Quick summary
A WordPress note about investigating location-based page hierarchy, building an admin linking utility, and resolving custom permalink 404s.
The problem
New location-based service pages needed to resolve through a custom URL structure, but normal page parent fields did not explain or repair the relationship.
What I checked
- WordPress dashboard page settings
- Elementor page settings
- Custom post type entries and ACF fields
- SEO plugin settings, snippets, child theme files, and plugin-accessible files
- REST API data for working pages
What I changed
- Confirmed the builder was not controlling the parent and page hierarchy
- Identified that normal pages were linked to location records through their parent value
- Built a custom admin utility to match unparented pages with the right location records
- Added rewrite and request-resolution logic for the custom URL format
- Updated location pages to link visitors to the new child service pages
Result
Previously failing custom service URLs resolved correctly, and future pages could be linked to their location parent from a safer dashboard tool.
What I'd watch next
- Whether new location pages follow the same parent-linking workflow
- Whether rewrite rules need flushed after deployment
- Whether canonical URLs and internal links stay aligned