Title: Does categorizing old posts change URL / permalink?
Last modified: August 18, 2016

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# Does categorizing old posts change URL / permalink?

 *  [gunlib](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gunlib/)
 * (@gunlib)
 * [20 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/does-categorizing-old-posts-change-url-permalink/)
 * If this topic has been specifically addressed, I apologise, but I’ve searched
   and haven’t been able to find a comfortable answer yet.
 * I’m new to WP; got 2.0.1; and kind of a newbie also, so please type slowly 🙂
 * I’ve created a half a dozen new categories but have stopped short of moving old
   posts into the categories until I’m satisfied that the permalinks to the original
   post will remain intact.
 * In other words, if I take a 2 month old post called “Crappy Post Number 220” 
   and move it into a category called “Crappy Old Posts”, what will happen when 
   people click on a link to the post from another blogger’s page that references“
   Crappy Post Number 220”? Will they get an error, or will the referencing link
   still take people to the original post?
 * Not only do I wish NOT to inconvenience the other bloggers and their readers,
   I do not wish to damage my PageRank either. If that means having to leave my 
   old posts uncategorized, then I guess I’ll have to leave things as they are and
   begin categorizing from today forward.
 * Anybody? Thanks in advance for your answers 🙂

Viewing 10 replies - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)

 *  [Chris_K](https://wordpress.org/support/users/handysolo/)
 * (@handysolo)
 * [20 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/does-categorizing-old-posts-change-url-permalink/#post-350197)
 * If category isn’t part of your post permalink structure, it really won’t matter
   if you rename categories.
 *  [moshu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/moshu/)
 * (@moshu)
 * [20 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/does-categorizing-old-posts-change-url-permalink/#post-350198)
 * Wow, what a long-long webpage… it takes ages to download. Why don’t you make 
   it shorter? i.e. not showing a million posts on the frontpage.
    Anyway, I hit
   the Stop button, so didn’t have to wait.
 * The answer for your question depends on your permalink structure, and you could
   have figured out just looking at your own permalinks:
    [http://www.guntotingliberal.com/archives/453](http://www.guntotingliberal.com/archives/453)
   Is there any category name involved here? No. So, changing the cat name would
   have any effect on it? No.
 * Note. If somebody bookmarked a category (listing/archive) page, like
    [http://www.guntotingliberal.com/archives/category/uncategorized](http://www.guntotingliberal.com/archives/category/uncategorized)
   that one will be 404 if you change the name and the slug of “uncategorized”.
 *  Thread Starter [gunlib](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gunlib/)
 * (@gunlib)
 * [20 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/does-categorizing-old-posts-change-url-permalink/#post-350205)
 * Moshu, thanks for the heads up on loading time. I changed the options to show
   just the last 7 posts. Hopefully that will speed it up.
 * So (again, I am a newbie at all of this) you are telling me that [http://www.guntotingliberal.com/archives/453](http://www.guntotingliberal.com/archives/453)
   will remain there, but the post will be duplicated somehow when I move it to 
   a category? Perhaps my lack of understanding of the process is complicating what
   I am asking.
 * Is the post duplicated somehow so it appears both in the archives and the category,
   or does categorizing the post move the post from it’s place in the archives to
   a new place in the category?
 * Again, sorry if I’m making this more complicated on myself than it needs to be,
   but I am a brand, spanking new WP user; just moved from Blogger 🙂
 * Thanks again….
 *  Thread Starter [gunlib](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gunlib/)
 * (@gunlib)
 * [20 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/does-categorizing-old-posts-change-url-permalink/#post-350250)
 * Anyone?
 *  [Chris_K](https://wordpress.org/support/users/handysolo/)
 * (@handysolo)
 * [20 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/does-categorizing-old-posts-change-url-permalink/#post-350257)
 * Right. Your posts are in a database, not a series of directories and text files.
   🙂
 * Post can show up via it’s own dedicated url (depends on how you’ve set up permalinks
   for that), category search (multiple times if in multiple categories), archives,
   searches, etc. When linking to your posts (or when others link to them) just 
   make sure the post’s permalink is the one used.
 *  [DianeV](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dianev/)
 * (@dianev)
 * [20 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/does-categorizing-old-posts-change-url-permalink/#post-350262)
 * gunlib, moshu answered your question (I think) but perhaps a quick re-explanation
   will help.
 * Posts are *always* in a category, whether you assign one or use the default category.
   But there are two issues here:
 * (1) Is the category reflected in your URL for the permanent page? If not, then
   it doesn’t matter if you switch categories all day long because doing so won’t
   impact the URL of the permanent page at all.
 * (2) On your category pages, are you displaying entire posts or just title/snippets?
   If entire posts, then your posts are displayed both on the permalink page and
   on any category page to which a particular post has been assigned. This can be
   problematic. It can also become difficult as you add posts to a particular category.
 * Does that help?
 *  [moshu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/moshu/)
 * (@moshu)
 * [20 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/does-categorizing-old-posts-change-url-permalink/#post-350264)
 * Yes, you are over-complicating it a bit… (I was out shoveling the snow, that’s
   why the reply is late – next time, please, don’t bump, wait patiently. Patience
   is highly appreciated on these fora by the volunteer helpers.)
 * So, back to your questions:
    1. All the posts are stored only _once_ in the database.
   They always sit on their own initial “shelf”. 2. The WP engine (or any script
   that is capable to “talk” to the MySQL database) sends queries to the database
   based on certain criteria; it’s like saying “show all posts that have in their
   date January 2005′; or: ‘select and show all posts that have the category called
   whatever’ 3. The different template files, like index.php, single.php, archive.
   php, page.php are sending different queries to the database (DB) and will display
   exactly what they are supposed to. 4. Actually, in a physical sense, you don’t
   even have a folder or place called “archives”. That’s just a virtual folder –
   which is created based on your permalink structure. You could have instead of“
   archives” even “moshu” 😉 5. Every post is associated with a category, and that
   category has an ID#. The DB and the WP engine differentiate categories based 
   on ID#, so you can change its name 100x times, it doesn’t really make a difference.
 * Does this help?
 *  Thread Starter [gunlib](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gunlib/)
 * (@gunlib)
 * [20 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/does-categorizing-old-posts-change-url-permalink/#post-350374)
 * Thanks to all for your responses. I think we can call this case closed. Sounds
   like I’m safe to categorize some posts for my readers’ convenienc.
 * Moshu, my apologies for bumping. It was intentional, but not to be a nuisance
   or shove myself to the front of the line, but because I wasn’t sure if I had 
   made it clear enough that I needed a little more clarification for this here “
   noobie”. It won’t happen again.
 * Thanks again to you and everybody else 🙂
 *  [thomet](https://wordpress.org/support/users/thomet/)
 * (@thomet)
 * [19 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/does-categorizing-old-posts-change-url-permalink/#post-351065)
 * Sorry to bump this again but I think this is a closely related issue that does
   not appear to be resolved by this thread.
 * When I switch from one format of permalink to a new format, I expected WordPress
   to update the rewrite rules so that when someone clicks on an old-style permalink
   into the site, the .htaccess would recognise the old link and redirect it to 
   the new permalink for the same entry.
 * However, this does not appear to be the case. According to the posts above, if
   my old permalink format included “category” and my new one does not, then a link
   to the old style permalink would result in a 404.
 * This seems to me to be contrary to the idea of permalinks, and seems to mean 
   that if you even slightly change your permalink structure on a site after it 
   has been running even a few months, you will break every incoming link on to 
   your site.
 * Is this really the way it’s supposed to work?
 * I assumed the “update permalink structure” button took care of redirections from
   the old permalink structure, but it appears not, since member Tack describes 
   he had to do his own rewrite in another thread: [http://wordpress.org/support/topic/49540?replies=2](http://wordpress.org/support/topic/49540?replies=2)
 *  [moshu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/moshu/)
 * (@moshu)
 * [19 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/does-categorizing-old-posts-change-url-permalink/#post-351066)
 * _This seems to me to be contrary to the idea of permalinks, and seems to mean
   that if you even slightly change your permalink structure on a site after it 
   has been running even a few months, you will break every incoming link on to 
   your site._
 * Is this really the way it’s supposed to work?
 * Well, it’s “perma”-nent – untill you change it.
    Yes, it is supposed to work 
   like this. (That’s why it is highle advisable to think very well before setting
   up a permalink structure)
 * If you want “redirects” – you need to add manually re-write rules to your .htaccess
   file.

Viewing 10 replies - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)

The topic ‘Does categorizing old posts change URL / permalink?’ is closed to new
replies.

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 10 replies
 * 5 participants
 * Last reply from: [moshu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/moshu/)
 * Last activity: [19 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/does-categorizing-old-posts-change-url-permalink/#post-351066)
 * Status: not resolved

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