It is quite surprising that there is no duplicate or clone function for pages or posts in the WordPress Core installation. I feel that this is a key feature that should be included.

If you are looking for a way to clone your pages and posts, I have a solution that worked perfectly for me and I am sure that it will do the same for you.

Introducing to you Duplicate Post. This plugin is simply a lifesaver to say the least. It saved me hours on end of page duplication and I cannot be any happier. So without any further delay, let us get into the serious business of how to duplicate a page in WordPress.

 

How to Duplicate a page in WordPress

There are a bunch of reasons for wanting to clone a page or a post. One of the most common reasons is that you would want your readers to have a feeling of a pre-configured website. One where the format is the same. You might be an experienced website builder but trust me, having to do the exact same configuration for all the pages you intend to have will wear you down so fast.

The following steps will save you from the agonizing pain of “manually” duplicating the same actions.

  • Login to your WordPress site and on the dashboard locate Plugins and click on Add New.
  • A new interface will load and a search box will appear. In the search box enter Duplicate Post and hit the Search Plugins
  • Find duplicate post plugin and click the Install Now button and confirm the installation. After installation, activate the plugin by selecting ‘Activate Plugin’. To change or review the plugin settings, click the settings link under the plugin page.

Under settings you can view the various features of this spectacular plugin. Some of the features include a section that allows you to select the people who are allowed to copy. You can choose which boxes to select among the administrator, editor, author or contributor.

Another useful option is copying posts or page status which simply means that you can clone the original post status (draft, published, pending) when cloning from the post list.

Copying excerpts is also allowed as well as copying attachments and copying children which means you can copy the children from the original post/page.

You can also limit the taxonomies and fields you do not want to copy. After you are done with your customizations in the settings, save the changes.

  •  Now go back to your dashboard and click on Pages -> All Pages and find the specific page you wish to duplicate or clone. After you find that page, I’d like to draw your attention to the various options available for your page. If you look keenly you will notice that there two new page options: Clone and New Draft. Before we installed Duplicate Post, these options were not available.

Those two additions are the two ways of duplicating a page or a post.

New draft

With the new draft option, new duplicate of the page or the post will be opened in another screen. Once the new screen is opened up, you will be able to view and work with the advanced layout tools just as you had it configured in the original.

Every other plugin and their settings will be the same as the original.

Clone

Using this method is different, not too much though. When you click on Clone, the page or post you intend on duplicating will be copied without opening the editing screen.

So, the only difference between the two posts is that while clone duplicates the intended page, it will not open up the editing screen for you.

 

Considerations

While it can be extremely a time saver to clone content, you might want to be a bit cautious when doing it. Forgetting to get rid of the cloned content from your new page or post might cause serious issues that may get your site penalized by search engines.

To be safe, always, make sure that you do not have numerous duplicate content.

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