Do you want to edit your child page URL to remove the parent slug on your website? Parent page slugs are added automatically to the child page URL by WordPress. These are not harmful and are good for your website’s SEO. Of course, they can make the URL look messy, which is why some websites remove the parent slug.
This is purely a design choice since there are no negative repercussions from leaving them the way WordPress handles them. In fact, some experts believe removing the parent slug may hurt your website’s SEO, so beware. Today, I will demonstrate how to edit the child page URL to remove the parent slug using the Custom Permalinks plugin.
What Exactly is a Parent Slug in WordPress
You may be wondering what exactly a parent slug is. The Parent Slug refers to the parent page showing up in the child page’s URL. For example, let’s say you have a parent page called Pets and a child page named Dogs. You would have a URL that would look something like this:[ht_message mstyle=”info” title=”” show_icon=”” id=”” class=”” style=”” ]www.MyExampleWebsite.com/Pets/Dogs[/ht_message]
Or if you prefer a more generic example:[ht_message mstyle=”info” title=”” show_icon=”” id=”” class=”” style=”” ]www.MyExampleWebsite.com/ParentPage/ChildPage[/ht_message]
Are There Any Benefits to Removing it
Removing the parent slug will shorten the child page’s URL. A shorter URL is easier to remember and to share on social media websites. For example, Twitter has a 280 character limit on tweets you send. Removing the parent slug in the above example would remove “Pets/”, which is 5 characters. That is very important for short and concise tweets. For this reason, many websites use custom branded short URLs to help advertise their website.
How to Edit the Child Page URL to Remove the Parent Slug in WordPress
Today, I will demonstrate how to edit the child page URL to remove the parent slug using the Custom Permalinks plugin. Before you begin it is worth pointing out that you could simply not create a child page in the first place. This is actually my recommendation because removing it could pose a problem for your website’s SEO. However, if you are set on removing the parent slug, you will find it to be quick and easy.
Installing Custom Permalinks
Let’s get started by clicking on Plugins and selecting the Add New option on the left-hand admin panel.
Search for Custom Permalinks in the available search box. This will pull up additional plugins that you may find helpful.
Scroll down until you find the Custom Permalinks plugin and click on the “Install Now” button and activate the plugin for use.
Using Custom Permalinks to Remove the Parent Slug
This plugin works after activation. To edit your child page’s URL, go to your child page. Underneath the title of the child page, you will see the URL. You should see a text box that contains the default URL. Simply remove the parent slug from the URL.
If you do not see the option to edit the parent slug, then you might have encountered a compatibility issue. This happened to me personally, while preparing this tutorial. I could not determine which plugin caused the issue, but deleting the ones that I did not need solved the issue.
Click on the “Update” button to apply the URL changes. You will need to repeat this for every child page you would like to remove the parent slug from.
Congratulations, you have successfully edited the child page URL to remove the parent slug for your WordPress website. You can use this plugin for more than just removing the parent slug. You can alter any URL on your website to say whatever you want. Keep in mind that it is a good idea to consider your website’s SEO. Unorganized URLs can hurt your website.
WordPress Default Settings Can be Changed
When WordPress is first installed, it comes with all of the default options enabled. Most of these are in place for good reason, but they can all be modified. It is important to understand which default setting should be changed and which should not. In this case, I would recommend not creating a child page. Instead, place the page under the parent page in a navigation menu. This way you will not have a parent slug and can still show that the Dogs page is a subpage of the Pets one.
Of course, on the flip side, some of the default settings can feel restrictive. Many of them should be changed, but those choices are all based on what kind of website you want to create.
Why do you want to delete the parent slug? Have you considered not making a child page instead?