Title: Permalinks Problem
Last modified: June 22, 2021

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# Permalinks Problem

 *  Resolved [rookiecop](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rookiecop/)
 * (@rookiecop)
 * [4 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-problem-86/)
 * Hi, would someone be as kind to explain what permalinks structure I need please
   based on my desired structure. It’s pretty basic but I’ve been tearing my hair
   out for hours, many thanks in advance….
 * Top Level category: News
    Child category: Subcat 1
 * Permalinks Option 1 –
    Custom Structure = /%category%/%postname%/ Subcat Result:
   mydomain.co.uk/category/news/subcat-1/ (wrong) Post Result: mydomain.co.uk/news/
   subcat-1/hello-world/ (correct)
 * Permalinks Option 2 –
    Custom Structure = /%category%/%postname%/ with ‘news’
   as Category Base Subcat Result: mydomain.co.uk/news/news/subcat-1/ (wrong) Post
   Result: mydomain.co.uk/news/subcat-1/hello-world/ (correct url but 404 error)
 * Desired results:
    mydomain.co.uk/news/subcat-1/ mydomain.co.uk/news/subcat-1/
   hello-world/

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

 *  [George Appiah](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gappiah/)
 * (@gappiah)
 * [4 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-problem-86/#post-14585888)
 * I think your “problem”, if we can call it so at all, is not what permalink structure
   you need to use, but a missing link in the understanding of WordPress’ category
   URLs work.
 * > Subcat Result: mydomain.co.uk/category/news/subcat-1/ (wrong)
   >  Subcat Result:
   > mydomain.co.uk/news/news/subcat-1/ (wrong)
 * WordPress will ALWAYS add the category base `/category/` by default (in your 
   first case), `/news/` in your second case…. to category URLs. This is irrespective
   of what permanent structure you use (other than Default/Plain).
 * The reason for this is so WordPress can distinguish between category (or generally,
   taxonomy) URLs and post/page-type URLs.
 * There are solutions out there to remove the category base. For instance, the 
   [Yoast SEO](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-seo/) plugin has a checkbox
   to stip out the category base. There are [plugins](https://wordpress.org/plugins/no-category-base-wpml/)
   that do just this as well. And if you don’t want to use a plugin, there are lots
   of custom PHP code floating on the internet to remove the category base in category
   URLs.
 * But I’ve NEVER seen one that doesn’t lead to other problems as your site grows(
   commonly, 404 errors on paginated category archive pages, 404 errors in Woocommerce
   product category archives, and other edge cases).
 *  Thread Starter [rookiecop](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rookiecop/)
 * (@rookiecop)
 * [4 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-problem-86/#post-14589128)
 * Thanks for taking the time to explain this George, much appreciated.
 *  Thread Starter [rookiecop](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rookiecop/)
 * (@rookiecop)
 * [4 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-problem-86/#post-14589129)
 * I’ll just mark this as resolved 🙂

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

The topic ‘Permalinks Problem’ is closed to new replies.

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 3 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [rookiecop](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rookiecop/)
 * Last activity: [4 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-problem-86/#post-14589129)
 * Status: resolved

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