Our last discussion on tools to help simplify the WordPress backend
Introduction
At our January meeting, as we did during the December meeting, we continued our discussion on a couple of tools we can use to simplify the management and use of our WordPress website. We took a look at one plugin – Yoast Duplicate Post – and a brief look at a multi-site management service from GoDaddy called The Hub.
Our “Topics from the Trenches” segment looked at a couple of in-meeting questions from participants. I really enjoy this segment to address questions that come up in real-time. It seems that topics can tangent off into all kinds of WordPress-related areas.
Announcements in February:
- WordPress 5.9 was released at the end of January. We reviewed the block-theme enabled capability and looked briefly at full site editing (FSE) using default theme TwentyTwentyTwo. WP Tavern offers a nice review. If you don’t change your current theme now, most new features will not impact you. Most new features will rely upon using a Block Theme.
- Where to learn more about WordPress 5.9 Are you looking for more resources to learn about WordPress 5.9? Check out these resources: Workshops (video-on-demand), Courses (self-paced), Lesson Plans.
- WordPress Photo Gallery – The project now has a team together to start moving the project forward. Check out the link to see how the approved free photos grow. The WordPress Photo Directory is both a new curated source of free, high-quality photographs and a new submission tool for Openverse, powered by the WordPress community. Without it, you’d need to use Flickr, Wikimedia Commons, or other sources to submit your work to Openverse.
Topics from the Trenches
Anyone, anyone?
We didn’t have anything come in beforehand. Next month?
The Tools For Backend – continued from last month
4. Post Duplication plugin (https://wordpress.org/plugins/duplicate-post/)
Working on your website generally involves a lot of repetitive work. It might be in the form of creating new blog posts, making another page, adding new items to your menu or your e-commerce shop. Most of the time the new thingy requires the same basic settings and configurations, with only a few tweaks to make it new and fresh.
A duplication tool would speed this up considerably. I have used a plugin for years to perform this function. Previously named Duplicate Post developed by Enrico Battocchi, it was acquired by Yoast (the SEO people) back in June 2020 and rebranded as Yoast Duplicate Post. Yoast has since added a few new features to the plugin, but making a copy of an existing post or page for the purposes of creating new content – it’s great.
Using Yoast Duplicate Post allows you to copy a page including things like the featured image, metadata, and any SEO optimizations you’ve done. You can also copy the categories or tags. You can do the same with WooCommerce products, LearnDash courses, custom post types like menu items or recipes.
Why use the Yoast Duplicate Post plugin?
- As a way to quickly convert existing sales pages for new products
- To make backups of all-important posts and pages
- Speed up the process of making posts that look very much alike
- Expand your event listings by copying an existing template
Two modes: Clone or New Draft
The Yoast Duplicate Post plugin adds two simple links to your post overview: Clone and New Draft. Simply click the Clone button to make a copy of that specific post or page. Click the New Draft link to copy that post or page and open it in the editor right away. You can also do this straight from the admin bar in the post editor or from the post settings itself — look for the Copy to a new draft link.
Rewrite & Republish feature
Rewriting a post has always been quite a struggle in WordPress. But not anymore! Keep your content manageable with the brand-new Rewrite & Republish feature. It allows you to seamlessly edit your content within WordPress, without taking it offline. Updating your content has never been easier!
This video does a great job covering the Rewrite & Republish feature.
5.The Hub by GoDaddy Pro
You can add sites hosted both on GoDaddy and other hosts/servers, log in with your credentials, and manage important aspects of your sites all in one place.
Here’s a look at 2 sites I’ve added to a new hub account that is setup on my Gmail address. These two sites are not hosted with GoDaddy. One is on Siteground and one is on WP Engine.
The Hub allows you to bulk update plugins, set up and perform periodic security and performance checks, set up alerts for any performance or security-related issues, and even allows you to back up your sites. The Hub also lets you log in directly to the site dashboards if you need to.
If you have more than 1 site that you regularly modify, add content, update, The Hub, from GoDaddy is an excellent option to consider.
We had a good 3 month run on these tools. Next month we go in a new direction. Hope to see you then.
Resources & Links Referenced
Source Post: Simplify WordPress Backend from GoDaddy’s Garage
Notes & Questions
N.B. I DID remember to record the session. Here is the YouTube video.
Featured Image Photo Credit – https://aamplugin.com/
