Primary product-category is NOT in product URL

Just to be clear. I’m talking about the product-URL that shows on the productpage and that is shown when the product is shown in the browser.

Hello,

Thanks for reaching out.

To simplify, do you mean that a specific product category (in this case ‘compatibility’), though it has been created, cannot be chosen as the primary category for your product?

If yes, can you share a screenshot of the category option in the sidebar where you have the ‘Make primary category’ option?

• This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by Maybellyne.

I can choose the blue “Make Primary”, for all the active categories of a specific product.

Also the specific chosen category – in the category overview – of a product, changes into Primary category, shown with the bold text Primary & the category changes into bold.

Only this does not reflect in a change in the product-URL.

I can’t see here any link or information, how to upload an image ?? How to?

https://snipboard.io/QwVdbo.jpg

Thanks for the annotated screenshot. To summarize the problem, when you make a category the primary category for a product, this does not reflect in the product permalink. Is this correct?

Yes, correct.

Thanks for providing more clarification.

By default, Yoast SEO will output the primary category in the permalink. You can see it get changed in these images here: https://pasteboard.co/Hz9UloR.png and https://pasteboard.co/Hz9UpVN.png. Also, if you go to WordPress > Settings > Permalink, you will need to make sure you have ‘category’ as part of the permalink.

Furthermore, you need to manually change the permalink for every product you change its category. Also, you need to manually create a redirect to avoid a 404 error.

Thanks for clarifying how the Yoast SEO primary category works. For some reason it is not working this way with my products ??

Could you clarify some actions you mentioned?:

1A What do you mean with “you will need to make sure you have ‘category’ as part of the permalink”?

1B I attached an image of my current permalinks, could you check if something is wrong there?

1C In my previous image you can see that the (permalink) word ‘product’ is part of the product-url and not ‘category’. If I “make sure you have category as part of the permalink”, wouldn’t that be confusing for SEO/Google as the URL is not a category-URL, but a product-URL? So Why would I add the word ‘category’ in a product-URL?

1D The category-URL would be https://www. .com/product-category/2-or-3-sims-active. And in here would be showing all the products that have 2 or 3 sims active. Here it seems to be SEO/google wise to add the word ‘category’ to the category-URL.

2 What do you mean with “you need to manually change the permalink for every product you change its category”.

3 Current site is the new website, where the old website will be redirecting to, so I’m still kind of flexible in how to make the URL-structure.

Thanks so much, for following this up!

https://snipboard.io/S2eIBa.jpg

Hello @ivarb,

Thanks for all the helpful screenshots. We see that you want the primary category change to be reflected in the permalink. However, after further testing, we discovered that this only works for sub-categories. Your screenshot shows the parent category.

In order for the primary parent category to show in the permalink, you need the Yoast WooCommerce SEO plugin. If you have further questions regarding this plugin, please email [email protected].

As I’m still flexible in the new website, I made the primary category into a primary subcategory, as you state it should be working fine then. Still it does not reflect in in the product’s permalink, see the attachment.

As some of your previous comments were not clear to me, I asked some questions in my former message. Maybe in some of those unanswered questions lies the solution?:

1A What do you mean with “you will need to make sure you have ‘category’ as part of the permalink”?

1B I attached an image of my current permalinks, could you check if something is wrong there?

1C In my previous image you can see that the (permalink) word ‘product’ is part of the product-url and not ‘category’. If I “make sure you have category as part of the permalink”, wouldn’t that be confusing for SEO/Google as the URL is not a category-URL, but a product-URL? So Why would I add the word ‘category’ in a product-URL?

1D The category-URL would be https://www. .com/product-category/2-or-3-sims-active. And in here would be showing all the products that have 2 or 3 sims active. Here it seems to be SEO/google wise to add the word ‘category’ to the category-URL.

2 What do you mean with “you need to manually change the permalink for every product you change its category”.

image subcategory:

https://snipboard.io/s28BD5.jpg

same image permalinks:

https://snipboard.io/S2eIBa.jpg

Hi,

For your product permalinks, we do see you have a custom base that is currently set to:

/product/%product_cat%/

And you currently have the ‘2 or 3 SIMs Active’ set as the primary category, but in the permalinks, it is still showing ‘iPad’ in the permalinks, when you are expecting it to be ‘1 or 3 SIMs Active’, correct?

We do know that the primary category will work for default posts, but with WooCommerce product categories, in order to ensure that the ‘primary category’ function will work well with the permalinks, you’ll need to purchase the Yoast WooCommerce SEO plugin.

You can purchase the add-on plugin, and it should then work for your permalinks. If you have any issues, you can always contact our support team for premium personal support, and we also have a lenient 30-day refund policy, if you decide that it isn’t for you.