How to Duplicate a Page in WordPress

Why Duplicate a Page or Post

Learning how to duplicate a page in WordPress saves a surprising amount of time once you know the options. Instead of building the same layout from scratch every time, you copy a page you already like, then change the words and images. The structure, spacing, and design carry over, so you keep a consistent look across the site and skip the fiddly setup work.

There are a handful of everyday reasons people reach for this. Marketing teams clone a landing page that converts well, then swap the offer for a new campaign. Agencies keep a small set of master templates and copy one whenever a client needs another service page. Writers duplicate a post to reuse a proven structure. And anyone about to make big edits often duplicates the original first as a safety copy, so the live version stays untouched until the new one is ready.

Think about a local business with ten service pages that all share the same shape: a hero section, a short intro, a list of benefits, a gallery, a set of frequently asked questions, and a booking form at the bottom. Building that ten times by hand is slow and, worse, it drifts. The third page ends up with slightly different spacing than the first, a heading is a different size, a button is the wrong colour. Duplication fixes both problems at once. You perfect one page, then copy it, so every service page starts from the same tidy baseline and you only change the words that need to change.

The same logic applies to blog posts. If you have a review format, a how-to format, or a case study format that works, cloning the last one gives you the headings, the callout boxes, and the closing call to action already in place. You spend your time writing, not rebuilding scaffolding. Over a year of publishing, that saved setup time adds up to a lot of hours.

WordPress does not ship with a one click Duplicate button in a fresh install, which surprises a lot of people. The good news is there are several reliable ways to get one, from a simple plugin to a short snippet of code, plus a couple of no-plugin tricks that work in a pinch. This guide walks through all of them, explains what actually gets copied, and shows how to avoid the duplicate content mistakes that trip people up. If you would rather have it handled, you can get a free quote and we will set your site up properly.

When duplication is not the right tool

It is worth naming the cases where copying a page is the wrong move, because reaching for it out of habit can create work rather than save it. If you want a section that stays identical across many pages and updates everywhere at once, a synced pattern is better than a duplicate, since duplicates drift apart the moment you edit one. If you are about to overhaul a live page heavily and test risky changes, a staging copy of the whole site is safer than a duplicate page sitting in your admin. And if the real goal is a repeatable content type, like services or team members, a custom post type with a template does the job more cleanly than copying a page each time. Duplication shines when you want a one time head start on a new, independent page. For anything that needs to stay in sync or scale to dozens of entries, one of those other tools fits better.

What Gets Copied and What Does Not

Before you pick a method, it helps to know what "duplicate" really means, because the answer changes depending on how you do it. A clone is only useful if it brings across the parts you care about, and it can cause problems if it brings across parts you forgot about.

Most duplication methods copy the content and layout: the blocks, text, images used in the layout, columns, headings, and the overall design of the page. The better plugins also copy the page settings, such as the template, the featured image, the excerpt, the parent page, and often the SEO title and meta description from your SEO plugin. That last part matters, because a copied SEO title is almost never what you want on the new page.

What usually does not carry over, and should not, is the URL. WordPress will not let two published pages share the same web address, so a duplicate gets a new slug, commonly the old one with a number added. Comments are generally not copied. Publish status is a choice: most plugins create the copy as a draft so it does not go live by accident, which is the behaviour you want.

Custom fields are the part people forget. If your pages use a plugin like Advanced Custom Fields to store extra data, such as a subtitle, a price band, or a set of gallery images, whether those fields come across depends entirely on the method. The good duplication plugins copy them; a plain copy of the blocks does not. If your site leans on custom fields, test a duplicate carefully and confirm the extra data made the trip before you rely on the method for real work.

Keep this picture in mind as you read the methods below. When something goes wrong with a duplicate, it is almost always because one of these pieces behaved differently than expected, such as a copied SEO title left in place, a missing featured image, custom fields that did not come across, or a page published while it still had the old draft content. None of these are hard to fix once you know to look for them, and the habit of checking the copy before you publish catches nearly all of them.

Preview the copy before you rely on it

Whatever method you use, get into the habit of previewing the duplicate before you treat it as done. Open the copy, click the preview link, and look at it the way a visitor would. It is the fastest way to spot the small things that go wrong: an image that did not carry over and now shows a broken frame, a button still pointing at the original page, a heading that lost its styling, or a stray bit of the old content you meant to change. Catching these in preview takes seconds. Catching them after the page is live, when a customer or a colleague points them out, is far less comfortable. A quick preview turns duplication from a slightly risky shortcut into a dependable part of your workflow.

Method 1: Duplicate With a Plugin

For most people, a plugin is the simplest and safest way to duplicate pages and posts. It adds a Duplicate or Clone link right where you need it, and it copies the settings the no-plugin methods tend to miss. If you clone pages regularly, this is the method to set up once and forget.

Popular options

Several well maintained plugins do this job. Yoast Duplicate Post is one of the most widely used and also lets you clone a post into a draft to rewrite and then merge back. Duplicate Page and Duplicate Page and Post are lightweight choices focused purely on cloning. Any of these is fine; pick one that is actively maintained and well reviewed, and avoid installing more than one, since they overlap.

Step by step

1. In the WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins, Add New, search for your chosen duplicate plugin, then install and activate it.
2. Go to Pages, All Pages (or Posts, All Posts). Hover over the item you want to copy.
3. In the row of links that appears under the title, click Duplicate or Clone. Some plugins also add New Draft, which creates the copy and opens it straight away.
4. A new draft appears at the top of the list with the same title. Open it, rename it, change the URL slug, and edit the content.
5. Clear the copied SEO title and meta description so the new page gets its own, then publish when ready.

Settings worth checking

Most of these plugins have a settings screen, usually under Settings or under a menu the plugin adds, where you can control what gets copied and how. It is worth two minutes to set these once so the behaviour matches how you work:

• What to copy. Toggle whether the title, content, excerpt, featured image, template, custom fields, and taxonomy terms come across. If you always rewrite the title, you might turn that off so the copy starts blank.
• Copy status. Keep new copies as drafts. Publishing on clone is asking for an accidental live page.
• Suffix or prefix. Many plugins add a word like "Copy" to the cloned title so you can spot duplicates in the list at a glance. Handy while you work, easy to remove before publishing.
• Who can duplicate. You can often limit the feature to certain roles, so editors can clone but authors cannot, which keeps a large team tidy.
• Where the link shows. Choose whether the Duplicate link appears in the list of pages, inside the editor, or both.

One more tip: the Yoast option to clone into a "New Draft" and later "Rewrite and Republish" is genuinely useful for editing a live page safely. You clone the live page to a draft, make your changes at your own pace, and when you hit republish it copies your edits back onto the original, keeping the same URL and the same published date. That is a clean way to overhaul an important page without it being half finished in public. If you build a lot of similar pages, pair this with a good template setup, which we cover in our guide on how to create a landing page in WordPress.

How to test a duplicate before you trust it

The first time you use any duplication method on a particular site, treat it as a small experiment rather than a finished job. Duplicate a page, then open the copy and walk through a short checklist: is the layout intact, did the featured image come across, are the custom fields present, and did the SEO title get copied when it should not have. Doing this once tells you exactly what your chosen method carries over on your specific setup, which varies with the plugins and theme you run. After that first check you can duplicate with confidence, because you know precisely what to fix on each copy and what is already handled for you.

This matters most on sites that use custom fields or a page builder, where a method that looks fine at a glance can quietly drop important data. Five minutes spent confirming the behaviour once saves you from publishing a page later that is missing a price, a subtitle, or a gallery you assumed had been copied. It is the kind of small habit that separates a smooth workflow from an occasional embarrassing slip.

Method 2: Copy Blocks in the Block Editor

If you only need to duplicate a page once in a while, you do not have to install anything. The block editor (Gutenberg) can copy the whole content of a page and paste it into a new one. It takes a few more clicks, but it keeps your plugin list short.

Copy every block

1. Open the page you want to copy in the editor.
2. Click the Options menu, the three vertical dots in the top right corner.
3. Choose Copy all blocks. This copies the entire content to your clipboard.
4. Create a new page with Pages, Add New, click into the empty content area, and paste with Ctrl and V, or Command and V on a Mac.
5. Give the new page a title and slug, then edit and publish.

This copies the content and layout faithfully, which is usually all you need. What it does not copy is the page level settings: the template, featured image, and SEO fields do not come across, so you set those on the new page yourself. For a straight content copy, that is often fine and even preferable, since you start with clean settings.

Reusable and synced patterns

If you find yourself pasting the same section into many pages, a pattern is a better tool than duplication. Select the blocks, open the options menu, and choose Create pattern. A synced pattern updates everywhere at once when you edit it, which is perfect for a shared call to action or footer block. An unsynced pattern drops in a copy you can then edit freely, which behaves more like duplication. Patterns keep repeated sections consistent without cloning whole pages.

Here is how the two approaches divide up in practice. If you want the exact same block of content in twenty places and you want to change all twenty by editing once, use a synced pattern. If you want a starting point that you will then customise differently on each page, use an unsynced pattern or duplicate the page. Many sites use both: synced patterns for the parts that must stay identical, like a promotional banner or a set of trust badges, and full page duplication for pages that share a skeleton but hold different content.

Copy a single block or a group

You do not have to copy a whole page. Hover over any block, click its own three dot toolbar, and choose Copy, or select several blocks and copy them together. Then paste into another page. This is the quickest way to lift one nicely built section, such as a pricing table or a testimonial row, out of an existing page and drop it into a new one without cloning everything around it. Combined with patterns, block copying covers most of the reuse people actually need day to day.

Method 3: Duplicate in a Page Builder

If your site is built with a page builder such as Elementor or Divi, you have duplication tools built into the builder, and they are usually the best fit because they understand the builder's own structure.

Elementor

Elementor gives you two easy routes. From the Pages list, some setups show a duplicate link like any other. Inside the editor, you can save a whole design as a template: click the arrow next to the green update button and choose Save as Template, give it a name, then create a new page, open Elementor, click the folder icon, and insert your saved template. You can also right click any section, column, or widget and choose Copy, then Paste it into another page open in Elementor, even across pages.

Divi

Divi has a similar approach through the Divi Library. In the Divi Builder, save a layout to the library, then load it into a new page. Within a page you can clone any section, row, or module with the copy icon that appears on hover. Divi also lets you copy and paste between pages, so you can lift a section from one design and drop it into another.

The advantage of the builder's own tools is that they preserve the builder data correctly, including responsive settings and custom styling that a generic copy might mangle. If you try to copy a builder page with the plain block editor, you often get a single shortcode or a broken block instead of the real design, because the layout lives in the builder's own data, not in standard WordPress blocks. That is the main reason to always duplicate builder pages with the builder, or with a duplication plugin that understands them, rather than with copy all blocks.

One habit that pays off on builder sites is keeping a small library of your best sections. In Elementor that is the Templates area; in Divi it is the Divi Library. Save a clean hero, a well spaced pricing table, a tidy contact section, and a footer, then assemble new pages by dropping these in. It is faster than duplicating a whole page and then deleting the parts you do not want, and it keeps every page drawing from the same approved building blocks. If you are choosing a builder or comparing the editor options, our guides on the best WordPress page builders and Elementor versus Gutenberg go deeper.

Method 4: Manual Copy and Paste

The lowest tech method is exactly what it sounds like: open the original, select the content, copy it, and paste it into a new page. It always works, needs no plugin, and anyone can do it, which makes it a fine choice for a one off.

The catch is that copying rendered content by selecting text on the front end often loses formatting, block structure, and images, leaving you to rebuild parts by hand. That is why the block editor's Copy all blocks option in Method 2 is almost always better than a raw text selection, because it preserves the actual block markup rather than just the visible text.

If you do go fully manual, work inside the editor rather than the live page, paste into the code view if you know your way around it, and check every image and button afterward, since these are what break most often. For anything you will do more than once, one of the earlier methods will save you the cleanup.

Duplicating to a different WordPress site

Every method above copies a page within one site. Moving a page to a separate WordPress site is a slightly different job, because the two sites do not share a database or a media library. You have a few options. The quickest for a single page is the block editor's Copy all blocks: copy on the source site, paste on the destination, then re upload any images, since the pasted blocks point at the old site's image URLs. For a cleaner move, use the built in exporter under Tools, Export, choose Pages, download the file, and import it on the other site with Tools, Import, which brings the content and pulls in the images too. On builder sites, export the layout as a template file from Elementor or Divi and import it on the destination. Whichever route you take, always check images, internal links, and forms on the new site, because those are the parts most likely to still point back at the original.

Duplicating a WooCommerce product

If you run a shop, you may want to copy a product rather than a page, and WooCommerce has this built in, no extra plugin required. Go to Products, All Products, hover over the product you want, and click the Duplicate link that WooCommerce adds to the row. It creates a draft copy with the same price, description, images, categories, and attributes, which you then adjust and publish. This is a real time saver when you sell many similar items that differ only in a colour, size, or model number. The same duplicate content care applies: give each product its own unique title and description rather than leaving twenty near identical copies, both for shoppers and for search.

Method 5: Add a Duplicate Link With Code

If you would rather not add a plugin and you are comfortable with a little code, you can add your own Duplicate link with a snippet. This is the same idea the plugins use, just done by hand. Put it in a child theme functions.php file or, better, a small site specific plugin, so a theme update never wipes it out.

Here is a compact version that adds a Duplicate link to your posts and pages and creates a draft copy when clicked:

function wpd_duplicate_post_link($actions, $post) {
    if (current_user_can('edit_posts')) {
        $url = wp_nonce_url('admin.php?action=wpd_duplicate&post=' . $post->ID, 'wpd_dup_' . $post->ID);
        $actions['duplicate'] = '<a href="' . $url . '">Duplicate</a>';
    }
    return $actions;
}
add_filter('post_row_actions', 'wpd_duplicate_post_link', 10, 2);
add_filter('page_row_actions', 'wpd_duplicate_post_link', 10, 2);

function wpd_duplicate_post() {
    if (empty($_GET['post'])) wp_die('No post to duplicate.');
    $id = absint($_GET['post']);
    check_admin_referer('wpd_dup_' . $id);
    $p = get_post($id);
    $new = wp_insert_post(array(
        'post_title'   => $p->post_title,
        'post_content' => $p->post_content,
        'post_status'  => 'draft',
        'post_type'    => $p->post_type,
    ));
    wp_safe_redirect(admin_url('post.php?action=edit&post=' . $new));
    exit;
}
add_action('admin_action_wpd_duplicate', 'wpd_duplicate_post');

This is deliberately simple. It copies the title, content, and type into a new draft, then opens it for editing. Production plugins do more, such as copying custom fields, the featured image, and taxonomy terms, and they add security and settings. If you need those, either extend the snippet or use a maintained plugin. Test any code on a staging copy first, and never paste code you do not understand into a live site.

Which Method Should You Use

All five methods produce a copy, but they suit different situations. The table below sums up the trade offs so you can pick quickly.

A simple rule: if you clone pages often, install a duplicate plugin and be done with it. If it is a rare task, copy all blocks. If you live in a page builder, use its own tools. Reach for code only if you have a specific reason to avoid plugins.

It also helps to think about who will be doing the duplicating. If it is just you and you are comfortable in the editor, the block copy method keeps things lean. If a non technical team member needs to create pages without help, a duplicate plugin gives them a clear, labelled button and far less room to make a mess. Matching the method to the person is as important as matching it to the task, because the easiest tool is the one that actually gets used correctly every time.

A note on speed and clutter

One quiet cost of heavy duplication is clutter. Every draft copy you create and forget sits in your Pages list, and over months these pile up into a confusing mess where nobody is sure which page is the real one. Whatever method you choose, build in a habit of cleaning up: delete the working copies you no longer need, and give the ones you keep clear titles so the live version is obvious. A tidy Pages list is not just neatness for its own sake, it prevents the genuine mistake of editing or linking to an old duplicate by accident. If your admin already has a graveyard of half finished clones, an afternoon of tidying pays off every time someone opens the page list after that.

Avoid Duplicate Content Problems

Duplicating a page is handy, but publishing two near identical pages can confuse search engines and split your ranking signals between them. This is the one part of duplication people most often get wrong, so it is worth a moment of care.

The problems usually come from three things. First, a copied SEO title and meta description: if two pages share the same title tag, they compete for the same searches. Change the new page's SEO fields before it goes live. Second, identical body content on a public URL: if the duplicate is only ever meant as a working draft, keep it as a draft, or set it to no index until it has its own unique content. Third, a leftover copy you forgot to delete or finish, sitting published and thin. Tidy these up.

Good practice is straightforward. Give every published page a unique title, unique meta description, unique URL slug, and enough of its own content that it earns its place. If you are duplicating a page purely to redesign it and then replace the original, plan the switch: publish the new version, then either redirect the old URL to the new one or update the new page to use the old slug. Our guide on how to set up redirects in WordPress covers doing that cleanly so you keep the rankings the old page earned. You can also read Google's own overview of handling duplicate URLs.

One more nuance worth understanding: search engines do not punish you simply for having a draft copy sitting in your admin area. A draft is not public, so it is not indexed and cannot cause a problem. The trouble only starts when a duplicate becomes a live, crawlable URL with the same content and title as another live page. So the safe workflow is to do all your duplicating and editing in draft, and only publish once the new page is genuinely its own thing. If you must publish a near copy temporarily, set it to no index in your SEO plugin until it is finished, then remove that once it has unique content. Handled this way, duplication is a productivity tool with no SEO downside at all.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

A few recurring mistakes turn a quick duplicate into a headache. Watch for these.

• Publishing the copy by accident. Always confirm the duplicate is a draft while you work on it. Publishing a half edited clone, still showing the old content, is the classic slip.
• Leaving the old SEO title in place. As above, this creates two pages fighting for the same search term. Update it every time.
• Forgetting internal links. If the original had links pointing to a specific offer or section, the copy still points there. Update links so the new page sends people to the right places.
• Copying a page with a form and not repointing it. A duplicated contact or booking form may still send submissions to the wrong place or record entries under the wrong label. Check the form settings on the copy. Our guide on adding a contact form explains where those settings live.
• Piling up plugins. You only need one duplication plugin. Running several overlapping ones adds weight and possible conflicts for no benefit.
• Cloning the whole site when you meant one page. Duplicating a page is not the same as cloning an entire site for staging. If you actually want a full copy to test on, that is a staging site, which is a different tool.

When to Bring in a Developer

Duplicating a page is something most site owners can do themselves in a few minutes, and this guide should get you there. But if you find your team constantly rebuilding the same pages, fighting inconsistent layouts, or nervous about breaking the site every time someone copies something, that is a sign the site's structure could be doing more of the work for you.

We build WordPress sites with proper templates, patterns, and reusable blocks, so creating a new page is fast, consistent, and safe for non technical staff. We can also add a tailored duplication setup, custom post types for repeated content like services or locations, and clean internal linking so new pages help your SEO instead of hurting it. If you want a site that is easy to grow, take a look at our custom WordPress development work and our services.

A common story we hear goes like this. A business starts with a handful of pages, the site grows to fifty, and now every new page is a small act of archaeology, digging through old pages to find one worth copying and hoping it was built cleanly. The fix is not more discipline from the team, it is a better foundation: a set of proper page templates, a pattern library for shared sections, and custom fields for the repeated bits, so a new service page is a matter of filling in a short form rather than rebuilding a layout. That kind of structure pays for itself quickly on any site that publishes regularly.

It also protects you from the quiet risks that come with heavy duplication, such as forms that submit to the wrong inbox, tracking that was copied and now double counts, and SEO tags left pointing at the wrong page. When the structure is right, those mistakes become much harder to make, because the correct settings live in the template rather than being copied by hand each time.

Ready to talk it through? You can get a free quote or book a free consultation, tell us what you are trying to build, and we will give you honest advice with no obligation. Sometimes the answer is a single plugin, and we will happily tell you so. Other times a small amount of setup work saves hours every month, and we can handle that for you.