Title: Custom Permalink Format
Last modified: October 18, 2018

---

# Custom Permalink Format

 *  [cmaner56](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cmaner56/)
 * (@cmaner56)
 * [7 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-permalink-format/)
 * I am a relative newbie to many technical aspects of WP.
 * Is there a plug-in I can use or some other setting I can use to create shorter
   URLs like [http://www.waldorfct.org/EarlyChildhood](http://www.waldorfct.org/EarlyChildhood)
   rather than showing the page heirarchy like
    [http://www.waldorfct.org/Admissions/EarlyChildhood](http://www.waldorfct.org/Admissions/EarlyChildhood)
 * The website is not currently a WP site but we are moving to one and want to keep
   some of the same URLs that we are using on some printed material. Would it be
   simpler to just redirect the old URLs to new ones?
 * Thank you for any assistance.
    -  This topic was modified 7 years, 7 months ago by [Steven Stern (sterndata)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sterndata/).
 * The page I need help with: _[[log in](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fwordpress.org%2Fsupport%2Ftopic%2Fcustom-permalink-format%2F%3Foutput_format%3Dmd&locale=en_US)
   to see the link]_

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

 *  Moderator [bcworkz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bcworkz/)
 * (@bcworkz)
 * [7 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-permalink-format/#post-10794140)
 * As long as the page slug is correct, WP does not require the parent page slug,
   it will find the right page anyway. It will then redirect automatically to the
   proper hierarchical permalink. Thus the older URLs using the same slug without
   parent will work just fine.
 * The problem with such a scheme is the automatic redirect returns a 302 temporary
   redirect status. But for SEO reasons, you really want a 301 permanent redirect.
   If it’s not too onerous, it’s better to do 301 redirects in .htaccess.
 *  Thread Starter [cmaner56](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cmaner56/)
 * (@cmaner56)
 * [7 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-permalink-format/#post-10794200)
 * Thank you for your response. I really appreciate it.
 * In WP Admin would I go to Settings > Permalinks then select Custom sStructure
   and add /%postname%/ in the field to have permalinks that do not contain the 
   parent?
 *  Thread Starter [cmaner56](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cmaner56/)
 * (@cmaner56)
 * [7 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-permalink-format/#post-10794219)
 * Well – setting a custom structure as I described above does not work. Using %
   postname% is the same as the one bbefore this option in the permalink settings.
   It is still showing the parent folder name and I need it to just have the //root_url/
   post or page name.
 * Any suggestions on how to achieve this?
 *  Moderator [bcworkz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bcworkz/)
 * (@bcworkz)
 * [7 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-permalink-format/#post-10798305)
 * What is it you are really trying to achieve? Beyond the URL composition I mean.
   Just get old site links to work with your new WP site? Or is there really some
   functional problem beyond the old site URLs where the parent page in the URL 
   is just not tolerable? And if that’s the case, why use parent pages then?
 * My goal is to achieve what you want in the least complicated, most efficient 
   way possible. I’m not sure what you really want. TBH, I’m not sure you truly 
   know either 😉 It is possible to not have parent page slugs in URLs. I’ll need
   to do some research to figure out how, it’s not as simple as doing the right 
   permalink settings. But if your goal is to merely ensure old links still work,
   this is not the best way to achieve that.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

The topic ‘Custom Permalink Format’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [permalinks](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/permalinks/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 4 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [bcworkz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bcworkz/)
 * Last activity: [7 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-permalink-format/#post-10798305)
 * Status: not resolved

## Topics

### Topics with no replies

### Non-support topics

### Resolved topics

### Unresolved topics

### All topics