WordPress permalinks are human-readable links for your website. They are called permalinks because they are intended to be permanent links to a page.
WordPress allows you to format these permalinks in a number of ways, and once set up, you shouldn't change it as it can have big implications on your SEO and backlinks.
If your permalinks are not working, your website will show a 404 error or a Page not found.
You can fix this by re-applying the permalink settings. You can do this as an admin when logged into WordPress (preferred way) or by editing the WordPress database.
If you're not comfortable performing either of these tasks, contact our paid support team, who can take action for you.
Fix permalinks via WordPress Admin.
- Log in to your WordPress website as an admin
- In the left-side menu, select Settings -> Permalinks
- Under the Permalink Settings, scroll to the bottom and click Save Changes. Do not make any changes at this stage.
- Now, test if your posts are loading.
- If this hasn't fixed the problem, try selecting a different permalink structure, clicking Save Changes, switching back to the previous setting, and then clicking Save Changes again.
Fix Permalinks in the database.
You should only use this method if the broken permalinks are stopping you from logging into your website. This solution removes the current permalink setting and replaces it with the default structure.
- Sign in to cPanel
- Find the Database section and click phpMyAdmin
- Select your WordPress database from the list of databases on the left. If you're not sure which database to select, you can find it in the wp-config.php in File Manager
- Select the wp_options table (note that wp_ may have been replaced with a different prefix, so look for the table ending in _options)
- Scroll through or search for the permalink_structure entry under the option_name column. (it may not be on the first page)
- Click Edit on the permalink_structure entry
- In the field for option_value, select the text and delete it
- Click the Go button to apply the change.
If you are still seeing 404 errors, the issue may not be due to the permalinks. The next step is to engage a web developer to diagnose the problem.
