Send Empty Parent Pages to Their First Child Page
When a parent page has no content of its own (it only groups subpages in the menu), visitors who open it are sent to its first child page instead of a blank page.
Opens WPIDE on
Code
add_action( 'template_redirect', function () {
if ( ! is_page() || is_front_page() ) {
return;
}
$page = get_queried_object();
if ( ! $page instanceof WP_Post || '' !== trim( $page->post_content ) ) {
return;
}
$children = get_posts( array(
'post_type' => 'page',
'post_parent' => $page->ID,
'post_status' => 'publish',
'orderby' => array( 'menu_order' => 'ASC', 'title' => 'ASC' ),
'numberposts' => 1,
) );
if ( $children ) {
wp_safe_redirect( get_permalink( $children[0] ), 302 );
exit;
}
} );Notes
Only pages whose content is completely empty are redirected; the first child is chosen by menu order, then title. The redirect is temporary, so adding content later works right away.
How to add this snippet
- Install WPIDE on your WordPress site (it is free) and open Code Snippets.
- Use snippet above adds it from the library in one click. Or copy the code into a new snippet with the same code type.
- It is added inactive: review the code and settings, then switch it on.