WordPress Permalinks

WordPress Permalinks can be very tricky. Use caution when making any changes to your permalink structure.

The topic I am going to cover today is static pages. It seems to be a big issue with WordPress that when you create static pages they will not show up until you update your WordPress Permalinks.

By default, your .htaccess file does not have write access for permalinks. So when you create static pages in WordPress your permalinks need to be updated manually.

Long story short, here’s what you do (these instructions assume you are using a custom permilink structure):

:: Use an FTP client such as wsftp
:: Connect to your blog with the ftp program
:: Locate your .htaccess file. It should be in the root directory for that blog. If you have mutliple blogs make sure you are changing the right one!
:: Right click on the .htaccess file and click on CHMOD
:: You want to change permissions to allow “Other” write access (646). This will allow WordPress to update the file when you change your permalinks.
:: Log in to your WordPress admin page and go to the Permalinks tab
:: Go to where you have your custom structure set up. Mine looks like this: /rock/%post_id%/%postname%/
:: Make a change to it like this: /rock/%post_id%/%postname%/test
:: Now click on update permalink structure. This will force a change to your .htaccess file.
:: Now go back and change your permalink structure to the way it was originally. Get rid of the word “test” that you put in earlier.
:: Again click on update permalink structure.
:: Test your page to make sure your static pages show up. Check some of your permalinks to make sure they display properly.
:: Go back into your FTP program and change permissions back. Uncheck the write access for “Other” setting your permissions back to 644.

That’s it. Seems like a lot of monkey work. But it will solve your problem. I wish WordPress permalinks were a little more user friendly.

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