Why create a new web page from scratch when you can duplicate it? Ok, no one wants a website full of duplicate pages – and Google would seriously downgrade your site for it. But sometimes it can be extremely helpful to quickly duplicate a web page in WordPress, and we’re here to talk about how and why to do it.
Intro to WordPress
WordPress is an open-source Content Management system (CMS) that allows users to manage their website content, including pages and posts. The CMS also includes various blog management features such as the ability to moderate comments, create RSS feeds for individual blogs, and incorporate a dizzying number of custom themes.
Trying to understand all the ins and out of WordPress would be beyond the scope of a simple blog post. All you need to know for now is that WordPress is designed to make your life as a website manager easier, not harder. To that end, WordPress features a huge number of plugins to expand the tools at your disposal.
WordPress is also extremely content-focused. That’s a good thing – after all, millions of blog posts are created on WordPress every month, so it makes perfect sense that WordPress emphasizes content. When you combine that emphasis with a nearly limitless pool of plugins, it’s entirely natural that the first place to look for a tool to duplicate a page is a WP plugin.
Why duplicate a page?
Before we get to the different methods, let’s talk about why. Why duplicate a page? There are at least two good reasons.
- To save it
If you’re about to embark on a redesign of that page or the site as a whole, you might want to save some of your favorite, best-designed pages. Maybe the new look won’t be as popular, or perhaps you want to keep a record of what your website was when it was first created. Duplicating a page allows you to preserve the original layout if you ever want to revert back to it. You’ve also created a default backup, in case something with the new page goes wrong.
- To use as a template
Maybe you like most of the things about a particular page, but you’re not keen on a few aspects. Plus you need to re-write the content, but you want to have a general idea of what the page said before you jump into it.
Or perhaps you’ve established the perfect layout for your web page, and want to use it as the starting point for other pages on your site. Duplicating a page makes that possible.
Whatever the reason, the more you use WordPress, the more likely you are to come across a situation where duplicating a page will save you time and a headache.
How to duplicate a page on WordPress
There are two at least three primary ways to duplicate a page on WordPress.
Use a plugin
There’s more than one plugin designed to make duplicating pages a super-simple task. Most of them have somewhat boring names, but at least they’re straightforward. Duplicate Page, Duplicate Post, Duplicate Page and Post, WP Post Page Clone are several of the available options. They vary slightly in the range of features they offer, but each allows you to duplicate a page on WordPress simply, usually with a click or two.
Use the built-in features of WordPress
Of course, anything you can do with a plugin, you can probably do it manually as well. That’s true with duplicating pages.
When using WordPress, you can find the HTML code editor in the top-right corner. Open it, select the text, copy it, and then paste it all into a new page or post.
The process isn’t much more complicated than using one of the plugins; the only drawbacks are that you’ll have a bit less control over everything that’s copied. Many of the plugins will let you customize the elements you copy, carrying some over and leaving others behind. If you copy the HTML code manually, you’ll move everything over at once.
No matter which method you choose, knowing how to duplicate a page quickly gives you an extra tool for managing your website. Duplicate an entire page to serve as a quick template for a new one, or duplicate a post to use as a starting point for some fresh content.