If you are not sure what is permalink, let me first explain it. Permalink is short of a Permanent link. It represents the URL of a web page or blog post. The URL of an article also affects the ranking of a web page. This is why it is important to find out the best URL structure for a website. Read about the permalink structure on Wiki.

The default URL structure of WordPress is now SEO friendly. Its permalink structure looks something like this:

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This URL structure is not recommended. So, you must change this to make it more meaningful and SEO friendly. In this tutorial, I will show you how to have an SEO-friendly URL in WordPress. I will also tell you how to change the permalink of a WordPress blog.

What is SEO friendly URL and Why We Should Have SEO Friendly URL?

SEO-friendly URLs contain keywords that explain the blog post. It is good for both search engines and visitors. Having a keyword in the URL increases the chance of ranking for that specific keyword. We all want to have a better search engine ranking in Google and other search engines. Google gives a website an extra advantage if it has a target keyword in the URL. So having an SEO-friendly permalink structure in WordPress is a must to increase organic traffic.

How to Change Permalink Structure in WordPress

By Default WordPress URLs are like this

https://thewpguides./?p=23

This looks ugly and not search engine friendly. You can have something like this To change it, follow these steps.

https://thewpguides./search-engine-optimisation-seo.html

This URL contains the keyword and looks better.

In the WordPress Dashboard, go to settings and then permalink. Now you will see something like this

Now select Custom Structure and write this. It will add the title of your post to the URL. The Permalink Structure of this blog is also the same. We all include the primary keyword in the title of the blog. So this permalink structure will also have the main keyword of the post in the URL.

/%postname%

There are so many ways you can organize the URL structure of your website. WordPress gives many options for this.

If you want to add a .html extension at the end, you can use something like this.

/%postname%.html

If you also want to include a category in the URL use this permalink structure.

/%category%/%postname%.html

If you want to have something else you can use the following things permalink.

• %year% – Year when the post was published, It will be a four digits number, for example, 2012
• %monthnum% – Month of the year when the post was published, for example, 12.
• %day% – Day of the month when the post was published, for example, 28
• %postname% – A sanitized version of the title of the post (post slug field on Edit Post/Page panel). So This Is A Great Post! Becomes this-is-a-great-post in the URL.
• %post_id% – The unique ID # of the post, for example, 423
• %category% – Category of the post

Once you have selected the permalink structure, click on “Save Changes.”

If you are a news blog, I recommend including month and year in the permalink structure. Otherwise, you can just go with the post name. I also recommend you edit manually the permalink to make it short but meaningful. Too long URLs are also not good for SEO.

I recommend you use any of these permalink structures.

/%postname%.html

/%postname%/

WordPress will automatically redirect old URLs to the new permalink structure. It will change your .htaccess file permalink redirection.

Warning

If your website is old, I recommend you not change the permalink structure. If you have so many posts indexed in Google, Changing the permalink structure will affect your search engine ranking. So you should also do 301 Redirect to tell search engines that you have permanently moved URLs. If you are thinking to do the same, you must take extra precautions or hire a professional.