Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
How to force Wordpress to remove trailing slashes?
-
I've searched around quite a bit for a solution here, but I can't find anything. I apologize if this is too technical for the forum.
I have a Wordpress site hosted on Nginx by WP Engine. Currently it resolves requests to URLs either with or without a trailing slash.
So, both of these URLs are functional:
<code>mysite.com/single-post</code>
and
<code>mysite.com/single-post/</code>
I would like to remove the trailing slash from all posts, forcing
mysite.com/single-post/
to redirect tomysite.com/single-post
. I created a redirect rule on the server:^/(.*)/$ -> /$1
and this worked well for end-users, but rendered the admin panel inaccessible. Somewhere, Wordpress is adding a trailing slash back on to the URL
mysite.com/wp-admin
, resulting in a redirect loop. I can't see anything obvious in .htaccess.Where is this rule adding a trailing slash to 'wp-admin' established?
Thanks very much
-
WPEis run on a base server using Apache with a Nginx proxy so you can use the WP engine 301 redirect system built-in or you can simply add a redirect to the HTAccess file. If you would like to use a tool to do this I recommend this one another alternative is to ask WP engine to make a change for you.https://www.aleydasolis.com/htaccess-redirects-generator/non-slash-vs-slash-urls/ApacheJust copy to your htaccess:```
https://example.com/page/**https://example.com/page** ``` <label for="nonslash">**Slash to Non-Slash URLs**</label> > <ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine on > RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d > RewriteRule ^(.*)/$ /$1 [L,R=301]</ifmodule> **Non-Slash to Slash URLs** ``` ****Apache** https://example.com/page**
> <ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine on > RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f > RewriteRule ^(.*[^/])$ /$1/ [L,R=301]</ifmodule>
USEING Nginx to do
**https://example.com/page/**
As you see, there is one tiny difference between those two URLs, and it’s the trailing slash at the end. In order to avoid duplicate content, if you are using Nginx you can **remove the trailing slash from Nginx** URLs. Place this inside your virtual host file in the server {} block configuration: > ``` > rewrite ^/(.*)/$ /$1 permanent; > ``` Full example: > ``` > server { > listen 80; > server_name www.mysite.com; > rewrite ^/(.*)/$ /$1 permanent; > } > ``` All done, now Nginx will remove all those trailing slashes.
USEING Nginx to do
https://example.com/page
https://example.com/page/Add a trailing slash by placing this inside your virtual host file in the server {} block configuration: > ``` > rewrite ^(.*[^/])$ $1/ permanent; > ``` Full example: > ``` > server { > listen 80; > server_name www.mysite.com; > rewrite ^(.*[^/])$ $1/ permanent; > } > ``` From now on, Nginx should add your trailing slash automatically to every url * https://www.scalescale.com/tips/nginx/add-trailing-slash-nginx/ * https://www.scalescale.com/tips/nginx/nginx-remove-trailing-slash/ I hope this helps, Tom
-
Hi John, sorry ive been on leave so not checked back on the forums.
Glad it looks like its working for you. I dont think the comments do anything except signify where word press has begun writing to the .htaccess (i dont run wordpress so can't be sure). Normally comments do nothing but signify something useful to the user.
I can try to breakdown the code a little for you, but my htaccess isn't fantastic so its by no means complete.
Firstline: RewriteCond%{REQUEST_FILENAME}!-d
RewriteCond% = This says use this condition if....
{REQUEST_FILENAME}!-d = ... is NOT a directoryRewriteRule^(.*)/$ /$1 [L,R=301]
I believe this bit takes a snapshot of the url upto the final / then rewrites it to that snapshot.The combination of these must mean it doesn't affect your wordpress admin directory. I know this code can break if your install is within a directory (as is discussed in the stackover flow link) but they have provided a solution for that in that topic. I would say test if on your live website to make complete sure it will work as this may be slightly different to your local install. Have a back-up ready just incase it doesn't.
Make sure you check every url including
Homepage
Pages
Posts
Category Pages
Sub Category Pages
Post Pages
Any images or filesTo make sure it is working as expected on all of them.
-
Thanks so much, ATP! It looks like writing the condition into .htaccess does the trick—at least for my local install. Is this because the commands located within the
BEGIN WordPress
END WordPress
comments only apply to URLs outside of the WP admin area?
Thanks again, ATP—that was a very thorough and helpful response!
-
Hi John
Did ATP's solution help you out? Let us know if we can look into this further!
-
Hi John,
I asked something similar myself something myself but im on the Magento platform. This should matter as the solution wasn't platform specific. It just involved editing htaccess file. If your up for editing your .htacccess file then it could be of some use. The topic URL is below and it contains multiple solutions for editing and removing the / and the debugging process we went through along the way. (Courtesy of Andy and Dirk) Hopefully its of some use to you
https://moz.com/community/q/cms-pages-multiple-urls
SUMMARY:
If you know how to edit your .htaccess and your ready to dive straight in this code should do it.RewriteCond%{REQUEST_FILENAME}!-d
RewriteRule^(.*)/$ /$1 [L,R=301]If you want the page with explanations and walk-through please see the original topic as editing your htaccess badly can cause all sorts of errors.
Edit: I realised i was probably a tiny bit lazy and should of probably included this link which is the original link i got sent from stackoverflow with instructions on how to to edit your .htaccess file.
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/21417263/htaccess-add-remove-trailing-slash-from-url
Dirks answer later in the post offer guidance on applying it to certain parameters which should prove helpful if your still having loop problems with the admin page.
-
Thanks for the replies, Donna, Martijn. I am running Yoast and considered adding the trailing slash, but:
-Most of the inbound links we have are to URLs with no slash
-The slash style seems a little dated in general-few sites use them these days.
I'd really love to just figure out how to solve the issue a little closer to the root.
-
Hi John,
It seems obvious, but why not go for a adding a trailing slash to every URL instead or removing it, would solve your issues at least.
-
Are you using the yoast SEO plugin? There is a setting under Advanced > Permalinks that forces a trailing slash onto URLs. I'd try looking at that first.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Is Removing Breadcrumbs Detrimental for SEO?
We have full navigational breadcrumbs on our site for the menu and the brand menu. i.e. Home > Clothing > Jackets Brand > Brand Name > Brand Jackets There's been talk of removing this and having it like Chico's does, where on item pages they just have a link at the top to previous category (i.e. you're on a shirt product page and at the top it says "Back to Tops" instead of listing Home > Clothing > Tops) Is doing something like this detrimental to SEO? From what I've read Breadcrumbs are for user experience but I just want to be sure.
Technical SEO | | AliMac260 -
How do I "undo" or remove a Google Search Console change of address?
I have a client that set a change of address in Google Search Console where they informed Google that their preferred domain was a subdomain, and now they want Google to also consider their base domain (without the change of address). How do I get the change of address in Google search console removed?
Technical SEO | | KatherineWatierOng0 -
Should we remove category paths for better SEO?
We're looking to build some serious content and capitalise on long-tail keyword traffic for our sub-category pages, example for targeted keyword "designer dining tables". Example of current link: www.website.com/designer-furniture/designer-dining-tables.html Would removing the category paths help? Example result - www.website.com/designer-dining-tables More user friendly URLs and better for SEO would you suggest? The only problem is, if we removed the paths would this have a hit on our traffic? Any advice would be much appreciated. We are using Magento platform.
Technical SEO | | Jseddon920 -
Last Part Breadcrumb Trail Active or Non-Active
Breadcrumbs have been debated quite a bit in the past. Some claim that the last part of the breadcrumb trail should be non-active to inform users they have reached the end. In other words, Do not link the current page to itself. On the other hand, that portion of the breadcrumb would won't be displayed in the SERPS and if it was may lead to a higher CTR. Foe example: www.website.com/fans/panasonic-modelnumber panasonic-modelnumber would not be active as part of the breadcrumb. What is your take?
Technical SEO | | CallMeNicholi0 -
How to Delete the slug /category/ from wordpress category pages
Hi all, I would like to ask you what's the better way to eliminate the slug /category/ form the wordpress category pages. I need to delete the slug /category/ to make the url seo frendly. The problem is that my site is an old site with the page indexed by Google for a long time. Thanks for your advice.
Technical SEO | | salvyy0 -
Removing robots.txt on WordPress site problem
Hi..am a little confused since I ticked the box in WordPress to allow search engines to now crawl my site (previously asked for them not to) but Google webmaster tools is telling me I still have robots.txt blocking them so am unable to submit the sitemap. Checked source code and the robots instruction has gone so a little lost. Any ideas please?
Technical SEO | | Wallander0 -
How to force a trailing slash after the domain name
My campaign analysis is predictably listing domain.com and domain.com/ as repeated content. I've searched and searched but cannot find a way to force a trailing slash on the end of the domain name unless there's a file or directory after it.. Is there a way to accomplish this using .htaccess
Technical SEO | | JollyBoy0 -
.%E2%80%9d breaking the URL in wordpress
My wordpress URL is breaking and there are 5000 not found urls in webmaster due to some code being added %E2%80%9d. This code stands for double quotation marks - " Now the question is, where has my site gone wrong? I will tell you the changes which i have made Deleted a Vbulletin forum - Half of the errors are due to the forum being deleted directly Upgraded to Wordpress 3.3 (crawl errors did not show on the same day. Much later) Upgraded to Blue host pro (crawl errors did not show on the same day. Much later) These are some of the speculations. But nonetheless i have no idea why this is happening. To give further hints, the Home page URL is being added to the original URL. http://www.marketing91.com/article/http://www.marketing91.com http://www.marketing91.com/article/http://www.wrodpress.org So these are a list of problems i am facing in URL. Now i have no idea why this is happening. I can account for the deletion of a vbulletin forum. But that accounts only for half of the crawl errors. So any replies or answers??
Technical SEO | | hith2340