Goal: lock a whole category archive behind one password.
Steps
- Go to Password Protected → Passwords.
- Label — e.g. “Members articles”
- Scope — choose the taxonomy, listed as Categories, Tags, or any custom taxonomy on your site
- Scope ID — search for and select the term
- Enter a Password, set Status to Active
- Click Add password
What this protects
The category archive page — the listing at /category/members/. Individual posts within the category are not automatically protected.
To protect the posts as well, either protect each post individually, or use global protection for the whole site.
WooCommerce behaves differently. A product category password does protect every product inside it. See Workflow 9.