<p>WordPress 3.0 comes with a new filter that lets us customize what is used for each permalink structure tag, other than WordPress default.</p>
<p>One of these permalink structure tags is <code>%category%</code>. By default, WordPress always use the category with lowest ID, making <code>%category%</code> impractical for SEO optimization.</p>
<p><strong>Hikari Category Permalink</strong> allows post authors to choose among each post’s categories, which of them is used in that post permalink, giving much more flexibility and power to permalinks.</p>
<p>This plugin is a fork of <a href="https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/scategory-permalink/" rel="ugc">Dmytro’s sCategory Permalink</a>. It has all original features and is compatible with original options, while being more stable and simple, and also fixes 2 recurring bugs.</p>
<h4>Features</h4>
<ul>
<li>You can choose for each post separately, which category is used in its <code>%category%</code> permalink.</li>
<li>Posts without a category set to be used in permalink behave as WordPress default, (which currently is) the one with lowest ID is used</li>
<li>Posts with a category set have it used</li>
<li>In post edit page, where you set the post’s categories, there’s a new feature allowing you to choose which category will be used in permalink</li>
<li>No rewrite rules tweaks are done, making the plugin much simpler and bug free</li>
<li>If you already used sCategory Permalink, you can safely deactivate it and replace by <strong>Hikari Category Permalink</strong>, all your category permalinks will be used</li>
</ul>


Hikari Category Permalink

For each post, author can choose which category is used in permalink.

Chris A. a11n

<p>Backwards Compatible Permalinks helps prevent 404 errors when switching between permalink structures.</p>
<p>It achieves this by appending a set of backwards compatible post rewrite rules. This ensures posts are still accessible at their previous permalink after the permalink structure is updated.</p>
<h4>Example</h4>
<p>Let’s say your permalink structure is set to “Month and name” and you have a post titled “I Love WordPress.” That particular post would live at <code>https://example.com/2019/03/i-love-wordpress/</code>.</p>
<p>But what if you wanted to switch to the “Post name” permalink structure and have your post live at <code>https://example.com/i-love-wordpress/</code> instead?</p>
<p>You could but this would result in the existing post permalink 404ing when visited. Which is problematic if the previous URL was bookmarked or shared on social media.</p>
<p>With Backwards Compatible Permalinks installed your post would be accessible at both the old and new permalink structures:</p>
<ul>
<li><code>https://example.com/2019/03/i-love-wordpress/</code></li>
<li><code>https://example.com/i-love-wordpress/</code></li>
</ul>
<h4>Caveats</h4>
<ul>
<li>This plugin does not work retroactively. i.e. you must have the plugin installed and activated prior to switching permalink structures before backwards compatibility will work.</li>
<li>Currently only standard posts are supported.</li>
<li>Backwards compatibility is not supported between certain permalink structure updates. This is due to a clash between permalink structure regex matching.</li>
<li>Backwards compatibility is only provided between the most recent permalink structure update. i.e. you cannot change your permalink structure 3 times and have backwards compatibility across all 3 structures.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Deactivate or uninstall</h4>
<p>After deactivating or uninstalling this plugin please ensure you visit Settings > Permalinks in the WordPress admin area to flush your rewrite rules.</p>
<h4>Contributing</h4>
<p>Contributions are <a href="https://github.com/aprea/backwards-compatible-permalinks" rel="nofollow ugc">welcomed on GitHub</a>.</p>
<h3>From within WordPress</h3>
<ol>
<li>Visit ‘Plugins > Add New’.</li>
<li>Search for ‘Backwards Compatible Permalinks’.</li>
<li>Activate Backwards Compatible Permalinks from your Plugins page.</li>
</ol>
<h3>Manually</h3>
<ol>
<li>Upload the <code>backwards-compatible-permalinks</code> folder to the <code>/wp-content/plugins/</code> directory.</li>
<li>Activate the Backwards Compatible Permalinks plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.</li>
</ol>


Backwards Compatible Permalinks

Provides a degree of backwards compatibility when switching between permalink structures.

Hikari Category Permalink vs Backwards Compatible Permalinks