributor: the associates. Contributors are just that, they contribute to your site whether internally or from an outside source. This function is particularly important for outside writers as they are only allowed to log in to do the work assigned to them and submit to the editor to publish. Contributors do have access to moderating comments, but only on their unique work.
  • Subscriber: the intern. Subscribers only have the ability to log into your B2B website and change the appearance of their dashboard. They cannot make any changes or updates to your site, other than the color scheme of their dashboard.

And there you have it! Now all you need a unique email address for each user and you are ready to assign roles in your WordPress website!