Introduction
If you are writing blog articles frequently, you may find over time that they start to become old and no longer relevant. It is good practice to do some housekeeping by removing these articles from your website.
This guide will explain how you can go about this. Use the anchor links below to jump to the relevant section:
How to unpublish or delete an article
How to unpublish or delete multiple articles
Retrieving articles that have been ‘deleted’
Get in touch
How to unpublish or delete an article
For cases where you would like to remove a sinlgle article, the process of deletion is quite straightforward. There are two main definitions to removing articles: unpublishing or deleting. It is worth explaining the differences between the two.
- deleting – this will place the article in the ‘bin’ section for the articles, removing it from your website. Think of it like placing files in the recycle bin of your PC. If you simply want to remove it, click this option.
- unpublishing – if you wish to keep the article but not have it showing on your website, you can unpublish it instead. Theew is an option for ‘drafts’, but this will unpublish the article and remove it from your website. Note: the article still exists and will be visible on your website if you happened to be logged in as admin, but not for your regular clients or visitors. If you want to keep it for reference or to potentially republish again in future, click this option.
In terms of actioning either unpublishing or deleting your articles, there are a couple of ways to do this.
1 – From All Posts section
Login and click the Posts, displaying a table overview of all your posts.
Should you wish to remove any article, find the relevant article from the list and hover over it. Some options appear when you do:
- to delete – click the option for ‘bin’, which will be in red. You do not need to save as the process is done and updated automatically. The article will be removed from the main blog page.
- to unpublish – click the option for ‘quick edit’. In the options shown, toggle ‘status’ to ‘draft’ and click update. This will unpublish the article, removing from the main blog page but only you will still see it if you are logged in.
2 – From the individual article page
Alternatively, you can delete or unpublish when you are on the individual article page. From the listing, find the article and hover over it and click the option for ‘edit’. This will take you to the article’s page, which is the same area where you initally starting writing and publishing the article.
- to delete – click the option for ‘move to bin’, which will be in red. You do not need to save, the process is done and updated automatically.
- to unpublish – click the option for ‘status’. In the options shown, toggle to ‘drafts’ and click update. This will unpublish the article, removing from the main blog page but only you will still see it if you are logged in.
How to unpublish or delete multiple articles
Should you wish to remove multiple articles at once, the suitible way to do this is to click the Posts, again displaying a table overview of all your posts.
You will see a checkbox next to each articvle listing. Click any checkbox for articles you wish to unpublish or delete.Once done, at the top of the table there will be a drop-down for ‘bulk actions’. This allows you to perform actions in bulk.
Then you can toggle the options as follows:
- to delete – Select all articles, then click in the ‘bulk actions’ drop-down. Select ‘move to bin’ and click the ‘apply’ button next to it. You do not need to save, the process is done and updated automatically.
- to unpublish – Select all articles, then click in the ‘bulk actions’ drop-down. Select ‘edit’ and click the ‘apply’ button next to it. A bulk edit menu will appear. In the ‘status’ field select ‘drafts’ as your option then click update. Articles will be unpublished and unavailable to visitors but will remain in the system
Retrieving articles that have been ‘deleted’
As stated above, if you chose to delete an article, while it is removed from the blog page it actually is sitll in the system. Any deleted articles are placed into a bin, akin to the recycle bin on computers.
To access this, go to Posts. At the top there should be a link for ‘Bin’. The number next to it denotes how many are in the bin. Click on it to access.
Note: if you currently have no articles in the bin [as in you’ve not previously deleted any], the bin link will not appear.
You will see a listing of all posts that are currently in the bin. You get slightly different options but the main ones are:
- delete permanently – if you wish to delete for good, click the option for ‘delete permanently’, which will be in red. You do not need to save, the process is done and updated automatically. Note: this will remove the article for good so be sure you no longer need this before removing.
- restore -if you make a mistake or otherwise change your mind, you can chose to restore instead. Click ‘restore’ option. This will place the article back into All Posts section again.
You can also use the bulk actions function if there are a lot of articles in your bin.
Get in touch
That’s it, all selected articles are now either unpublished or binned. In either case, those articles are removed from your website!
We trust this guide has helped but if you have any questions, please get in touch at: support@practiceweb.co.uk