Set a custom rewrite rule for author archives in WordPress

—

in , ,

In the comments of my post on custom rewrite rules in WordPress, I received a query regarding creating author profile URLs using a rewrite convention of “/profile“.

The WordPress author archives are a great way to create profiles for each author on your WordPress-powered website (in fact, it’s done for you by default). The author archives also make use of the “author.php” template file, if it exists in the theme, allowing for easy additions of custom information about the author, custom content from various areas of your website or links to their social media profiles. The question is, how can we leverage this and still have “/profile” as a part of the URL to each author’s archive screen?

Below is a GitHub Gist of a small plugin I compiled to handle this. This plugin uses the WordPress Rewrite API to modify the “/author” part of the author archive URLs to read “/profile” instead.

How do I use this custom rewrite rule?

To use this, save this into a new PHP file (using a code editor of your choice, or a “Plain Text” file in TextEdit (OS X) or Notepad (Windows). From there, save this new file into the “wp-content/plugins” directory of your WordPress installation. This may require the use of FTP to get the code onto your server, should the installation be on a live website. Once uploaded, activate it via the “Plugins” screen in your WordPress admin.

Note: You’ll need to re-save your permalinks settings under the “Settings > Permalinks” screen after activating this plugin, as the plugin doesn’t automatically flush the rewrite rules on activation.

If you’ve ever needed to do this on a project, give this a try and let me know what you think in the comments below. 🙂

WordPress tips in your inbox ✨

More WordPress thoughts and tips, right in your inbox.

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

Comments

4 responses to “Set a custom rewrite rule for author archives in WordPress”

  1. Matthew Avatar
    Matthew

    Small & probably a bit silly question. Would this affect the rel=”author” for linking your Google + profile to your posts (to get your avatar to show in search results)?

    Here is the link to Yoast implementation article I have been following: http://yoast.com/wordpress-rel-author-rel-me/

    Reply
    1. Matty Avatar
      Matty

      Hey Matt,

      The “How to change the author URL” section of Yoast’s post, where he filters on “author_link”, could potentially override this, I believe. It’s unclear as to whether the “author_link” there is the URL filled in on the author’s profile, or their author archive screen in WordPress, where their posts are listed (I suspect it’s the former, though).

      Reply
      1. Matthew Avatar
        Matthew

        Awesome, thanks 🙂 I have been playing a little bit with author archives lately, WordPress just handles and thinks of everything straight out the box and your post was at the perfect time as well!

        Reply
  2. Custom URL rewrites in WordPress – A Getting Started Guide – Matt Cohen

    […] read a few queries regarding customising the author archive URLs in WordPress. Click the link to read my post on the subject and to see the code snippet I’ve compiled. […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *