How to Replace Text Across All Elementor Pages (Without Manual Edits)
Imagine you’ve just completed a major rebranding of your website. Your company name has changed, your brand colors are different, and your call-to-action (CTA) text needs a complete refresh. You have 500 pages built with Elementor. Are you going to go through and manually update every single instance of the old information? This is where a strategic approach to bulk find and replace Elementor content becomes a huge time-saver.
If you were to do that, you’d probably spend weeks—or even months—on the task. It’s not just tedious; it’s a huge waste of time and highly prone to error. You could easily miss a single link or an outdated piece of text, leaving inconsistencies that damage your brand’s credibility and search engine optimization (SEO).
Fortunately, there’s a much better way. While Elementor’s core functionality is fantastic for single-page edits, it doesn’t offer a native way to perform a global find-and-replace operation. This is where a specialized plugin comes in. This guide will walk you through the process of how to bulk find and replace Elementor content, saving you countless hours of work.
What Makes Elementor’s Data Unique?
Before we dive into the steps, it’s important to understand why this process requires a specific tool. Unlike a standard WordPress post that stores text in a single field, Elementor saves its page data in a serialized format within your database. This data structure, while powerful for building complex layouts, makes it difficult to use a basic search-and-replace plugin.
A generic database search-and-replace tool, like Better Search Replace, can work for some simple text, but it’s not always reliable for Elementor’s unique data. Using a plugin built specifically for Elementor ensures that the serialization remains intact and your pages don’t get corrupted.
This tutorial focuses on a highly-rated and effective plugin: Search & Replace for Elementor. It’s the most reliable option for safely performing global updates.
Bulk Find and Replace Elementor: The Step-by-Step Guide
Follow these steps to safely and efficiently replace content across your entire Elementor website.
Step 1: Back up Your Website (Crucial!)
This is the most important step in the entire process. Any time you make changes directly to your database, there is a risk of something going wrong. A full backup is your safety net. If anything breaks, you can easily restore your site to its previous state.
There are many great WordPress backup plugins available, such as UpdraftPlus or Duplicator. Choose one, perform a full backup of your files and database, and download it to your local computer before moving on. Do not skip this step!
Step 2: Install the Search & Replace for Elementor Plugin
From your WordPress dashboard, navigate to Plugins > Add New. In the search bar, type “Search & Replace for Elementor.” Once you find it, click Install Now and then Activate.
This plugin has both a free and a pro version. While the free version allows you to search and replace on a single page, the bulk functionality we need is part of the premium version. The time and frustration it saves you make it well worth the investment.
Step 3: Access the Bulk Find and Replace Elementor Tool
Once the plugin is activated and you have a valid license key entered, you can access its features. In your WordPress dashboard, go to Elementor > Search & Replace. This will open the plugin’s user interface.
The plugin is designed to be intuitive and safe. You will be presented with a clean interface with a few key options.
Step 4: Configure Your Search Parameters
This is where you define what you want to replace. The plugin gives you several options to fine-tune your search.
- Search for: Enter the text, URL, or image file name you want to find. For example, if you’re replacing old links, paste the exact URL here. If you are updating a product name, type the old name exactly as it appears on your site.
- Replace with: Enter the new text, URL, or image file name that will replace the old one.
- Search method: Select the type of content you are replacing. Your options are:
- Text-only: Ideal for replacing words or phrases within text widgets.
- Links (URLs): Perfect for updating internal or external links, such as affiliate links or page URLs.
- Images: Use this to change image file names or locations across your site.
For our purpose of updating links, you would select the Links (URLs) method. This ensures that the plugin specifically targets the “url” data field within Elementor widgets like buttons, images, and text links.
Step 5: Run a Dry Run (Highly Recommended)
Before you hit the big “Replace” button, the plugin offers a “Dry run” mode. This is a critical feature that allows you to see exactly what will be changed without actually making any modifications to your database.
With “Dry run” mode enabled, click the Search button. The plugin will then scan your site and show you a list of all the pages and widgets where a match was found. You can review this list to ensure that the plugin is finding what you expect and that you’re not about to make any unintended changes.
Reviewing the results of the dry run is a great way to double-check for any potential mistakes in your search query. For example, you might realize you had a typo, or that the plugin is finding a match in a place you didn’t expect.
Step 6: Execute the Bulk Find and Replace Elementor Operation
Once you have confirmed that the dry run results are correct, it’s time to perform the actual replacement.
Go back to the plugin’s settings and disable the “Dry run” option. Then, click the Replace button. The plugin will now go through your database and make all the changes you previewed.
Depending on the size of your website and the number of changes, this process may take a few seconds or a few minutes. A progress bar will show you the status. Once it’s complete, you will receive a success message.
Step 7: Clear Your Caches and Verify the Changes
After the replacement is finished, you need to clear your site’s cache. This includes your WordPress caching plugin (like WP Rocket or LiteSpeed Cache) and your browser’s cache. If you use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) like Cloudflare, be sure to clear its cache as well.
Clearing the cache ensures that you’re seeing the most up-to-date version of your website and not a cached version with the old content.
Finally, visit a few of the pages that were affected to visually confirm that the changes were made correctly. Test the new links or check the updated text to make sure everything looks as it should.
By following this process, you can manage your Elementor site with confidence and perform large-scale updates without the fear of manual errors or data corruption.
Conclusion
Bulk find and replace Elementor is a powerful feature that can save you countless hours. While the free version of the Search & Replace for Elementor plugin is a great start, the full power of the tool is unlocked with the PRO version. With PRO, you can bulk replace across templates, sections, and widgets, making sitewide updates faster and more efficient than ever before. It’s the ultimate solution for any serious Elementor user looking to streamline their workflow and maintain a clean, updated website.