Remove Blog Slug from WordPress Multisite without Plugin

There’s no need for plugins or complicated solutions to remove the /blog/ slug from the WordPress post permalink URL structure created by WP Multisite.

Follow these step-by-step instructions to quickly fix your permalinks.

WordPress Multiside Blog Slug Removal

When enabling WordPress Multisite; all post URLs turn into this format:

http://www.webhostwhat.com/blog/2017/08/01/remove-blog-slug-from-wordpress-multisite-without-plugin/

By default it’s not possible to change the “blog” part by going to the permalink settings of your blog — causing a lot of confusion online.

Here’s how to remove the “blog” slug & change to whatever format:

Step 1. Navigate to WordPress dashboard.

WordPress Network Admin Sites

Step 2. Navigate to My Sites –> Network Admin –> Sites

Step 3. Choose to Edit the main site

WordPress Edit Site Settings

Step 4. Navigate to Settings of the site

WordPress Network Admin Permalink Structure

Step 5. Look for the Permalink Structure setting; and change this:

/blog/%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/

to this for example:

/%postname%/

Important! Keep reading this is not everything.

WordPress Save Permalink Structure Changes

Step 6. Once Permalink Structure is satisfactory; Save Changes

WordPress 404 Error

Step 7. When you try to open posts on your WordPress blog; you will get a “404 Page Not Found” error — don’t worry everything going to plan!

WordPress Dashboard

Step 8. Go back to the Dashboard of the main site with broken posts.

WordPress Permalinks Custom Structure

Step 9. Navigate to Permalinks under Settings & don’t do anything

You are done — 404 error is fixed and blog slug is gone; Enjoy!

Seriously. Just visiting the permalinks settings page will fix everything — this is a working method; tried and tested on this website with the latest version of WordPress.

I Hope you enjoyed this little easy guide on removing the blog slug from post URLs for WordPress without a plugin; when using Multisite.

Comments welcome!

23 thoughts on “Remove Blog Slug from WordPress Multisite without Plugin”

  1. I have noticed the /blog on the main site by default and was looking for a solution, and found this post.

    Quite handy, I must say, at least it allows us to define what we wish without installing “another plugin”.

    Thank you for sharing this easy, and straightforward advice.

    Reply
  2. Thank you. Still works in 2020 with current version of WP. Seen so many complex fixes to resolve this and yours is so simple. Works perfectly.

    Reply
  3. Cool !! … I can’t believe that just visiting the permalinks section will solve the problem… thank you!

    Reply
  4. Brilliant, it worked! Thanks so much, it really helped me! I loved the “mportant! Keep reading this is not everything.” comment – of course you caught me just before I clicked away at that point without bothering to read further 🙂

    Reply
    • Hello Niyi Adebayo,
      That means your server is using Web Application Firewall or a security plugin to block the attempt.
      In this case, what you should do is white list your IP at the security tool.

      I’m a WordPress Support Agent at WPMU DEV and I white list the IP of the client on the Web Application Firewall integrated into our servers to stop the 403 Access Denied error.

      PD: I found this great guide today, sorry for the lateness.

      Reply

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