How to Change the Permalinks Structure on WordPress Posts
I recently encountered a problem that made me wish I had known about the dangers of having dates as part of the permalinks structure in WordPress. What happened is I wanted to republish my old posts, some of which date back to 2017. One way of doing this is through the use of a plugin. Now, there are several of these available for WordPress. The plugin simply changes the publish date for the posts to the current date. So, how do you change the permalinks structure on WordPress posts? First, a brief background;
My permalink structure included a date
The problem, in my case, was that my permalink structure already had a date. What that meant is that any republished article would have a different date in the permalink and another one set as the publication date. As a result of this conflict, the plugin that I had chosen, the WP Auto Republish told me immediately after installation that I needed to disable the plugin.
Now, I am normally a calm guy, but the entire thing really frustrated me. It had never occurred to me that the permalinks structure in my blog posts would present problems at some point in time. Anyway, here is how to change the permalink structure on WordPress posts.
- Head over to your WordPress Dashboard
- Hover your cursor on “Settings,” and choose “Permalinks.”
- Choose a new permalink structure.
What happens to posts that already have the old permalinks structure?
That is the big question. What happens when you change your Permalinks in WordPress? Yoast gives a warning that doing so may negatively impact on your SEO. The plugin does however claim the ability to create auto redirect posts. In any case, changing the structure of your permalinks is not something that you should do lightly. What do you think? Don’t hesitate to leave a comment below. You can also submit guest posts if you are interested in writing for us.