Do you need to regenerate your WordPress permalinks? find out in this WordPress tutorial
If you can't see your website content, neither can your visitors. Broken links and 404 errors can hurt the user experience and your position in SEO rankings.
In this article, we will show you how to fix these broken URLs by regenerating your permalinks in WordPress. We'll also talk about what causes this error, and how to spot broken links, before your visitors notice them.
Why do I need to regenerate permalinks in WordPress?
Most of the time, your WordPress site URLs are permanent and won't cause any problems. They just work.
However, sometimes you can click on a link and get a erreur 404. You might even get a 404 error when trying to access your entire WordPress website.
This sometimes happens after migrating your WordPress site to a new host or server. This could also happen after installing a new WordPress Plugin. Indeed, some WordPress plugins modify the f.htaccess file of your website without your knowledge. This can affect your site in a number of ways, including damaging your URLs.
Please note:: For this tutorial, you need to be able to log in to the WordPress dashboard.
Often, regenerating your permalinks can be a quick and easy solution to these issues. Let's see how to do this.
How to Regenerate Your Permalinks in WordPress
When you regenerate your links, you rebuild and repair the WordPress permalink structure. This may sound complicated, but don't worry. All you need to do is click a button, and WordPress will take care of the rest.
To get started, go to Settings -> Permalinks from your WordPress admin menu.
This will take you to the most common settings page. Here you will see the permalink structure you are currently using.
WordPress supports several options for permalinks. You can consult our guide on how to create custom permalinks in wordpress for step-by-step instructions on how to customize them.
To regenerate your permalinks, simply scroll to the bottom of the page and click the " Save Changes ».
After a few moments, you should see a message confirming that WordPress has updated your permalink structure.
There ! WordPress has regenerated your permalinks.
To make sure it worked, go to your website and try clicking on a few different links.
Do you still see permalink errors after regeneration?
If you are still getting 404 errors, you may need to clear your browser cache. For more details, see our guide to how to clear your website cache.
If that doesn't fix the problem, think about what happened right before you started seeing those 404 messages. If you just installed or updated a plugin, it might have affected your links. You can try disabling this plugin, to see if that removes the 404 error.
If that doesn't work, you can try disabling all plugins to see if that fixes your broken links.
This is a bit of a drastic step, so it's a good idea to first put your site in maintenance mode. This will keep visitors informed while you test your plugins, giving a better impression than seeing a broken website.
If disabling all of your plugins fixes the problem, you'll know that at least one plugin is affecting your URLs. In this case, re-enable each plugin individually, then test the impact this has on your links.
When the 404 error reappears, you have found the plugin causing the problem. You can then remove this plugin from your website or ask the developer for help.
Your website should now be error-free and working properly. Otherwise, see our list of Most Common WordPress Errors and How to Fix Them.
How to Track and Avoid Broken Permalinks in WordPress
Broken links are bad news for visitors, conversions, and your search engine rankings. Over time, dead URLs can impact where you appear in search engine rankings. This means less traffic to your website.
With so much at stake, you'll need to quickly get to grips with broken links.
The easiest way to track and fix broken links on your WordPress website is to use the WordPress Plugin All in One SEO (AIOSEO). Over 3 million website owners use AIOSEO, including us here at BlogPasCher.
AIOSEO makes it easy for you to find broken links and fix them in just a few clicks using their powerful redirect manager.
Other recommended resources
We also invite you to consult the resources below to go further in the grip and control of your website and blog.
- How to Use Multiple WordPress Themes on One Website
- How to Display YouTube Videos in WordPress
- How to create a multi-step or multi-page form
- How to Display a PDF on Your WordPress Blog
- Using different backgrounds WordPress
- How to manage the URLs of the images of your WordPress blog
Conclusion
There ! That's it for this tutorial. We hope this article helped you learn how to regenerate your permalinks in WordPress.
However, you will also be able to consult our resources, if you need more elements to carry out your projects of creation of Internet sites, by consulting our guide on the WordPress blog creation.
But, in the meantime, don't forget to leave us your Comments and suggestions in the dedicated section.
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