How to Change Page URL in WordPress

Are you looking for quick and easy ways to edit URLs on your site? We have the perfect guide for you. In this article, you’ll learn different ways to change the page URL in WordPress.

You may need to alter the URL of a page or post on your website at least once. This might be due to the URL being too long or confusing, or simply because you want to optimize it for search engines. Whatever the reason, we’ll guide you through the steps to edit the page URL so you can improve the user experience.

But before that, let’s look at some more reasons why you might need to change the URL on your website.

Why Change the URL of a WordPress Page?

You might want to change the URL of a WordPress page for several different reasons. Some of the most common include:

• SEO optimization: Updating a page’s URL can help it rank higher in search results. For example, if the original URL was too long or lacked important keywords, changing it to a shorter, more descriptive URL might increase the page’s exposure in search engine results pages.
• Rebranding: If your company or website has been renamed, you may need to update your page URLs to match the new brand identity.
• Website reconstruction: Your website may need specific changes and redesigns over time, depending on trends and your website’s needs. As a result, you will have to rearrange pages and update the URLs of specific pages to reflect their new positions in the site’s hierarchy.
• Fix broken links: When you update the title of a page or post, you must fix the broken links. The URLs may still display the old titles to visitors when they try to reach the page from an external site or a search engine results page. Hence, updating the URL can help you repair any broken links.
• Site migration: If you want to migrate an entire site to a new domain name, you may need to update the page URLs on your WordPress website.

Now that you know why you may want to edit URLs on your site, let’s look at the different ways to do it.

How to Change Page URL in WordPress

You can change the page URL in WordPress in different ways and from multiple areas of your website:

1. From the Admin dashboard
2. Editing the wp-config.php file
3. From the WordPress database
4. With WP-CLI

We’ll go through each method in this tutorial with a detailed guide.

1. Change Page URL from WordPress Admin Dashboard

You can edit the WordPress page URL from the admin dashboard. There are two options:

1. Changing the URL of your domain
2. Changing the URL of specific posts

1.1) Change the URL of your domain

To do this, log in to your website and go to Settings > General in your dashboard.

You will see various site options here. To change the URLs, head to the WordPress Address and the Site Address options. This will change the domain name of your website URL.

These two URLs are identical on most websites, so you’ll need to enter the new URL there.

However, there may be situations where these two URLs differ. For example, let’s say you want to add a different URL for the home page of your website other than that of the WordPress directory. Then, you’ll have to add a different URL to the Site Address option.

Once you have made all the necessary changes to your website, click Save changes.

1.2) Change the URL of specific posts or pages

If you want to make a minor change and edit the URL of a particular page or any other post type, you’ll have to do it individually. For this demonstration, we’ll change the WordPress URL of a webpage. Similarly, you can change it for other post types as needed. The steps are very similar across all post types.

First, go to Pages > All Pages in your WordPress dashboard. This will display all the pages of your website. Click Edit on the page you want to change the URL for.

You may be using a classic editor or the Gutenberg editor, depending on your website. Let’s see how you can change the page URL using each editor.

1.2.1) Change Page URL using Classic Editor

If you use the classic editor, you’ll see the permalink option just below the title of the page. Click Edit.

Then it will allow you to change the path in your link for the specific web page. Once you enter the new URL here, click OK to update the page.

1.2.2) Change Page URL using Gutenberg Editor

On the other hand, if you use the Gutenberg editor, you can change your page URL from the page settings on the right sidebar. Just click on the link on the URL option.

This lets you change the page’s URL. Just enter the new URL path in the PERMALINK option. Finally, update the page.

2. Edit the URL in WordPress from the wp-config.php File

In some cases, you may not have access to all the options on your WordPress admin dashboard. If that’s your case, you can change the URL of your website in WordPress using the wp-config.php file.

For this, you will have to connect your website using FTP. You can use an FTP client like FileZilla or Cyberduck to connect your website to your hosting account. Your web hosting service will provide the required credentials.

Once you connect your website to the FTP client, locate the wp-config.php file on your website. It is usually found in the root folder of your website.

Then, open the file and add the following two lines of code above the line ‘That’s all, stop editing! Happy publishing.’

define( 'WP_HOME', 'http://yournewsiteurl.com' );
define( 'WP_SITEURL', 'http://yournewsiteurl.com' );

As you’ve already guessed, you have to enter your new site URL instead of “yournewsiteurl.com”. After you add these lines and make the necessary changes, save the file and close it.

Then open your site again and check whether the new URL has been added.

3. Change URL in WordPress from Database

If you’re not confident about editing the core files of your website, you can also use the WordPress database to change the URL. For this, you’ll need to access your phpMyAdmin dashboard from the cPanel.

Just log in to your cPanel account and click on phpMyAdmin under the database section. This will redirect you to your WordPress database in phpMyAdmin.

Now, search for the table of your website in the database and open it. Then, you have to select the wp_options table from where you can change your WordPress URL.

Here, double-click on the option_value column for the option_name ‘siteurl’ to edit the URL. Just enter the new URL here and change the URL for the option_name ‘home’ as well in the same way.

Your changes will be saved automatically after you deselect the URL fields. You will see the changes as soon as you reload your website.

4. Change the WordPress Page URL with WP-CLI

Using WP-CLI commands is also one of the most efficient ways to change the page URL in WordPress. For this, you need coding knowledge, so it can be a good solution for developers or people who are comfortable using the command line terminal to make changes to their WordPress websites.

For this method, make sure you have SSH access and are familiar with accessing your WordPress website via WP-CLI before proceeding.

In this approach, all you have to do is add the following pair of commands to replace your site URL.

wp option update home 'http://yournewsiteurl.com'
wp option update siteurl 'http://yournewsiteurl.com'

That’s it! You’ll see the new site URL on your website after you preview it.

How to Prevent SEO Errors for New URLs

We’ve shown you some of the best ways to edit the page URL in WordPress. After you make that change, there are some more things to keep in mind to prevent SEO errors and site traffic loss.

• Use 301 redirects: After changing the URL, redirect traffic from the old URL to the new one. This ensures that search engines and people can still locate your material. So any links pointing to your previous URL will continue to work without issue and redirect to the new URL.
• Update internal links: You must update any internal links that use the old URL format to point to the new URL format. This will keep your site accessible and easy to use for both site visitors and search engines.
• Update sitemaps and robots.txt: Reflect the new URL format by updating your sitemap and robots.txt files on your website. This will make it easier for search engines to crawl and index your site. You can even use one of the WordPress sitemap plugins if you need any help with it.
• Proper planning for site migration: Prepare an extensive checklist of all procedures to be performed, and double-check everything before making any adjustments to the existing URL.
• Carefully monitor your site: Keep a close eye on its performance in search rankings and traffic after the move. Keep an eye out for mistakes or problems and be ready to make additional modifications if required.

How to Redirect Visitors to New URLs

Most of the points mentioned in the precautions to prevent SEO errors after changing the site URL are pretty straightforward. But you need to pay serious attention to redirect your visitors to the new URL after you change it in your WordPress website; otherwise, the search engines and the users won’t be able to find your new link, which may result in traffic loss.

We will also show you a short guide to redirect a page to complete the URL change process in WordPress. The easiest way to redirect a URL is by using a plugin.

We will be using the Redirection plugin for this demonstration. It is a free and lightweight redirection plugin that is very easy to use.

But if you want to browse some more plugins, you can have a look at our list of the best plugins to redirect a WordPress page. All of them are similar, and the steps to use them are almost the same. For now, let’s start by installing the plugin.

1. Install and Set up the Plugin

Go to Plugins > Add New from your WordPress dashboard and search for the keywords of the plugin. After you see the plugin in the search results, click on Install Now to install the plugin.

The installation will take a few moments, and then activate the plugin.

If you want to use a plugin that is not included in the WordPress plugin repository, you’ll have to upload and install it manually. Have a look at our tutorial on how to install a WordPress plugin manually for more details on it.

After the plugin is activated, open the Tools > Redirection menu on your WordPress dashboard. Then, you’ll need to set up the plugin by clicking on Start Setup. You need to adjust the basic setup and the rest API options to complete the setup.

Click Finish Setup after making all the necessary changes.

2.  Redirect to New URL

Now, you can start adding redirections for your new URL. Since we have changed the domain name for the entire site, we’ll need to update the URL for the entire WordPress website.

Open the Site tab and enter the new site URL in the Relocate to domain option. After that, you can further change the HTTP headers option for the redirect if required.

Then, click on Update to save your changes. It may take some time to complete the site migration redirection. But make sure to check whether the redirection works on your website after the process is complete.

But if you have changed the URL of an individual page and want to redirect that page or post, please have a look at our guide to redirecting a WordPress page. We have a detailed tutorial on how to add redirects for individual WordPress pages there.

Bonus: How to Change WordPress Login Page URL

Even after your site migration, the WordPress login page URL might still be the same. So you will still need to change it individually. It’s a bit tricky to change the login page URL in WordPress.

This is why we have included this quick bonus tutorial in case you want to change the login URL too. The WordPress login page URL can be easily modified using a plugin.

All you have to do is install and activate WPS Hide Login or any similar plugin on your WordPress website. You can follow the exact installation steps mentioned above for the Redirection plugin.

Then, go to Settings > WPS Hide Login from your WordPress dashboard to access the plugin settings.

Here, you can see two options: login URL and redirection URL. You need to add your new login path to the Login URL option.

But if a user tries to access your old login URL, you can also redirect them to a 404 error page to keep your website secure. Just enter 404 in the Redirection URL option for this, then click Save changes.

Now, test your new login URL on your browser and log in to your WordPress dashboard.

If you want to customize your login page some more, you can also check out our well-explained tutorial on how to change the WordPress login page URL.

Tips and Best Practices for Changing Page URLs in WordPress

• Keep URLs short and descriptive: Use only essential keywords that reflect your page’s topic.
• Avoid using numbers or special characters: Stick to lowercase letters and hyphens to improve readability.
• Set up 301 redirects: Always redirect old URLs to new ones to maintain SEO rankings and user access.
• Update internal links: Check your site content and menus to ensure all links point to the updated URL.
• Resubmit your sitemap: After major URL changes, resubmit your sitemap in Google Search Console for faster indexing.
• Test the new URL: Open the updated link in an incognito window to confirm it loads correctly.
• Monitor your site traffic: Track analytics for a few weeks to ensure the new URLs don’t affect performance or search visibility.

Best WordPress Redirection Plugins

Now, we will see some of the best redirecting plugins in this section.

1. Redirection

Redirection is one of the most widely used plugins for handling 301 redirects and monitoring 404 errors in WordPress. It automatically detects when a page URL changes and sets up a redirect to prevent visitors from landing on broken pages.

You can manage all redirects directly from your WordPress dashboard without editing .htaccess files. It also offers powerful regex matching, import/export options, and detailed redirect logs. Whether you’re fixing outdated links or cleaning up after a site migration, this plugin handles everything efficiently.

• Features: 301 redirects, 404 error monitoring, regex matching, import/export tools, and redirect logs.
• Pros: Free, user-friendly, no coding needed, compatible with any theme or plugin.
• Cons: The Interface can feel advanced when managing a large number of redirects.
• Pricing: Free.

2. Simple 301 Redirects

Simple 301 Redirects does precisely what its name suggests — it makes creating 301 redirects quick and straightforward. Ideal for beginners or small websites, it allows you to redirect old URLs to new ones using a clean, minimal interface.

This is particularly useful when restructuring your site or updating page slugs. Although it lacks advanced features like regex or logging, it’s a perfect lightweight option when you only need straightforward redirects without extra configuration.

• Features: Simple 301 redirects, support for relative/absolute URLs, fast setup, minimal interface.
• Pros: Lightweight, beginner-friendly, perfect for small sites or simple URL changes.
• Cons: Lacks detailed logs and advanced redirect conditions.
• Pricing: Free.

3. Safe Redirect Manager

Safe Redirect Manager, developed by 10up, is a professional-grade plugin designed for websites that need reliable redirect management. It supports multiple redirect types, including 301, 302, 307, and 410, as well as wildcard and regex matching.

The plugin stores redirects as custom post types, making it scalable for large websites or enterprise-level environments. While its interface is clean and intuitive, some technical understanding helps to unlock its full potential. It’s a perfect option for developers or site owners who want complete control and long-term stability.

• Features: 301, 302, 307, and 410 redirects, wildcard support, regex matching, and scalable structure.
• Pros: Developer-friendly, clean UI, stable and secure, handles complex redirect rules.
• Cons: Slightly technical for beginners.
• Pricing: Free.

Frequently Asked Questions

Now, let’s take a look at some frequently asked questions and answers about this topic.

Conclusion

These are all the various ways to change the page URL in WordPress. As you can see, changing the page URL in WordPress is a simple process that can be accomplished in just a few steps.

To summarize, there are four ways you can change the URL of your WordPress website:

• Admin dashboard
• wp-config.php file
• WordPress database
• With WP-CLI

All of these methods work pretty well, even though the WP-CLI approach is a bit technical. However, you can use other techniques to change the URLs, even if you are a WordPress beginner.

Additionally, we’ve also included some tips to prevent SEO errors after changing the URLs on your website. So remember to redirect the old URL to the new one to avoid losing any traffic or link juice. With these tips, you can easily update your page URLs and improve your website’s overall performance.

We hope that you can easily change URLs on your WordPress website now. Do let us know how did it go in the comments below.

If you want some more helpful guides to improve your WordPress website, feel free to go through the following posts:

• How To Set Up Rank Math SEO
• Best WordPress SEO Plugins
• How to get WooCommerce Shop URL programmatically