WooCommerce uses a fixed URL structure for products and product categories. This often creates long and repetitive links that are hard to read and do not reflect how a store is actually organized.
WooCommerce URLs are built on top of built-in rewrite rules, which limits how much you can change using the default settings. While you can edit the product slug, fixed URL parts, such as /product/ and /product-category/, cannot be removed without using custom permalink plugin.
This happens because uses dedicated permalink bases for each content type to decide what content should be loaded for a given URL.
Permalink Manager lets you remove or change these parts of the URL safely, without breaking your existing links. You do not need any coding or advanced WordPress skills to use it.
Using Permalink Manager to Change WooCommerce URLs
Permalink Manager allows you to customize WooCommerce permalinks directly from the WordPress admin dashboard, without writing any PHP code. The configiration process is simple, and it usually takes only a few clicks.
Step 1: Open Permastructures Editor
To change and override the default WooCommerce permalink settings, open the Permastructure editor. You can find it by navigating in your WordPress dashboard to "Tools -> Permalink Manager -> Permastructures".
The WooCommerce content types are organized in a separate subsection for your convenience. You will find the settings for content types controlled by WooCommerce grouped into a separate section near the bottom of the page.
Step 2: Edit the URL Structure
You may now replace the permalink bases /product/, /product-category/, and /product-tag/ with any word you choose or delete them entirely.
Please remember to save the updated options by clicking the "Save Permastructures" button at the bottom of the page.
To prevent any unexpected modifications to existing URLs that could negatively impact SEO, these changes will not affect them automatically.
Step 3: Update Existing URLs (Optional)
If you want your product URLs to follow the new structure without permalink bases, you need to reset their custom permalinks. This can be done using the "Regenerate/Reset" tool found in the Tools section.
You will need to use it separately for post types (Products), and for taxonomies (Product Categories & Product Tags), depending on which ones need to be updated.
Products
After opening the tool, you will see a simple form with a handful of settings. To set the new format for Products, use the settings listed below:
| Field | Selection |
|---|---|
| Mode | Regenerate custom permalinks |
| Select content type | Post types |
| Select post types | Products |
| Select post statuses | Published |
Products categories & tags
Resetting the permalinks for Product Categories and Tags involves steps identical to those used for Products. The settings, however, are shown below and differ a bit from the settings used for Products:
| Field | Selection |
|---|---|
| Mode | Regenerate custom permalinks |
| Select content type | Taxonomies |
| Select taxonomies | Product categories & Product tags |
Further Customization Options
The plugin capabilities are significantly wider. You are free to adjust your permalinks in any way you see suitable. Furthermore, you may manually update any of the individual URL addresses if necessary.
How to Customize WooCommerce Permalinks Individually?
If you want to remove /product-category/ from WooCommerce permalinks, using "Permastructures" to bulk update them is more convenient than changing them one by one. Permalink Manager allows you to modify the shop URLs in yet another method.
When you only need to change a few products or product categories, using URI Editor is the simplest and most straightforward option. To open the URI Editor, click the "Permalink Manager" button next to the title input field.
The URI Editor for product categories and tags may be found at the bottom of the form that allows you to make changes to the term.
SEO Considerations
The URLs are an important element of your SEO strategy and should be analyzed with care. In a brand-new WooCommerce store, updating permalinks usually has little impact on SEO because the site has minimal traffic and few, if any, backlinks.
While URL length does not directly affect the position in search results, it can influence how users perceive your links in search results, which can impact click-through rates.
Shorter, cleaner URLs often look better in search results and can encourage more visitors to click. Search engines typically display only the first 65–75 characters of a URL in results pages.
For an established site, changing existing URLs requires caution. Pages or products that already have backlinks, organic traffic, or authority should generally keep their current permalinks to avoid broken links and loss of SEO value.
WooCommerce Built-in Permalink Settings
How WooCommerce URLs Look by Default
So, how is this related to WooCommerce permalinks? Let's take a moment to see what these URLs usually look like by default. By default, the WooCommerce content type items' URLs follow this pattern:
- Products:
/product/product-name/ - Categories:
/product-category/category-name/ - Tags:
/product-tag/tag-name/
As you can see above, the URLs for each content type have an extra part ("/product/", "/product-tag/", and "/product-category/") that does not add much meaning, making the URL longer.
Longer URLs get truncated, potentially hiding relevant information. Therefore, a flatter, more concise structure like /smartphones/iphone-case/ can provide clearer context and attract more visitors.
A common and simple way to make WooCommerce URLs shorter is by getting rid of that extra part, which is explained later in the article.
Why You Should Not Remove Bases Without a Plugin?
Some developers suggest setting the base slug for WooCommerce content types to a single dot ('.') to remove it. While it might seem to work at first, it actually overrides other rewrite rules, which can break links, display incorrect content, or make some pages inaccessible.
If you use the same permalink base (like "product") for different content types or remove it completely in built-in permalinks settings, WordPress will not be able detect the permalinks correctly.
This can lead to one of two issues:
- It might mistakenly interpret pages' or posts' permalinks as WooCommerce products or categories, causing 404 errors.
- WordPress may ignore rewrite rules for WooCommerce content types, which can prevent products or categories from loading correctly.
This is a common issue, but the official documentation only touches on it briefly. What is more surprising is that while there are plenty of discussions on WordPress.org and other platforms, very few actually explain why removing the base this way does not work:
- https://wordpress.org/support/topic/can-we-remove-the-word-products-from-our-url/
- https://github.com/woocommerce/woocommerce/issues/16602
If you still want to remove the base, you can override the default permalinks using custom code snippet or an extra plugin such as Permalink Manager.