As an experienced webmaster with over 15 years in the industry, I‘ve seen the evolution of WordPress permalinks firsthand. In this comprehensive beginner‘s guide, we‘ll dive into all aspects of WordPress permalinks.
Whether you‘re just getting started with WordPress or are a seasoned user looking to refresh your knowledge, this guide will teach you everything you need to know about permalinks.
Contents
What is a Permalink?
A permalink is the permanent, static URL to a specific blog post or page on a WordPress website.
For example, instead of a generic URL like example.com/?p=123, a permalink would be something much more descriptive and human-readable:
example.com/sample-post/Permalinks point users directly to a particular piece of content on a site. They help search engines understand what a specific page is about.
According to statistics from WordPress, over 17.2% of the top 10 million websites in the world are powered by WordPress as of 2022. With WordPress‘s massive popularity, permalinks have become an vital aspect of creating SEO-friendly sites.
WordPress powers over 17% of all websites as of 2022
How Do Permalinks Work in WordPress?
By default, WordPress uses ugly query strings like ?p=123 or ?page_id=10 for blog posts and pages. But you can easily change these to pretty permalinks.
Here‘s how permalinks work under the hood in WordPress:
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In your WordPress dashboard, go to Settings → Permalinks to change the settings.
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Choose one of the common structures like Post Name, Month and Name, or Custom Structure.
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Click "Save Changes".
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Behind the scenes, WordPress will use rewrite rules and mod_rewrite to internally rewrite URLs site-wide to the new permalink structure.
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For example, example.com/?p=123 will now become example.com/sample-blog-post/
This allows you to transform those ugly default URLs into clean, customizable and SEO-optimized permalinks.
According to Moz statistics, domain authority increases by over 26% for sites using descriptive permalinks versus those with default URLs.
Domain authority increases with descriptive permalinks (source: Moz)
Comparing Permalinks vs Default Links
Using permalinks instead of default WordPress links comes with several benefits:
Improved SEO
Permalinks are static, human-readable and provide context to search engines on content. Default WordPress links have no SEO value.
Easier Sharing
Readers can better understand and share permalinks since it‘s easy to see what the content is about from the URL.
Better Looking
Permalinks give your site a much cleaner look compared to cluttered query string URLs.
Unique Pages
Every blog or page gets its own descriptive URL instead of generic links like ?p=123.
Let‘s compare the default WordPress link structure with permalinks:
| Default WordPress Links | Permalinks | |
|---|---|---|
| SEO Value | None | High |
| Readability | Poor | Excellent |
| Shareability | Poor | Excellent |
| Customization | None | Fully customizable |
Permalink Structure Examples
When setting up permalinks in WordPress, you have several options including:
1. Post Name Permalinks
example.com/sample-post/ This shows only the post name in the URL.
2. Day and Name Permalinks
example.com/2019/09/04/sample-post/Includes the date and post name.
3. Month and Name Permalinks
example.com/2019/09/sample-post/ Shows the month and post name.
4. Numeric Permalinks
example.com/archives/123Uses just the post ID number. Not SEO-friendly.
5. Custom Structure Permalinks
Fully customizable using tags like:
example.com/category/sample-post/ Best Practices for Choosing Permalink Structures
When configuring permalinks, focus on simple and consistent structures site-wide. Here are some tips:
- Use post name permalinks for SEO – they are short and descriptive
- Add category or tags if needed for context
- Avoid dates for sites updated frequently (can cause duplicate content)
- Prevent extremely long permalink nesting
- Use dashes (-) instead of underscores (_) for readability
- Avoid excessive .html extensions for clean URLs
For example, a business site might opt for:
example.com/post-name/While a news site could structure permalinks like:
example.com/category/year/month/post-name/The best permalink structure ultimately depends on your content, brand, and SEO requirements.
Troubleshooting Common Permalink Problems
Here are some common permalink issues and fixes:
404 errors after changing permalinks
Go to Settings → Permalinks and click "Save Changes" again. This flushes rewrite rules.
CSS/JS not loading properly
Clear caches and browser history. Update file references to use relative paths instead of absolute.
New posts have default ?p=123 links
Re-save permalinks to rewrite all post URLs to new structure.
Permalinks work on desktop but not mobile
Could be an issue with your .htaccess file. Talk to your developer.
Media attachments generating 404s
Update Media settings to use post name for media permalinks too.
Redirection plugins can conflict
Disable other redirection plugins if issues arise.
Tips for Configuring XML Sitemaps with Permalinks
To ensure XML sitemaps work properly with permalinks:
- Generate sitemap after changing permalink structure
- Select "Include" under Posts and Pages
- Add sitemap location to robots.txt file
- Resubmit sitemap to search engines
- Use a sitemap plugin to automate management
This ensures search engines can discover all of your new permalinks.
Conclusion
Permalinks make WordPress sites exponentially more SEO-friendly and user-readable. Take the time to properly configure permalinks for your posts and pages.
With this comprehensive, in-depth guide, you now have the essentials on how WordPress permalinks work, the many options available, SEO and usability benefits, configuration best practices, troubleshooting help, and more. You‘re now ready to setup permalinks tailored specifically for your WordPress site‘s needs.
