Erik’s Blog: Board Shorts and Business Suits

Permalinks won’t work in wordpress? If so and you want permalinks you’ve come to the right place.

What are Permalinks? Permalinks are basically the web address you see in the address bar of your browser when all of the information of that particular URL is spelled out. Since WordPress uses the php programming language it directs people to different pages using addresses such as www.yourdomain.com/?cat=6. What the heck does /?cat=6 tell a user? That’s where permalinks come in. It is thought and makes sense that search engines look at these addresses and include it in your search results ranking. (Search for SEO or search engine optimization in Google for more information on this.) If you have www.yourdomain.com/how-to-use-wordpress that tells the user before even visiting more than /?cat=6 would.

WordPress comes along with an option to change these settings. Sometimes though the trouble can be just finding where the heck the option is and how to change it. I am using WordPress 1.5 with my Netfirms account. I am also using the sharepoint-like theme. When I first went to my admin page and then to options, where permalinks changing is done, I didn’t have the option! Frustration ensued. I was able to find the location of the option but once I got there more problems, links would show up but not direct correctly. Well, after spending a few hours searching the WordPress forums I was able to fix the problem and now have permalinks.

The following are steps that I pieced together to make your life easier to change from all that php code to permalinks using your WordPress account.

WHERE’S MY .htaccess FILE LOCATED?

Your .htaccess file is a file that basically allows programs, and yourself to write different files within your directories. The php files that wordpress uses to simplify life need to know whether they have permission to overwrite things and need to ask .htaccess if it is ok to do so.

First things first. Let’s start out by making sure your .htaccess file is in the correct folder. For me Netfirms setup my wordpress account automatically, great. Except the .htaccess file wasn’t in the correct place. This was the final thing that I needed to change and didn’t find until after a couple hours went by. That’s why I’m telling you first, the rest is cake.

Go to your file manager or use your ftp access software (I use Filezilla). Search for the folder which contains your .htaccess file. In my Netfirms account it was in the main www folder and not the WordPress folder. If you have a lot of directories (folders) on your hosting account you may have to spend some time looking. Once you’ve found it you need to make sure that it is in the same folder as index.php. I just cut and pasted the file into the correct folder but I read a few forum posts that said you may copy and paste it in there as well and have two .htaccess files. If you’re using an ftp client like Filezilla you should also make sure that the chmod is set to 666. Do this by right clicking on the file and navigate to properties, then in the only numeric box make sure its set as 666. You can find more info about this fix here.

Hard part done!

WHERE ARE MY PERMALINKS OPTIONS?

Keeping with my theme here, somehow my permalinks options were missing from my WordPress admin options menu. If you are having the same problem have no fear. You must first go into your file manager within your hosting account. Then navigate to the folder which contains the file labeled options-permalinks.php, mine was in the wp-admin folder. Now open this file (double click, right click, whichever). It will take you to either the WordPress admin log in page where you should log in, or it will take you directly to the options menu-permalinks option in your WordPress admin section.

If you actually have the permalinks option in your options menu of your admin page from the start then go directly there.

CHANGING MY PERMALINKS OPTIONS

All you have to do now is follow the instructions on the page. If you want the quick way just copy and paste this /%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/ into the section labeled Structure. Note that you may have to add, /index.php/ before /%year/. There are also a lot more tags available at WordPress to customize your permalinks and your individual URLs. Make sure you follow the structure examples that are provided and you shouldn’t have any problems.

There you have it. The main thing that was problematic for me was the location of the .htaccess file. There are of course other things that could be wrong and you can probably find solutions to them within the WordPress support forums. Good luck with SEO (search engine optimization) and I hope this helps.