How To Clone A WordPress Post Or Page

How To Clone A Post Or Page In WordPress

This tutorial shows you how to clone posts and pages in WordPress.

We also recommend completing the tutorials below, as these will help you gain a better understanding of this topic:

Why Clone Posts or Pages?

By default, an “out of the box” WordPress installation doesn’t provide a simple way to clone (i.e. duplicate) posts or pages. You have to manually copy everything over – content, post or page settings, etc. This can be time-consuming.

WordPress table of posts
WordPress doesn’t provide a simple way to copy, clone, or duplicate posts and pages.

Being able to easily duplicate a post or page from your website can save you time.

For example, if you want to create multiple posts with similar content where all that needs change are just a few details (e.g. dates, locations, product names, etc.), then instead of creating a new post from scratch and manually copying over content from a previous post, you can simply:

  1. Clone an existing post,
  2. Quickly make changes to your duplicated content and/or page options,
  3. Publish and you’re done!

Cloning posts, pages, and custom post types (e.g. special pages for products, testimonials, galleries, portfolios, FAQs, etc.) in WordPress can be useful if you plan to publish content on your site that uses a similar content template, split long posts into multiple pages, or run an eCommerce store.

With an eCommerce store, for example, most product pages tend to be ‘templatized’ (i.e. use a similar layout and content structure).

Instead of recreating the same content layout for every new product you add to your store, you can simply clone or duplicate an existing product page and then quickly change things like the product name, SKU number, price, product description, product image, etc.

For this reason, most modern eCommerce themes come with a built-in functionality to duplicate product pages.

A Product page with Duplicate menu link highlighted.
Many WordPress eCommerce themes let you easily duplicate product pages.

The easiest way to duplicate a post or page in WordPress is to use a cloning plugin.

Info

There are several plugins available for cloning posts, pages, custom types, widgets, and even entire sites in WordPress. Many of these plugins are free and some offer free editions with premium upgrades, giving you access to support and additional features.

For example, here are just some of the free plugins you can use to clone your posts or pages in WordPress:

For this tutorial, we’ll use the first plugin from the above list, but you can research and test any of the plugins listed above and use the one that you’re most happy with.

Yoast Duplicate Post

Yoast Duplicate Post
Yoast Duplicate Post

Yoast Duplicate Post gives you the option to clone a post or page or edit it as a new draft. This plugin copies the entire content of your post or page and their settings and fields.

For more details about this plugin, go here: Yoast Duplicate Post

How To Install The Plugin

You can install this plugin manually or directly from your WordPress admin area.

To install the plugin directly from your site’s admin area, log into your WordPress site and select Plugins > Add New from the main dashboard menu.

WordPress Plugins menu - Add New
Select Plugins – Add New

This brings up the Add Plugins screen.

WordPress - Add Plugins screen.
Add Plugins screen.

This section of your site lets you search for, upload, install, and activate plugins directly.

Type in a search term into the ‘Keyword’ field (e.g. “clone posts“).

WordPress - Add Plugins screen: search feature
Search for cloning plugins in the Keyword search feature.

Locate the Yoast Duplicate Post plugin in the results section and click the ‘Install Now’ button.

Plugin screen - Install Now button.
Click Install Now.

Next, activate the plugin.

Plugin screen - Activate button.
Click Activate.

After installing and activating the plugin, the next step is to configure its settings.

In the main menu, click on Plugins > Installed Plugins. This will bring you to the Plugins screen. Locate the Yoast Duplicate Post plugin.

Plugins Screen - Yoast Duplicate Post.
Plugins Screen – Yoast Duplicate Post activated.

Click on the ‘Settings’ link below the plugin’s name to configure its settings.

WordPress Plugins screen - Yoast Duplicate Post - Settings link.
Click on Settings.

Note: You can also get to the plugin’s settings anytime by selecting Settings > Duplicate Post from your main admin menu.

Settings Menu - Duplicate Post.
Settings Menu – Duplicate Post.

This plugin offers many configurable options, including the ability to select which post or page elements to copy, adding prefixes or suffixes to post/page titles, specifying its menu order, disabling certain post/page elements from being cloned, setting user role permissions (i.e. what type of user can clone your posts or pages), and display settings.

You can use the default plugin settings or go through these options if you want. If you make any changes, remember to click the ‘Save Changes’ button to update your settings.

Yoast Duplicate Post settings screen.
Yoast Duplicate Post settings screen.

The next time you go into your Posts or Pages screen, you will see links allowing you to clone your posts or pages or create a new post/page draft.

Clicking ‘Clone’ duplicates your post or page without opening it, while clicking ‘New Draft’ will copy the post or page and open it for you in the Post/Page Edit screen so you start working on it right away.

Yoast Duplicate Post plugin - Clone and New Draft links
Your posts and pages now display the new Clone and New Draft links.

Clicking the ‘Clone’ link will duplicate your post or page but it won’t publish it. Instead, your cloned post or page will be saved as a draft.

WordPress Table of Posts showing cloned and original posts.
Your original and cloned posts.

Tip

Cloning affects your post or page slug.

Unless you have configured the plugin’s settings to change the title of your post or page, when you clone a post or page, a number (e.g. ‘2’) will be added to the end of its slug.

This is done to avoid having duplicate post or page URLs on your site, which WordPress does not allow.

Edit Post - Permalink of cloned post.
Edit your clone post or page slug.

Unless your plan is to clone a post or page to split the content into multiple sections, consider editing its URL by changing the post or page slug.

Congratulations! Now you know how to easily clone posts and pages in WordPress.

Clone a post or page in WordPress.
Clone a post in WordPress.

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Updated: April 8th, 2023

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