Recently, one of our readers asked if it was possible to change the custom post type permalink structure in WordPress. By default, you can change the permalink structure of WordPress posts, but not custom post types. In this article, we will show you how to change custom post type permalinks in WordPress.
Why Change Custom Post Type Permalinks in WordPress?
WordPress uses SEO friendly URL structure which makes your WordPress URLs readable and search engine friendly. These SEO friendly URLs are called permalinks.
You can customize permalinks by visiting Settings » Permalinks page. However, you will notice that you can only change permalink structure for blog posts.
If you are using custom post types or custom taxonomies on your website, then WordPress will use default permalink structure for those.
For example, if you have a custom post type called ‘Movies’, then its URL structure will look like this:
http://example.com/movies/the-force-awakens/
If your custom post type has archives enabled, then the archive page URL will look like this:
http://example.com/movies/
This URL scheme is quite SEO friendly and in most cases you don’t need to change it. However, sometimes you may want to customize it to meet your own needs.
Having said that, let’s see how you can easily customize custom post type permalink structure in WordPress.
Changing Custom Post Type Permalinks in WordPress
First thing you need to do is install and activate the Custom Post Type Permalinks plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you need to visit Settings » Permalinks page and scroll down to ‘Permalink Settings for Custom Post Types’ section.
Here you can change the permalink structure of single items in your custom post type.
You can use all the standard WordPress permalink tags. For a complete list of available tags, see our article on using SEO friendly URL structure in WordPress.
Let’s assume that you want to use post ID instead of post name in the URL. In that case all you need to do is add this tag:
/%post_id%/
Notice the trailing slashes at the beginning and end of the tag. These trailing slashes are the separators, and without them your permalinks will not work.
Don’t forget to click on the save changes button to store your settings.
Now the permalinks for a single item in your custom post type will look like this:
http://example.com/movies/133/
The number in the URL will be the numeric ID of the post in your WordPress database.
Let’s take a look at another example.
Let’s say you want to add /year/ before the post name in URL. In that case, you will use these tags:
/%year%/%post_name%/
Click on the save changes button to update your permalinks.
Now the single item permalink for your custom post type will look like this:
http://example.com/movies/2016/the-force-awakens/
So far so good. Now let’s try another example.
Let’s assume that you are using a custom taxonomy called ‘genre’ with your custom post type ‘movies’ and you want to add the custom taxonomy term into the URL. In that case, you will use these tags:
/%genre%/%post_name%/
In this example, genre is the slug of our custom taxonomy.
Click on the save changes button to update your permalinks.
Now the single item permalink for your custom post type will look like this:
http://example.com/movies/sci-fi/the-force-awakens/
That’s all, we hope this article helped you learn how to easily change custom post type permalinks in WordPress. You may also want to see our list of 12 most useful WordPress custom post types tutorials.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Erik says
I want to let the name of the post type out of the permalink, is this possible?
Fex example:
mywebsite.com/location/texas
to
mywebsite.com/texas
Is this possible with this plugin? Or can I use something else for this?
Terry Yung says
Fantastic article!
I have a custom post type that users may change their post title frequently. With this plugin I don’t have to worry about new titles with old-title-containing permalinks!
WPBeginner Support says
Glad our article was helpful
Admin
Scott says
Pulling my hair out trying to figure out why I couldn’t do this with the default WP settings. Thank you!
WPBeginner Support says
Glad our guide could help
Admin
Morgan says
Hi,
How do you remove the date from a URL and still keep all the link juice?
WPBeginner Support says
You would want to create a 301 redirect, we have a guide on how to create one below:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/beginners-guide-to-creating-redirects-in-wordpress/
Admin
Elliott says
What if you want to change the main taxonomy name, like for instance in your article the term “movies”. A theme I am using has a set url for the portfolio items and I want to change it. for example it uses domain.com/motor_project/protfolio-item and I want to change the term /motor_project/
WPBeginner Support says
For a custom post type built into your theme, you would first want to reach out to your theme’s support to ensure there is not a specific reason for the permalink being the way it is.
Admin
Pardeep Singh says
Hi,
I am using two post types:
a) Posts ( Default post type)
b) Program ( Custom Post Type )
I want to add the string ‘blog’ for default post type post and ‘program’ for custom post type like:
example.com/blog/post-name/
example.com/program/program-name/
If I am trying to add it into the permalink into admin panel then it is also added into the program post type like : example.com/blog/program/program-name/
I am using custom-post-type-ui for custom post and “With Front” property is set to false. But still not working fine.
Thanks in advance.
md.ismail hossain says
this post is very helpful to learn about custom post…………thanks for posting….
Mike Patterson says
For SEO, this is very important. It’s more like having a keyword in the web link itself. Nice post
rezky says
hello, i wanna ask,
how do I get a list of posts custome post type in which will be in place at the end of the article on the type of regular post?
who only took the post whose title is almost as usual on the post?
for example, the usual post
Article title —- —-
Content —– —
—- End of the content —
lamborgini car list
Car lamborgini 5
Car lamborgini 4
Car lamborgini 3
Car lamborgini 2
Car lamborgini 1
and so on until there are no same title