{"id":14910,"date":"2025-11-13T10:47:53","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T15:47:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/webguide\/?page_id=14910"},"modified":"2026-01-28T09:29:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T14:29:36","slug":"changing-page-urls","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/webguide\/userguide\/pages\/changing-page-urls\/","title":{"rendered":"Changing Page URLs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When you create a new page, WordPress automatically generates the page URL (also called the <strong>permalink<\/strong>) based on the page title.<\/p>\n<p>For example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Page Title<\/strong>: Residency Curriculum Overview<\/li>\n<li><strong>URL<\/strong>: https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/your-site\/residency\/residency-curriculum-overview\/<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>WordPress converts the title into a URL-friendly format:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>All lowercase<\/li>\n<li>Spaces replaced with hyphens<\/li>\n<li>Special characters removed<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr  style=\"margin:40px 0\"class=\" rule-thin osc-rule\" \/>\n<h2>When Should You Edit a URL?<\/h2>\n<p>Edit the URL when:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Renaming pages<\/li>\n<li>The auto-generated version creates unnecessary wording<\/li>\n<li>The page title is very long<\/li>\n<li>You need a URL that is easier to share or promote<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Example:<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Health Sciences has a page titled \u201c<strong>The Alliance of Health Science Ambassadors<\/strong>\u201d, located under the <strong>Students<\/strong> section. The default URL based on the title would be:\u00a0https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/students\/<strong>the-alliance-of-heath-science-ambassadors<\/strong>.\u00a0This URL is long, hard to type, and not ideal for sharing with students.<\/p>\n<p>If the department wants to promote the program and make the link more user-friendly, a shorter URL such as:\u00a0https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/healthsciences\/students\/<strong>ambassadors<\/strong>, is clearer and easier to remember<\/p>\n<hr  style=\"margin:40px 0\"class=\" rule-thin osc-rule\" \/>\n<h2>Changing URLs Will Break Links<\/h2>\n<p>Changing the URL of a page will break any existing links that point to that page. This affects both internal and external links. For that reason, it\u2019s best to modify the URL <strong>when the page is first created<\/strong>. Once a page is published and in use, changing its URL should be done with caution.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>WordPress does not automatically redirect old URLs to the new one<\/strong>. Anyone using the old link will receive a \u201cPage Not Found\u201d error.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Update any internal links <\/strong>on your site that point to the old URL. This includes menus, buttons, calls to action, and links embedded in other pages.<\/li>\n<li><strong>External links will also break.<\/strong> If important partners or departments link to your page, notify them so they can update their links.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Search engines will eventually adjust<\/strong>. The new URL will be indexed over time, but until then, the old URL may appear in search results.<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/webguide\/accessibility\/siteimprove\/\">Siteimprove<\/a> can be used to find broken links.<\/strong> After updating a URL, run a new site scan so Siteimprove can locate any internal links that need updating.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr  style=\"margin:40px 0\"class=\" rule-thin osc-rule\" \/>\n<h2>How to Edit the URL<\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li>Create a New Page or edit an existing one.<\/li>\n<li>Select <strong>Edit<\/strong> next to the permalink field that is located below the page title.<br \/>\n<span class=\"imgBorderMed\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-15250\" src=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/webguide\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/419\/2026\/01\/permalink.png\" alt=\"Screenshot showing the location of the page permalink.\" width=\"500\" height=\"106\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/webguide\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/419\/2026\/01\/permalink.png 672w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/webguide\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/419\/2026\/01\/permalink-300x64.png 300w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/webguide\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/419\/2026\/01\/permalink-600x128.png 600w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/webguide\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/419\/2026\/01\/permalink-560x119.png 560w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/span><\/li>\n<li>Adjust the URL text as needed.\n<ul>\n<li>Keep URLs short and descriptive.\n<ul>\n<li>Good: faculty-resources<\/li>\n<li>Avoid: all-available-faculty-resources-and-guidelines-2025<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Use lowercase letters only.<\/li>\n<li>Use hyphens to separate words, never underscores.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Click <strong>OK<\/strong>, then <strong>Update<\/strong> the page to save changes.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<hr  style=\"margin:40px 0\"class=\" rule-thin osc-rule\" \/>\n<h2>Why WordPress Sometimes Adds \u201c-2\u201d to a URL<\/h2>\n<p>If you see a URL end in \u201c<strong>-2<\/strong>\u201d, it means WordPress has detected that the same URL already exists somewhere on your site.<\/p>\n<p>WordPress requires every page, post, event, and media file to have a <strong>unique URL<\/strong>. So if you create a new page titled \u201cResearch\u201d and a page, post, or even a media file already uses that URL, WordPress will automatically generate a new one:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Existing URL: \/research\/<\/li>\n<li>New Page URL: \/research-2\/<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This can happen when:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Another page is already using the same title<\/li>\n<li>A previous page was deleted but still exists in the Trash<\/li>\n<li>A media file (PDF, image, document) has the same name and generated the same URL<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you run into this:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Check the All Pages list<\/strong> for another page with the same name.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Check the Trash<\/strong> &#8211; URLs are still reserved for items in Trash.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Check the Media Library<\/strong> for files with the same name.<\/li>\n<li>Adjust your new page\u2019s URL to something clearer and more specific if needed.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When you create a new page, WordPress automatically generates the page URL (also called the permalink) based on the page title. For example: Page Title: Residency Curriculum Overview URL: https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/your-site\/residency\/residency-curriculum-overview\/ WordPress converts the title into a URL-friendly format: All lowercase Spaces replaced with hyphens Special characters removed When Should You Edit a URL? Edit the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/webguide\/userguide\/pages\/changing-page-urls\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Changing Page URLs\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3206,"featured_media":0,"parent":14843,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"layout":"","cellInformation":"","apiCallInformation":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-14910","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","odd"],"acf":[],"_links_to":[],"_links_to_target":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/webguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/webguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/webguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/webguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3206"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/webguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14910"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/webguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15251,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/webguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14910\/revisions\/15251"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/webguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/webguide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}