How to Better Manage WordPress Pages with Nested Pages

We have worked with many WordPress sites that have complex structures, so we understand that many users are looking for a better way to manage and organize their WordPress pages.

It can be frustrating to manage a site with a lot of pages. The default WordPress interface doesn’t allow you to easily reorder your pages, build relationships between them, or sort them.

But we’ve helped over 100,000 users with WordPress, and we are here to teach you how to organize your pages and easily manage complete websites.

In this article, we will show you how to better manage your WordPress pages with Nested Pages.

Why Manage WordPress Pages Using Nested Pages?

When you go to Pages » All Pages in your WordPress dashboard, you will see a list view of all your pages. This is fine if you have just started a website or only have a few pages.

However, as your WordPress website grows and you add more pages over time, it can be challenging to manage them. You won’t be able to easily reorder pages, sort them the way you want, and create parent and child pages.

This is where the Nested Pages plugin comes in handy. It is a free WordPress plugin that comes with a drag-and-drop interface for managing your WordPress page sections.

Nested Pages enhance the quick-edit functionality to make it easy to manage a lot of pages at once. You can simply drag and drop different pages to reorder them.

Aside from these key features, it also automatically generates a native WordPress menu that matches your page structure and allows you to create multiple pages at once. You can also use Nested Pages on any custom post type.

That being said, let’s see how you can use nested pages in WordPress.

How to Use Nested Pages to Manage WordPress Pages

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the Nested Pages plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Once activated, the plugin works out of the box. You can simply go to the Pages screen in your WordPress admin area to see it in action.

To start, you can just drag and drop to reorder pages in your admin panel.

The plugin also allows you to create child pages by simply moving the page below a parent page and then slightly to the right. This will indent it and add an Arrow icon that shows the child page status.

You can also click the 3 dots in front of any page to add a new child page. A dropdown menu will now open where you can simply click the ‘Add Child Page’ option.

A new window will now open, where you can add the details for the child page.

Next, you will need to enter the title of the child page, choose its status, select an author, and pick a template.

Don’t forget to click the ‘Add’ button when you are done.

If you want to add an existing page as a child using this method, simply click the ‘Add Child Link’ from the dropdown instead.

You can then see the child pages under a parent page in the WordPress Pages dashboard.

Unlike many other page management plugins in WordPress, Nested Pages allows you to keep the ‘Quick Edit’ button.

The Quick Edit interface in Nested Pages is cleaner and easier on the eyes than the default WordPress option.

It lets you change the page title, slug, date, author, status, and more without opening the WordPress content editor.

Creating Navigation Menus Using Nested Pages

Many WordPress sites use pages as their main site structure and add them to their navigation menus.

Up until now, this process required multiple steps because you would have to first create the pages, then create a menu, and then add all the pages to that menu and reorder them.

With the Nested Pages plugin, you can simply check the ‘Sync Menu’ checkbox. This will replicate your parent/child page structure in your navigation menus.

You can also control how each page appears in the navigation menus without leaving the Pages screen. Simply click on the ‘Add Link’ button at the top.

You will then see a popup where you can add a custom link to the menu or choose an existing post and page.

For instance, if you select the ‘Custom Link’ option, then you will need to enter a navigation label, URL, title attribute, and more.

Once you are done, simply click the ‘Add’ button.

Adding Multiple Pages At Once Using Nested Pages

Another great feature of Nested Pages is the ability to quickly create multiple new pages at once. This feature is useful if you already know what your page structure will look like.

You can start adding multiple WordPress pages by clicking the ‘Add Multiple’ button at the top.

This will bring up a new popup window, where you can provide a page title, select status, author, and template.

To add more pages, simply click on the ‘+’ icon and repeat the process for all the pages you want to create on your WordPress blog.

When you are done, just click the ‘Add’ button.

Note that the pages you create will be empty, and you will have to edit them individually.

Also, keep in mind that you can’t set parent or child pages from the Multiple Pages popup. You will have to drag and drop pages to set them as child or parent.

Using Nested Pages for Other Post Types

You can use Nested Pages for any default or custom post types in WordPress.

Simply visit Settings » Nested Pages in the WordPress admin and click on the ‘Post Types’ tab.

Next, just select the post types where you want to enable the Nested Pages functionality and then save your changes. You will now be able to set parent/child relationships for those custom post types.

We hope this article helped you learn how to better manage your WordPress pages with Nested Pages. You may also want to see our guide on how to select and use nested blocks in WordPress and our expert picks for the best drag-and-drop WordPress page builder plugins.

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