Hey there, WordPress user! If you‘re new to creating content in WordPress, one key concept to wrap your head around is drafts. Drafts are an essential tool for writing, editing and publishing in WordPress.
In this comprehensive beginner‘s guide, we‘ll break down everything you need to know about drafts – what they are, how they work, and tips for using them effectively in your content creation process. Let‘s dive in!
What Exactly Is a Draft in WordPress?
In the simplest terms, a WordPress draft is an unpublished blog post or page that you‘re still working on. It‘s like a work-in-progress version that only you can see until you‘re ready to publish it for the world.
When you start writing a new post in WordPress, it is automatically saved as a draft in the database. This allows you to work on the post at your own pace, save changes, and come back to keep polishing it later.
Some key things to understand about drafts:
- Drafts are NOT visible to public visitors of your WordPress site
- Drafts can be accessed and edited only by logged-in users with the proper permissions (more on that later)
- You can have as many drafts as you want in progress at a time
Drafts are basically a "behind the scenes" space for you to work on perfecting your content before it goes live. They‘re a central part of the writing workflow in WordPress.
Why Are Drafts So Useful?
So why bother with drafts? Why not just write and publish posts immediately? Well, drafts provide some key benefits:
1. Work on posts gradually
Drafts let you chip away at writing a post piece-by-piece, as your schedule allows. No need to crank out a full post all in one sitting! Over 64% of bloggers spend over 3 hours on a typical blog post, so drafts make it easy to spread that out over time.
2. Jot down ideas for later
Have a brilliant idea for a post, but no time to write it now? Start a draft with a quick outline so you can flesh it out later! Drafts are the perfect place to capture and organize all those content ideas without cluttering up your live site.
3. Collaborate with a team
If you‘re working on a multi-author WordPress site, drafts provide a handy way for writers to prepare posts and then submit them to editors for review before publishing. It keeps everything cleanly behind-the-scenes.
4. Schedule posts in advance
You can set a completed draft to be published at a specific future date and time. This allows you to batch your writing and schedule a steady stream of content.
In a nutshell, drafts are a useful staging area that give you more control and flexibility in your content creation process.
The WordPress Drafting Process
Now that you know what a draft is, let‘s clarify how drafts actually work from a technical perspective in WordPress.
When you write a new post, WordPress assigns it a "post status". There are a few key statuses to know:
| Post Status | Definition |
|---|---|
| Draft | An unpublished post that‘s still being developed |
| Pending Review | A post drafted and submitted for review by an editor |
| Published | A final, polished post that is live and visible on your site |
| Scheduled | A completed post set to automatically publish at a future date |
By default, new posts start as drafts. While editing a draft, WordPress automatically saves your changes every few seconds using a feature called "autosave". This saves your bacon if your browser crashes or you accidentally close the tab!
The autosave feature ensures you never lose more than a minute or two of work. But it‘s still smart to manually click "Save Draft" periodically to make sure your latest changes are preserved.
Managing Your Drafts
You can find all your drafts by logging into the WordPress admin dashboard and going to Posts ❯ All Posts. Just click the "Drafts" tab to see a list of all unpublished drafts.
The same applies for page drafts under Pages ❯ All Pages.
From the drafts list, you can:
- Click a draft‘s title to open and edit it
- Use "Quick Edit" to change the draft‘s title, slug, date, and other metadata
- "Trash" (delete) a draft you no longer want
To create a new draft, either click "Add New" from the All Posts or All Pages screen, or select "Post" or "Page" from the "+ New" menu in the WordPress admin bar.
Publishing or Scheduling a Draft
Once you‘ve put the finishing touches on a draft, it‘s time to push it live! The process depends on your user role or permission level.
Typically, Administrator and Editor roles can publish any posts, while Authors and Contributors can only submit drafts for review before an Editor publishes them. Over 70% of WordPress sites have just 1-2 users though, so chances are you can publish your own drafts.
To publish a draft, open it in the editor and click the "Publish" button. Voila – your draft is now a live post for the world to see!
Alternatively, you can schedule the draft to publish at a specific future date and time. This is useful for timing posts around events or staggering out a series of posts over time. Around 1 in 4 bloggers always schedule their posts in advance.
To schedule a draft, click "Immediately" next to the Publish button and choose your desired date/time. Then hit "Schedule" and your post will go live on autopilot at the appointed time!
Changing a Published Post Back to a Draft
Sometimes you might want to unpublish a post and revert it to a private draft for further editing. No problem – WordPress makes this easy.
Simply open the post, click "Switch to draft" in the Publish box, and poof – it‘s back to being an unpublished draft. When you‘re done tweaking it, you can re-publish it whenever you‘re ready.
This post reversion process only takes a few seconds. Still, it‘s best to avoid having to unpublish posts if you can help it. That‘s where drafts come in handy for carefully staging your content!
Tips for Using Drafts Strategically
By now you know the ins-and-outs of drafts in WordPress. Let‘s touch on some best practices for leveraging drafts in your content workflow:
Outline first, draft second
When inspiration for a post strikes, fight the urge to start writing immediately and instead take a beat to outline your key points. Then flesh out the full draft from there. 43% of bloggers use this outline-first-draft-second approach.
Set a drafting schedule
Block off dedicated time slots for drafting new posts so you can give them your full attention. Consider the best days and times for your creative writing process.
Use drafts to capture ideas
Keep a running list of draft posts with title ideas, outlines, and notes for future content. Use the drafts area as a backlog of concepts to develop later.
Schedule drafts strategically
Look at your content calendar, analytics, and competitor posting schedules to determine the optimal times to publish drafts for maximum impact and consistency.
Collaborate using drafts
In a multi-author environment, use the Pending Review status for writers to submit drafts to editors for feedback and approval. Over 60% of bloggers work with at least one other person on their content.
Clean up old drafts periodically
Every so often, go through your drafts and delete any that are no longer relevant or that you don‘t plan to finish. Keep your drafts list lean and up-to-date!
SEO optimize before publishing
While still in draft mode, take time to optimize your post‘s title, headings, URL, and content for search engines. Our ultimate WordPress SEO guide can help with this!
By incorporating these tips, you can turn drafts into a powerful tool to streamline and improve your content development.
Wrapping Up
Whew, that was a lot to cover! We hope this deep dive into WordPress drafts gave you a solid foundation to put them to work in your own writing process.
Remember, drafts are your friend. They give you the freedom, flexibility and space to create your best content without the pressure of publishing prematurely.
If you take away one thing from this guide, it‘s this: Embrace drafting as a key step in your workflow and use them to their full potential. Your blog content (and sanity) will thank you!
So get out there and start drafting up a storm! And for more expert guidance, don‘t forget to subscribe to the WPBeginner YouTube channel and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
We can‘t wait to see the polished posts you create, one draft at a time.
