admin

If you decide you want to change the default permalink in WordPress you might encounter 404 errors getting to your posts and pages. This guide is intended help you though the process.

Select your Permalink style

Select your permalink style from the menu after logging into the wp-admin console. No doubt you already did this and that is what got you to this how-to guide.

Check the .htaccess file

Check that your .htaccess file looks correct

sudo cat /var/www/html/.htaccess

It should look something like the following

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

Enable Modrewrite

Now, we need to activate mod_rewrite.

sudo a2enmod rewrite

Enable the use of .htaccess

By default the apache does not honor the .htaccess file so you will need to modify the apache configuration.

sudo nano /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

look for for the following lines in the file and change

# from
<Directory /var/www/>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride None
        Require all granted
</Directory>

#to
<Directory /var/www/>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride FileInfo
        Require all granted
</Directory>

This will allow apache to use the .htaccess file.

Restart Apache2

restart apache

sudo service apache2 restart

You should be good to go with your new permalink on your site

More Information

More information on setting WordPress with permalinks can be found here.