WordPress Permalinks on GoDaddy Hosting

Posted in: 16 Comments
October 16, 2008

If you’ve been trying without success to create pretty permalinks for your GoDaddy hosted WordPress blog, do not despair. It will work.

About WordPress Permalinks

For those that are new to WordPress, Pretty Permalinks or Custom Permalinks allow you to transform the typical page urls that are created by the software. If you take a look at your address bar as you click through a new WordPress website, you will see urls that look like this:

http://www.velvetblues.com/?p=7

Clearly, there are many problems with this url. First, it isn’t search engine friendly. And second, it is hard for any visitor to remember. So, you can create urls that look like this:

http://www.velvetblues.com/services/

Much better!

 

And all of this is easily accomplished from a simple Settings page, shown below.

WordPress Custom Permalinks   

The Problem

However, once you update the structure and click save, it doesn’t seem to work on GoDaddy hosted websites. In fact, when you navigate your website using the new permalink structure, you will generate these frustrating Page Not Found errors.

GoDaddy 404 Error

What could be wrong?

The GoDaddy Delay

We like to call this a case of The GoDaddy Delay, and it can be explained by considering what happens behind the scenes.

When you update your permalink structure, WordPress creates something called an htaccess file. This file saves certain configuration settings for your link structure. However, it takes GoDaddy about 30 minutes to recognize that this file has been created, and start following the new rules within it.

So when dealing with GoDaddy, just be patient. Go put the kettle on, and make a cup of tea. And perhaps your permalinks will be working when you return.

 

For more information on using and customizing your permalinks, see the WordPress permalink documentation.

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16 Responses to “WordPress Permalinks on GoDaddy Hosting”

  • On February 17th, 2009 at 4:12 am, James wrote:

    You are a life saver. This problem was driving me nuts. I started thinking I would have to change server configurations or hosts. Patience is a virtue, or so I’m told.

  • On February 17th, 2009 at 7:44 pm, faze one studio wrote:

    yeah! thanks i kept flipping back and forth from perma structures and trying every plugin known.. thank you!

  • On February 17th, 2009 at 7:46 pm, faze one studio wrote:

    o yeah, i gave this a stumble for ya!

    faze one studio’s last blog post..Rebecca & Lyneigha

  • On February 18th, 2009 at 1:03 am, Velvet Blues wrote:

    @James: Glad to help. I had a similar experience the first time I worked with GoDaddy’s hosting. So I thought I’d save people some stress by posting this info. :-)

    @faze one…: Glad its working for you now. Thanks for stopping by.

  • On February 20th, 2009 at 8:49 pm, StacyN wrote:

    YES - thank you. Because this is making me crazy, and I’ve built plenty of Wordpress sites! I was trying EVERYTHING to make this work…

  • On February 27th, 2009 at 1:14 pm, Art wrote:

    I guess I need to stop this “I want it now!” attitude with GoDaddy. Your post was extremely helpful, so thanks!

  • On March 25th, 2009 at 2:14 am, mccormicky wrote:

    Thanks for writing this.You are awesome! I can’t believe how long I sweated this problem. Months. When I first began talks with my client and wanted them to change from /?p=123 I felt really silly and stupid when I got that 1st 404.
    In this case it was only a 10 minute wait before the new permalinks kicked in proper-like. Jeez!

    mccormicky’s last blog post..Tomato Basil and Mozzarella Pie

  • On March 28th, 2009 at 5:08 pm, s1 wrote:

    Yes, thank you!! It’s hard to leave broken links alone and think they will eventually start working :) This should be posted on GoDaddy!

  • On April 10th, 2009 at 8:34 pm, Josh wrote:

    Thanks for the info. Could not get help on the Godaddy FAQ so I hit Google and found your post. Thanks for sharing.

    Josh’s last blog post..Sprint Ad with a Twitter Call Out

  • On May 7th, 2009 at 4:52 am, Brian wrote:

    I’ve read countless posts on the godaddy delay and waiting 10 minutes to 2 hrs for it to update but after 3 hrs I’m getting really impatient and wondering if this will EVER be resolved!!

    I’m running wordpress 2.7.1 on an economy hosting plan and others have done fine but me…not so much :(

    Any help would be appreciated!

  • On June 2nd, 2009 at 5:33 pm, andy rooney wrote:

    Anyone have a GoDaddy account? I need to migrate my shared servers to a dedicated server and not sure how all of that works.

  • On September 8th, 2009 at 4:11 am, Learn To Ride A Horse wrote:

    oh man, thank you SO much… i thought my brain was going to explode! lol. you’re a lifesaver! thanks!

  • On September 18th, 2009 at 7:28 pm, Carrie wrote:

    Thank you for posting this. I have been working with clients that have GoDaddy as a host and couldn’t figure out what had gone wrong. I tried CHMOD’ing the .htaccess file and even did a funny dance around my computer hoping the gods would take pity on me.

    I will wait and see what happens. I am just wondering if in the .htaccess file if it should have something like this in it:

    # BEGIN WordPress

    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteBase /
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
    RewriteRule . /index.php [L]

    # END WordPress

  • On September 18th, 2009 at 7:30 pm, Carrie wrote:

    Thank you for posting this. I have been working with clients that have GoDaddy as a host and couldn’t figure out what had gone wrong. I tried CHMOD’ing the .htaccess file and even did a funny dance around my computer hoping the gods would take pity on me.

    I will wait and see what happens. I am just wondering if in the .htaccess file if it should have something in it once you have messed with the settings? Cause I have Begin WordPRess and End Wordpress and nothing in between. On my other sites there is, but on this one there isn’t. Strange.
    Carrie´s last blog ..Meet * Ast Riske My ComLuv Profile

  • On January 4th, 2010 at 1:02 pm, Adam wrote:

    Im dealing with this issue and was wondering if the htaccess should contain the wrapper or not? Anyone know? Im just using basic pretty permalink setup with /%category%/%postname%

    Thanks!
    Adam´s last blog ..Planning Partners International Brochure My ComLuv Profile

  • On January 4th, 2010 at 1:58 pm, Adam wrote:

    OK here’s hoping everyone who is having problems with this reads this comment. Thanks to http://faq.wordpress.net/view.php?p=20, I tried accessing the godaddy control panel, going to setttings, 404 error handling, and changed the default “godaddy’s 404 error page” to “home page” and viola, everything worked. It did take about 20 minutes for the change to take effect.
    Adam´s last blog ..Planning Partners International Brochure My ComLuv Profile

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