Duplicating pages and content

Copy a page, post, component, layout or form so you can change it without touching the original.

Duplicating makes a copy of something you have already built so you can change it without touching the original. It is the quickest way to make a second page that looks like the first, or to try a redesign safely. This page covers what can be duplicated, what the copy is called, and what does not come along with it.

What you can duplicate

  • Pages: from the page list, or several at once
  • Blog posts: from the post list, or several at once
  • Components: from the component list, or several at once
  • Layouts
  • Forms

Error pages, global code and the blog design templates cannot be duplicated. There is only ever one of each, so a copy would have nowhere to live.

Making a copy

Open Pages (or Posts, Components, Forms) and find the item you want. Each row has an actions menu with a Duplicate option, and the icon is two stacked sheets of paper. Click it and the copy appears in the list straight away.

To copy several at once, tick the checkboxes next to the items you want and use the Duplicate action in the bar that appears at the top of the list. BrightSite tells you how many were copied.

What the copy is called

The copy takes the original's name with (Copy) added to the end, so "Pricing" becomes "Pricing (Copy)". If a page called "Pricing (Copy)" already exists, the next one is "Pricing (Copy 1)", then "Pricing (Copy 2)", and so on, so you never end up with two items sharing a name.

Pages and posts also get a new web address, derived from the original's and made unique the same way. Rename both the title and the address before you publish. Visitors should never see "(Copy)" in your navigation or in a link.

The copy starts unpublished

A duplicated page or post is always a draft, however the original was set. It is not on your live site and nobody can reach it until you publish it yourself.

Components, layouts and forms have no published state of their own. They appear on your site through the pages that use them. A copy is not attached to any page, so it does nothing until you add it to one.

Either way the copy starts clean: the original's saved-but-unpublished edits are not carried across as pending changes. The copy simply matches what the original looked like, with nothing outstanding.

This is what makes duplicating a good way to experiment. Copy a page, rework the copy however you like, and the version your visitors see carries on untouched the whole time.

What does not carry over

Most things do come across: the design, the content, the settings, the styling, and the thumbnail preview. A few deliberately do not:

  • Home page status. If you duplicate your home page, the copy is an ordinary page. Your site keeps exactly one home page.
  • Default layout status. If you duplicate the layout your site falls back to, the copy is an ordinary layout. You still have exactly one default.
  • Publication date. A copied page or post has none, because it has never been published.
  • Form submissions. Duplicating a form copies the form itself, and the copy starts at zero entries. The messages people already sent stay with the original form only.
  • Analytics and version history. A copy is a new item. It starts with no traffic recorded against it and no history behind it, and the original keeps its own.

Last updated September 8, 2026