Have you ever tried scheduling a content update in WordPress? If you did, then you likely discovered that there is no easy way to schedule changes to a published post or page. In this article, we will show you how to easily schedule content updates in WordPress and improve your editorial workflow.
Why Schedule Updates for Posts and Pages in WordPress?
By default, WordPress allows you to schedule posts to be published at a specific time. However, you cannot schedule content updates for a post or page that is already published.
Many bloggers and website owners frequently make changes to their old blog posts, so they can keep their article up to date by adding new information.
Business websites may want to make scheduled changes to appear at a certain time. For example, when you are running a sales event or limited time promotional offer.
Normally, you will have to make changes at the exact time you want them to appear. Your changes become live as soon you hit the update button. Some site owners save their changes as a draft and then copy / paste them at the right time.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you can schedule your content updates just like you would schedule new posts and pages?
Let’s take a look at how to easily schedule content updates in WordPress to improve your workflow and keep your old content fresh.
Scheduling Content Updates in WordPress
The first thing you need to do is install and activate the Tao Schedule Update plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you need to visit Posts » All Posts page in the WordPress admin area. From here you can locate the post where you want to schedule changes and then click on the ‘Scheduled Update’ link.
The plugin will create a draft copy of your original post and open it in the post editor. You can now make changes to your post.
Once you are done editing, click on the date and time next to the ‘Publish’ option.
This will show the date and time settings. You need to enter the date and time when you want your changes to go live and then click on the ‘Schedule’ button at the top right corner of the screen.
Your changes will now be scheduled and will be published automatically at the date and time you entered.
Scheduling Content Updates in Classic Editor
If you are using the older classic editor, then you will see a new meta box in the right column labeled ‘Scheduled Update’
From here you can select the date and time and when you want to publish the changes. After that, you can schedule your changes by clicking the ‘Save’ button under the publish meta box.
Viewing and Managing Scheduled Post Updates
You can manage your scheduled post updates from the Posts » All Posts screen. All scheduled updates will be highlighted with their set release date.
From here you can delete or modify a scheduled update without affecting your original post. You can also immediately publish an update by clicking on the ‘Publish now’ link.
We hope this article helped you learn how to properly schedule content updates in WordPress. You may also want to see our tips on growing your website on a shoestring budget.
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Hello. Do you know if it’s possible to change the homepage automatically on a monthly basis? I have a gardening website and when visitors come, each month I would like the first page they see to be ‘tasks for October’, ‘tasks for November’, etc. Do you know how to achieve this? Thank you.
We do not have a recommended method for automating that change at the moment. You would normally want to create pages for what you’re wanting and manually change which one is the home page when you are ready.
Hello!
The TAO plugin mentioned has not been updated in a year / hasn’t been tested with the latest 3 major releases of WordPress.
Do you have any suggestions for a more regularly maintained plugin?
Thanks!
Thank you for letting us know, while we don’t have a specific recommendation at the moment, we will be sure to keep an eye out for a replacement should the plugin no longer work.
Is there a plugin or workaround that will allow you to schedule posts to publish more than once? For example, a monthly promotion that needs to appear on the 3rd of the month every month? It seems like an obvious need, but I can’t find one anywhere.
I use Republish Old Posts plugin which works great, except that old posts are published at random intervals, you can’t schedule them.
Tks.
Rex
For what it sounds like you’re wanting, you may want to move the content to a page that isn’t linked on your site and then link to it when the deal should be active using a plugin like OptinMonster instead of having it on a specific republished post.
Hi, do you know if this works with sites created with Elementor pro?
Unless I hear otherwise, we don’t know of specific conflicts but you can reach out to the plugin’s support for if there are any conflicts
Hello. This plugin seems awesome, but is there a way to update an existing post without changing the date? I just want to schedule changes on a specific date without having the original date changed.
You would want to reach out to the plugin’s support for if that is an option.
I’m finding that TAO Scheduled Update is really buggy under Gutenberg 5.0+. I have used this regularly without incident, but following the same steps to clone a new page works sometimes, and not others. I’m searching for another plugin!
Hi Broc,
In our testing, we were unable to find any issues with the plugin.
Is the Tao plug-in stable? Your post implies it works well, but it hasn’t been updated in 4+ months. Should I be concerned?
Hi Jim,
We tested the plugin and it works well. You can safely install it
This is good info, and a cool tool to have; especially for those of us who maintain sites such as churches or charities with recurring events.
A question not addressed in the article: What about SEO considerations regarding an updated article or event? Should the SEO be tweaked to reflect the update?
Hey Lynwood,
If the content has significantly changed then sure you can do that, but otherwise its safe to use your existing SEO settings for the article.