Tutor LMS is destroying my site SEO with redirect links

Hi @zokkoz

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. In Tutor LMS, the permalink structure needs to be set to “Post name” for proper functionality. Our system is designed to work with this specific permalink setting, and using a custom link structure may cause issues or break the URLs, particularly in a multisite environment.

To maintain the intended URL structure for your courses, we recommend setting the permalinks to “Post name” under Settings > Permalinks. This will ensure that your courses have clean, user-friendly URLs like https://mywebsite.com/courses/my-sample-course/ without affecting other content types. We suggest sticking with the “Post name” setting to avoid any complications.

If you have any further questions or need assistance with this, feel free to reach out.

Best regards,
Dip Saha

@dipsaha Some users choose to add a prefix to the permalinks, For example as @zokkoz mentioned, /blog/%postname%/. But the problem that the prefix also added to the course permalinks.

• This reply was modified 3 months, 3 weeks ago by Yossi Aharon.

Hello @yossiaharon

In Tutor LMS, the permalink structure is optimized to work without any additional prefixes, especially for courses. Adding a prefix can disrupt the intended functionality, as it applies to all content types, including courses. To avoid this, we recommend using the “Post name” permalink setting without any prefixes, which will ensure that your course URLs remain clean and functional.

If you have any further questions or need additional support, feel free to reach out.

Best regards,
Dip Saha

Hi! @dipsaha !

Again, I am in a multisite environment, and WordPress automatically has the post name or the clean permalink you’re talking about as /blog/%postname%/. So, this is not about the permalink I chose because I set it up on post name, which is /%postname%/ on a single site, and /blog/%postname%/ on a multisite. I hope you understand that part.

Now, I already had many blog posts published with the permalink structure, which means it has to remain the same if I don’t want a lot of redirection that would affect my SEO.

When I installed Tutor, by some mechanism you surely know, it removed the prefix /blog/ from the URL of all already published blog posts, without any notice the way. And let me tell you that this is not good. At least, when installing on multisite, plugin users should receive some kind of notice about that, so they can decide themself if they want to proceed, instead of being surprised that default post permalinks have been impacted.

Now, because I don’t want to keep it without the prefix /blog/ I went to the site setting and manually reverted the permalink to /blog/%postname%/. When I checked back I saw that the course URL has the /blog/ prefix added. Now I am stuck because I can’t remove /blog/ if I don’t want to impact SEO on already published blog posts, and I can’t keep /blog/ because having /blog/ in the URL of a course post type does not make any sense.

Why depend on the regular post post type in WordPress for the URL/permalink structure if a course is a separate post type in itself?

What I need now is the ability to keep the regular post type permalink as it is in multisite, i.e. with the /blog/ prefix, while having the course post type without the /blog/ prefix (i.e as https://mywebsite.com/courses/my-sample-course/). How do I do that?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Kindly,

Hi @dipsaha ! I found out that another competitor has the issue fixed. I tested their plugin and could keep the /blog/ in the regular post post type content URL on multisite, while still having a just /course/ in the URL of the single course URL, instead of /blog/course/. This other plugin is LearnPress. Can I expect you to allow that also in TutorLMS?

Hello! Can someone please react to this: other plugins like LearnPress and Masteriyo allow me to keep /blog/ prefix on permalink, without adding it to the course post type permalink. But in Tutor, it’s not the case. Is there a workaround for that?

Hello @zokkoz

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We understand the importance of maintaining a clean permalink structure, especially in a multisite environment. Currently, Tutor LMS does not have the ability to separate the /blog/ prefix from course URLs like some other plugins. The permalink structure is optimized to work without any additional prefixes.

However, we’ve taken note of your feedback. While I can’t provide an exact timeline, we will consider implementing this in a future update to improve the flexibility of our permalink options. I hope you understand the matter.

We appreciate your understanding and thank you for your valuable input. If you have any more suggestions or need further assistance, please feel free to reach out.

If your question has been answered and you have no further inquiries, please mark the thread as “Resolved”.

Best regards,
Dip Saha

Hi @dipsaha!

I appreciate you taking the time to respond to the request. As I mentioned, other plugins allow the use of the /blog/ prefix on multisite for the regular post post type, without having it in course permalinks, but I prefer to use Tutor LMS.

At that point, I think I will keep using Tutor LMS. I will reverse the permalink back to /blog/%postname%/. I will then accept the course URLs with the /blog/ prefix in the hope that Turor LMS will fix that as soon as possible.

By the way, I know you have version 3.0 coming soon. This would be a great opportunity to fix that issue since the 3.0 version will be a deep revamp of the plugin.

Do you have a form where users can submit feature requests?

Hi @zokkoz,

Thank you for choosing Tutor LMS. We understand how crucial it is to maintain the correct permalink structure for both SEO and user experience, especially in a multisite environment. We appreciate your feedback regarding this feature.

I have a solution that can help you achieve the desired URL structure for your courses without affecting the existing blog post URLs.

Please follow these steps:

1. Add the following code to your theme’s functions.php file:

function set_custom_course_slug() {
    $args = array(
        'public'    => true,
        'rewrite'   => array( 'slug' => 'courses', 'with_front' => false, ),
    );
    register_post_type( 'courses', $args );
}
add_action( 'init', 'set_custom_course_slug' );

2. After adding this code, go to Settings > Permalinks in your WordPress dashboard and simply click the Save Changes button to refresh the permalink settings.

Please try this step and let us know if the issue persists.

Best regards,

Mohammad Nafiz

Hi @urnafiz !

Thanks a lot for the code. But it’s not fully working, as I explained in the following video recording doing some troubleshooting: https://www.awesomescreenshot.com/video/30478932?key=709adc5c355c4847c6aef9f417593365. I would appreciate your help making the final fixes.

Kindly

Hi @zokkoz,

I’m glad the initial code resolved the permalink issue. I’ve updated the code. Please replace the previous code with the following:

function fix_multisite_course_slug() {
	$args = array(
		'public'	=>	true,
		'has_archive'	=>	true,
		'rewrite'	=>	array(
			'slug'	=>	tutor_utils()->get_option( 'course_permalink_base', 'courses' ),
			'with_front'	=>	false,
		),
	);
	register_post_type( 'courses', $args );
}
add_action( 'init', 'fix_multisite_course_slug' );

This updated code should resolve the permalink issue while also ensuring that the course archive page functions correctly, including the filter options.

After adding this code, you can change the course permalink base text directly from the Tutor LMS settings page. Don’t forget to refresh the wordpress permalink settings at the end.

Please let me know if this fully resolves the issue.

Best regards,

Mohammad Nafiz

Hi @urnafiz !

Thanks so much. It works now.

That’s something that the developer team at @tutorlms could implement natively in the upcoming 3.0 version of the plugin.

You should check that out @knaber, @yossiaharon, @dipsaha, @wprashed.

Hello @zokkoz,

Thank you for your response!

As my colleague mentioned earlier, we have noted your feedback. I would suggest you wait for this. Since my solution worked, please mark this thread as “Resolved”. If you have any other questions, feel free to create a new thread.

Best regards,

Mohammad Nafiz

Hi @urnafiz !

I woke up to this error message this morning, as you can see in the screenshot below:

https://www.awesomescreenshot.com/image/50095677?key=a26c1beee6ebd600a63dbda83c604c1e

How do I fix that, please?

Thanks in advance.<gwmw style=”display:none;”></gwmw>

Kindly,

• This reply was modified 3 months, 1 week ago by zokkoz.
• This reply was modified 3 months, 1 week ago by zokkoz.

Hello @zokkoz,

Earlier I mentioned adding that code to your theme functions.php page. The error is occurring because the function may not be available when the code is executed from the code sinnepts plugin.

Please use the following code:

function fix_multisite_course_slug() {
	$args = array(
		'public'	=>	true,
		'has_archive'	=>	true,
		'rewrite'	=>	array(
			'slug'	=>	'slug' => 'Your_Course_Base_Permalink',
			'with_front'	=>	false,
		),
	);
	register_post_type( 'courses', $args );
}
add_action( 'init', 'fix_multisite_course_slug' );

Please replace Your_Course_Base_Permalink with your course permalink base. After adding this code, you can not change the course permalink base text directly from the Tutor LMS settings page. This updated code should resolve the error. Don’t forget to refresh the WordPress permalink settings at the end.

Thanks for your continued patience and for using Tutor LMS!

Best regards,

Mohammad Nafiz