When maintaining a WordPress website, you might come across scenarios where you need to replicate a page. Page replication speeds up the process of creating new pages, especially when you need the new page to be similar to your existing pages.
WordPress lets you duplicate a page with a few clicks. Not only does it reduce the time taken to make a page live, it also reduces the risks of human errors or losing track of elements within the original page. Learn more about the methods to duplicate a WordPress page now.
What is a Duplicate Page in WordPress?
WordPress lets you duplicate any pages with a click. When you replicate a WordPress page, you will essentially be cloning the original page and working on the clone. WordPress saves any changes made to the clone as a draft until you publish the page.
There are several reasons to duplicate a page. The most common reason is to save the time and effort required to build a page from scratch. However, you can also choose to duplicate a page if you want to keep the page structure, layouts, settings and metadata.
Why Duplicate a Page in WordPress?
When running a blog or an online store, you may need to duplicate a page quickly. The existing page might already have a lot of content that can be reused or extended and save time.
While duplicating a page is very similar to the concept of copying and pasting content, it is much more than it. Replicating a page allows you to retain the WordPress page template, search engine optimization (SEO) settings, custom HTML code, images and other media. Duplicating a page can be helpful for the following reasons.
- Creating a duplicate page in WordPress allows you to revise the page without disrupting the existing live version.
- Previously used layout, template and custom HTML/CSS code make it easier to maintain consistency throughout the website.
- Duplication can improve the productivity and quality of your pages when you want to move a page permanently from one site to another.
Duplication has its set of benefits, but you should exercise it with caution.
Duplicating a page can downgrade your search engine ranking. For example, if you have multiple identical contents on your website, Google and other search engines will consider it redundant content. Ensure that you have deleted all the copied content from the new page to conserve your SEO.
Methods to Duplicate a Page in WordPress
Creating a duplicate of your WordPress page can be effortless and valuable in many circumstances. WordPress offers multiple methods to duplicate a page. You can use WordPress's built-in function or a plugin for duplicating a page. Let's look at how easily and quickly you can copy the WordPress page without affecting the live pages.
Manual Process
Though this process might sound like a struggle, it is pretty simple in practice. This process uses the traditional approach or “brute force” tactic to duplicate a page in WordPress. WordPress site managers use this method only to copy a section of the textual content.
To manually copy and paste the content of the page, follow the steps given below.
Step 1: From the left menu panel on your WordPress administrator dashboard, click on Pages and open the page to copy the content.
Step 2: Copy the content you want to reuse.
Step 3: From the Pages menu, open the page where you want to paste the content.
Step 4: Paste the content into your desired section.
While manually copying and pasting sounds simple to execute, you will not be able to copy image files, metadata, taxonomies, SEO settings or permalink. This method is limited to copying textual contents only. It is also a time-consuming process that is susceptible to human errors. You will need to continuously switch between tabs to ensure everything is in place the way you want.
Duplicating Page Using a WordPress Plugin
Suppose you want a relatively straightforward way to automatically duplicate a WordPress page with all the existing content and settings. You can use one of the several WordPress page duplication plugins.
For this process, you will have to find a plugin that does what you need. Because several plugins let you create a duplicate page or post, find the one that has the feature you need. Consider features like regular updates and access control. You also will need to look for plugins with good reviews and ratings.
Using the WordPress plugin makes it relatively easy to clone your page without changing its content, format and overall look and feel. For most of the plugins, you can follow the steps below.
Step 1: Install and activate the plugin from the WordPress Administrator dashboard.
Step 2: Go to the Pages menu from the menu panel on the left.
Step 3: Click on All pages to view the list of all available pages.
Step 4: Hover your mouse pointer over the page you want to clone and click Duplicate.
Step 5: The cloned page will appear as a new draft. Open the replicated page in the page editor to start working on it.
If you need to duplicate all the pages of the sites or specific types of pages, the WordPress Duplicator plugin will let you replicate the pages in a group of pages together.
Automation
While this process requires a solid technical hold and a bit of coding, it can automate the duplication process and reduce the required effort substantially. We recommend that you use this process only when you need to duplicate the content regularly or carry out batch duplications.
To automate the duplication process, you don't need a 3rd-party plugin. You will have to modify WordPress's core file, functions.php, to add a new function. If you are unsure how to write a PHP function, a basic search can return multiple code examples to copy into your WordPress's functions.php file.
This method offers great flexibility by merely adjusting code to duplicate WordPress pages. Follow the steps below to edit the functions.php file.
Step 1: Log in to your site through the fire transfer protocol (FTP) client and open functions.php file in the themes folder using a code editor.
Step 2: Paste the code snippet that enables page duplication in the file.
Step 3: Save the file to your server.
Step 4: Refresh the WordPress dashboard to see the duplication button when you hover over a page.
While this method is straightforward and efficient, you need to be cautious. Functions.php is a core WordPress file and introducing incorrect code into it can make your website unstable — or worse, crash. If you don't possess sound technical knowledge, refrain from following this step. And, even if you are confident about the change, backup your WordPress site before editing any of the files.
Streamline Your WordPress Experience
Depending on your requirements and knowledge, you can choose one of the duplication methods discussed above. If you need to duplicate a page in WordPress, opt for the manual process.
However, if you want a more robust and automatic solution, we recommend a WordPress plugin. And, if you are comfortable enough to tweak WordPress files, add a duplication code snippet to your functions.php file.
Duplication can save time when done correctly. Always remove duplicated content whenever possible to ensure your search engine ranking is unaffected.
