What Is A Permalink?

What is a permalink?

Why does it matter?

I am so glad that you asked.

#1 It’s much easier to tell people to go to this permalink, aka URL…

https://www.iteachblogging.com/upcoming-classes/

…than it is to tell them to go to this one:

https://www.iteachblogging.com/?p=123

(P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney …ring any bells? Dory had a rough time with that one, but it’s better than P42questionmarkequalsign!

#2 There’s one more reason that good permalinks are important: Google. If your permalink / URL has valuable keywords in it, it will be ranked better (read: keywords relevant to your content and closer to page one in a search). Random characters and numbers do not mean anything to anyone, including the Google spyders — words tell the story! Just another part of the SEO reach, remember?

#3  A blogger always keeps the reader in mind. Having a good permalink structure is just one more way to make it easier for the reader. The reader should never have to guess about where you are leading them or what you are trying to tell them.

How do you make this a one-time fix in WordPress?

Step 1: Log into your WordPress website or blog. Each site login gets its own fix.

Step 2: Scroll down on the left until you get to settings.

Step 3: Left mouse over the word Settings and then left click on Permalink.

Step 4: Make your permalink setting like in the picture below.

Post the following in your custom structure to make your permalinks like mine: /%category%/%postname%/ .

This will change your permalinks for all posts past, present and future.

Update: March 3, 2016.

I have removed the category from my permalink settings. Now instead of have the category in my permalink, it is just the url and blog post title.

Here is how it looks now: https://www.iteachblogging.com/secret-permalinks/

I did this to make my permalink shorter. It is a personal preference and either way is perfectly fine. However, I still highly recommend that you remove the date from your permalink structure.

Here is what my new permalink settings look like:

Google’s very own Matt Cutts uses url/postname for his blog. He explains his reasoning in the video below. So if you are worried that removing category, may hurt your SEO, don’t.

Conclusion

If you hear people ask you about your permalink, just know that it is the url of your post or page. It is also know as a web address. Also, with WordPress you can control your permalink settings. You can make it as complicated as you would like but simple and direct to content is the best option.

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