How to Duplicate Pages and Posts in WordPress
There are many reasons why you might have to use plugins to duplicate pages and posts in WordPress.
For instance, when redesigning your website, you want to maintain consistency in your design layout. An easy way to achieve that is by duplicating your pages rather than building them up from scratch.
Another typical example is if you run an eCommerce site. To save time and minimize layout problems, it’s best you duplicate your product pages.
Thankfully, you can easily clone posts and pages in WordPress. And you can do so without compromising the safety and integrity of your website.
In this article, we will show you how to use plugins for duplicating posts and pages in WordPress. If you prefer to do so manually, we’ve also got you covered.
Content:
- Reasons to clone or duplicate posts and pages in WordPress
- How to duplicate with plugins
- Other plugins for duplicating
- How to duplicate posts manually
- Conclusion
Reasons to Clone or Duplicate Posts and Pages in WordPress
We briefly listed out reasons why you might want to clone your pages and posts in WordPress. Now, we will elaborate more on them.
Reason 1: Editing a page on a live site
You might find yourself needing to make edits to a page on your live WordPress website. At such times, you have two options:
- Editing the live page directly. This method is pretty risky – you might end up breaking your site. Even if you don’t break your site, the live changes could confuse your audience.
- Duplicating the page, making all needed edits to the duplicate, and then replacing the original page with the duplicate. If you go this route, the chances of breaking things is greatly minimized.
To duplicate a post or page in WordPress, you can either use a plugin or do so manually. There are quite a number of duplicate post plugins you can use for this task. We will be looking at a few shortly.
Reason 2: Creating multiple, similar products in WooCommerce
If you run an e-commerce store, you might find yourself creating several product pages with a similar design and layout. This can become extremely tedious, especially if you have a large product collection.
To save time and energy and improve efficiency, simply create a page that will serve as a template. Then duplicate it as many times as the number of products you have.
Reason 3: Maintaining design structure across pages
Let’s say your website has become old and outdated, and you find yourself needing to redesign it. During the redesign process, you will want your pages and posts to maintain the same design across.
To achieve this, you have the option of manually copying and pasting the contents into your new site. But this would be tedious. Worse, when you copy the content of a post, the media files and SEO data will be left out.
The best way to go about this is by creating an original version, and then duplicating it as many times as you wish. And in turn, making tweaks across the duplicates.
How to Duplicate Pages and Posts in WordPress with a Plugin
Using a plugin is the easiest way to duplicate a WordPress post. For this demo, we will be using the Duplicate Post plugin. Of course, there are many more you could use, and we will be discussing them later on.
Step One
So, the first thing you have to do is to install and activate the plugin. We explained in detail how to do that in this article. After you must have installed the plugin, proceed to step two.
Step Two
With the plugin installed and activated, you can now proceed to duplicate page or post on your WordPress website.
To duplicate a page, navigate to Pages >> All Pages.
Hover over the page you would like to duplicate. Beneath it, you will see a series of links. Among these links are Clone and New Draft.
If you wish to just duplicate the page without needing to edit it, click Clone. Bear in mind that if the original post is live – that is, has been published – the duplicate will also go live.
One the other hand, clicking New Draft will duplicate the page, and then open it in editor mode. That is to say, you will get to first edit the duplicated page before publishing it.
So basically, that’s how you duplicate pages in WordPress with this plugin. To duplicate a post, follow the same steps, but this time navigate to Posts >> All Posts.
Customizing the Duplicate Post Plugin
There are still tons of things you can do with this plugin when properly customized.
To customize the plugin, you first need to open its settings by navigating to Settings >> Duplicate Post.
Upon click, you will see three tabs, namely What to Copy, Permissions and Display
The What to Copy section is where you get to choose what to copy from the original post to the duplicate post.
If you would like the date, status, slug etc. of the original post to be copied to the duplicate, simply tick their checkboxes.
You can also uncheck items you don’t want to copy over.
In the Permissions section is where you get to permit user roles. That is, where you select which user has the permission to duplicate a post.
By default, only the Administrator and Editor have the power to duplicate post or page. But you can extend this responsibility to the Author and Contributor.
Also, if your WordPress site supports custom post types, in the Permission section, you can enable this feature on your duplicated post. Just ensure that Posts and Pages are checked.
Finally, in the Display section, you can select where you want the clone and new draft links to appear.
By default, they show only in the Post list, but you can make them show in other places like Admin bar, Edit screen, etc.
When you are done customizing, scroll down and click Save Changes.
Other Plugins for Duplicating Posts and Pages
Duplicate Post plugin isn’t the only plugin that can get the job done, there is a slew of others. Let’s look at a few.
Duplicate Page
At first, what you might think is that this plugin can only duplicate pages in WordPress. However, it duplicates pages as well as posts at a single click of the button.
It works in the same way as Duplicate Post. Just hover over a post or a page, the duplicate options will appear beneath it.
Post Duplicator
The coolest thing about this plugin is that it supports custom post types in all WordPress themes. That is to say, regardless of the theme you use after you install WordPress, custom type feature will work.
What’s more, the plugin was specially designed for WordPress users looking to easily duplicate pages and posts. So, if you need something incredibly easy to use, Post Duplicator might be it.
Duplicate Page and Post
If you have several pages to duplicate in a short period of time, you need a plugin that can get the job done, fast. This is where Duplicate page and post comes into play – it is super-fast.
Aside from being fast, the plugin also supports custom post types.
WooCommerce
You might be wondering what an e-commerce plugin is doing amidst page and post duplicator plugins.
Well, the thing is, WooCommerce has a product page duplicator feature. With it, you can clone a product page as many times as you wish. If you so desire, you can then tweak the duplicates to your taste.
So, if you run an online store on WooCommerce, you don’t have to install a duplicator plugin.
How to Duplicate Posts Manually
WordPress Gutenberg has the option of duplicating a post just at the click of a button.
However, due to its limitation, it’s recommended you use a plugin rather than manual duplication.
But if you would still like to proceed manually, here’s how to.
Step 1
Log into your WordPress dashboard, navigate to Posts >> All Posts.
Step 2
In the post list, select the post you would like to duplicate and open it. With the post opened, click on the three-dot icon at the top right corner.
Upon click, locate Copy All Content option, and click on it.
Doing this will copy all content of the post, including images and other media inserted into it.
Step 3
Create a new post by navigating to Posts >> New Posts. Then paste the content you had copied earlier. With that, you have a brand new duplicated post.
Conclusion
Duplicating posts and pages is a great way to save time when working on a WordPress web design project.
If you manage several websites for a client, for instance, you will better appreciate what duplicator plugins can do.
We showed you five different duplicator plugins that work pretty well. And they are all free.
Do bear in mind that these plugins may not work if the pages you want to duplicate were created with page builders like Divi, Elementor, etc. Some page builders give you the option of duplicated designed pages. It’s best you use them rather than duplicator plugins.
WordPress Gutenberg gives you the option of duplicating your pages manually, and we showed you how to go about it in this article.
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