In WordPress, post and category ‘slugs’ are used to create permalinks, which are the page URL’s of your website. These are auto-generated based on the post or category title, and you can change them to create the URL’s you require. However, sometimes it doesn’t quite work out as planned, so let’s take a closer look.
The most common reason your slug does not change the way you want it to, across any WordPress website, is that the URL already exists! WordPress cleverly preventing duplicates by adding a numbered suffix like ‘-2’ to the slug, to make it unique.
With the Amibe Website Builder there’s another reason: URL restrictions.
TL;DR
The short explanation is that page URL that would have been created is a restricted (or reserved) URL, which just wouldn’t work!
So, try something else.
If you feel there’s a mistake, or would like assistance, please contact us for support.
Security implication
The longer explanation is that restricted URLs will most likely trigger the Amibe Security System.
Instead of reaching the page you expected, you’d receive an error message. And after a few failed attempts of refreshing the page, hoping something different will happen, the security system will interpret your actions as a security threat, and block you from your website entirely (as well as the entire Amibe Website Builder, and any other website’s using it).
This is a good thing – Amibe takes the security if your website very seriously! And if something is considered a threat to your site, it’s considered a threat to all.
This system is in place to deter and limit security threats, and restricted URLs match typical patterns used by potential threats. Aside from protecting your site from malicious activity, it also ensures your site is consistently performing better.
So, to avoid a false interpretation by the security system of your (or your visitor’s) actions, the Amibe Website Builder checks your slugs automatically. This is to make sure you’re not inadvertently generating a restricted URL.
An example
If you create a page called “WP Site”, WordPress would auto-generate ‘wp-site’ as a slug.
Amibe will strip away the ‘wp-‘ (a restricted prefix), and the remaining word ‘site’ (which is one of the redistricted words) would be adjusted to ‘site-2’ (assuming this does not already exist for another post).
You could edit and change this to something like ‘wpsite’, which is not restricted.