Permalink is short for “permanent link.” Permalinks are permanent URL structures used to help organize the content of your website (pages, posts, products, etc.) so it can be efficiently navigated, shared, and referenced by users and bots.
Permalink settings for WooCommerce can be found at
WordPress > Settings > Permalinks.
From here you can configure the URL structure for your shop and product pages.
For best practice, permalink structures should contain keywords relating to the content they help categorize.
There are three settings at
WordPress > Settings > Permalinks > Optional that control the base of your categories, terms, and attributes on WooCommerce:
- Product category base – The default product category base is product-category. An example would be
yourdomain.com/product-category/category-name.
- Product tag base – The default product tag base is product-tag. An example would be
yourdomain.com/product-tag/tag-name.
- Product attribute base – The default product attribute base will optionally use a custom base before /attribute-name/attribute/. An example without anything set would be
yourdomain.com/size/medium or yourdomain.com/color/blue. If you set a custom base, an example would be yourdomain.com/attribute/size/medium where attribute is designated for the base.
There are four settings under
WordPress > Settings > Permalinks > Product Permalinks to select from as your permalink base for products:
- Default – If you are not using pretty permalinks, Default will be the only option available to you and will use ID-based URLs. An example would be
yourdomain.com/?product=111. If you are using pretty permalinks, the product base will be yourdomain.com/product/product-name.
- Shop base – The shop base will use the shop page name. An example would be
yourdomain.com/shop/product-name.
- Shop base with category – The shop base with category will use the shop page name first, then add the product category name. An example would be
yourdomain.com/shop/product-category-name/product-name.
- Custom base – The custom base will allow you to set custom text before the product name. An example would be
yourdomain.com/custom-text/product-name.
Note: The product
Custom base setting should
NOT conflict with the
Taxonomy permalink settings. If you set the
product base to
shop for example, you should
NOT set the
product category base to
shop too, as this will not be unique and cause a conflict. WordPress requires something unique so it can distinguish
categories from
products.