Understanding and Configuring Permalinks
Permalinks are the permanent URLs of your individual blog posts, pages, and other content. They define how your links appear to both users and search engines.
A well-structured permalink makes your website easier to navigate and improves search engine optimization (SEO). For example, a link like: yourwebsite.com/?p=123 is harder to read and less informative than: yourwebsite.com/contact or yourwebsite.com/healthy-snack-recipes.
WordPress allows you to configure how your URLs are structured using different permalink settings.
Why Permalinks Matter
Permalinks impact three important aspects of your site:
- User experience: clean URLs help visitors know what to expect from a link before clicking on it;
- SEO: search engines use keywords in your URL to understand the content of the page;
- Sharing: simple URLs are easier to copy, paste, and shareβespecially on social media or printed materials.
To configure your site's permalink structure:
- Go to Settings β Permalinks in the WordPress dashboard;
- You'll see a list of structure options. The most common ones include:
- Plain:
yourwebsite.com/?p=123(not recommended); - Day and name:
yourwebsite.com/2025/04/08/sample-post; - Month and name:
yourwebsite.com/2025/04/sample-post; - Post name (recommended):
yourwebsite.com/sample-post.
- Plain:
- Choose "Post name" for a clean, SEO-friendly structure;
- After selecting your preferred option, click Save Changes at the bottom of the screen.
Advanced users can create custom URL structures using tags like %category%, %postname%, or %author%. But for most websites, the "Post name" format offers the best balance of clarity and SEO benefits.
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Permalinks are the permanent URLs of your individual blog posts, pages, and other content. They define how your links appear to both users and search engines.
A well-structured permalink makes your website easier to navigate and improves search engine optimization (SEO). For example, a link like: yourwebsite.com/?p=123 is harder to read and less informative than: yourwebsite.com/contact or yourwebsite.com/healthy-snack-recipes.
WordPress allows you to configure how your URLs are structured using different permalink settings.
Why Permalinks Matter
Permalinks impact three important aspects of your site:
- User experience: clean URLs help visitors know what to expect from a link before clicking on it;
- SEO: search engines use keywords in your URL to understand the content of the page;
- Sharing: simple URLs are easier to copy, paste, and shareβespecially on social media or printed materials.
To configure your site's permalink structure:
- Go to Settings β Permalinks in the WordPress dashboard;
- You'll see a list of structure options. The most common ones include:
- Plain:
yourwebsite.com/?p=123(not recommended); - Day and name:
yourwebsite.com/2025/04/08/sample-post; - Month and name:
yourwebsite.com/2025/04/sample-post; - Post name (recommended):
yourwebsite.com/sample-post.
- Plain:
- Choose "Post name" for a clean, SEO-friendly structure;
- After selecting your preferred option, click Save Changes at the bottom of the screen.
Advanced users can create custom URL structures using tags like %category%, %postname%, or %author%. But for most websites, the "Post name" format offers the best balance of clarity and SEO benefits.
Thanks for your feedback!
