Last Updated on September 25, 2023 by Christopher G Mendla
Discover the unexpected pitfalls of changing WordPress permalink settings. Follow one user’s experience and learn how to rectify a 50% traffic drop.
Introduction: The Unexpected Challenge with Migration
Migrating a site can be a painstaking process. Recently, I transitioned one of my sites to a superior hosting package. Everything seemed smooth, thanks to the efficient plugin WP Updraft. That was until I noticed a shocking 50% decline in traffic post-migration. The decline in traffic correlated with the migration.
Several reports all showed a definite decrease in traffic:
- Google Adsense daily page views
- Google analytics
- Google Search Console.
They all showed that traffic started decreasing when I migrated the hosting. The raw number of page view was consistent between tools.
H2: The Investigation Begins: New Hosting vs. Old Hosting
Despite the traffic drop, my initial benchmarks showed that the new hosting package was a clear winner over the old. But, if not the hosting, then what was the issue?
H3: The Role of a Broken Link Checker
In my bid to uncover the mystery, I turned to the results of a broken link checker plugin I had installed. Astonishingly, the once familiar links had now changed.
Previously, articles appeared as: chrismendlascorner.com/yyyy/mm/dd/article-name
But now, they morphed into: chrismendlascorner.com/article-name
The change in the permalink structure would definitely cause major traffic issues. This would throw off the search engine crawlers and users would be frustrated by following links that were now broken.
H4: Delving Deeper: phpMyAdmin & Possible Culprits
Considering that I had recently performed some table maintenance with phpMyAdmin, I was initially concerned that my actions might have inadvertently disrupted the link structure. However, this seemed improbable.
I considered restoring from a backup. There were almost no comments since the traffic had dropped. However, I had done a lot of configuration of my Thrive theme. Restoring the database would probably require redoing a lot of work that I had put into configuring the themes. The costs seemed to outweigh the benefits.
H3: The Real Culprit: WordPress Permalink Settings
Upon further inspection, I identified the root of the issue. The permalink settings in WordPress had been altered. For over a decade, I’ve preferred the month and day setting, but now, it was surprisingly set to post name.
Could this alteration be an unintended consequence of the migration? Or, might it be an intervention from my hosting company? The latter seemed unlikely, as it’s uncommon for a hosting service to modify WordPress settings on a client’s site.
When I checked the permalink settings, I saw that they were set to Post name and not `Day and Name. This explained the change in link structure.
H2: The Resolution: Returning to Month and Day
By reverting the permalinks back to the month and day format, a significant portion of the reported bad links vanished. The effect on the broken link checker was immediate.
H3: Awaiting Results
While this modification should, in theory, resolve my traffic dilemma, only time will tell. I’m keenly observing the next few days for any improvement. I will need to keep an eye on the Google Search Console and traffic. I’ll also keep an eye on the Bing Webmaster Console as well as Analytics traffic reports.
My hope is that fixing this issue will result in a quick restoration of traffic at least to the pre-migration levels.
Conclusion: The Importance of Vigilance in Site Migration
Migrating a site is not just about moving data; it’s about ensuring that every setting remains intact. A simple change, like that of the permalink structure, can have drastic consequences. Always double-check, and then check again. Your site’s traffic may depend on it.
As I stated previously, I am not sure why the permalink structure changed. That setting should have been replicated when I restored the site from a backup to the new hosting. I will definitely keep a close eye on the permalinks to make sure that they do not change.