What is WordPress Permalink ?
WordPress Permalinks are the permanent URLs to your each blog’s post, each post on your Blog has a unique address which you can see in the browser’s address bar,
`If you go to open your website and browse any page which is not your homepage, you will see at the top in the address bar of your web browser a link like this : https://broexperts.com/?p=125 which is in fact Current Permalink Structure of your website. As showing in highlighted area of below image
WordPress permalinks are short part of the URL which comes at the end of your domain name (example: /?p=125) that point to a specific post or page on your WordPress Blog.
Why Permalinks are Important.
WordPress Permalinks are important part of Search Engine Optimization factor. It’s a permanent URL of your each blog post and it never change with the time.
By Default WordPress uses short permalink, but it’s not Search Engine Friendly.
- Default WordPress permalinks format is : https://broexperts.com?p125
Default WordPress permalink structure is considered “Ugly” and it doesn’t look nice as the other options, most importantly default permalink structure is not SEO Friendly.
Most of the new bloggers make this mistake and keep using default WordPress Permalink structure until they have an idea it’s not recommended settings for SEO of your blog.
What Type of Permalinks Structure is Most Optimal for SEO
Now if I talk about search engine ranking then permalinks are major factor of On-Page SEO, it is important that main keyword should be placed in the URL of the page.
If I explain it further, let’s suppose you are going to write a blog post on “How to create a WordPress website” your main keyword for this blog post will be.
Main Long-tail Keyword : How to Create a WordPress Website
So, as per On-Page SEO technique your blog post URL should contain Main Keyword.
- https://broexperts.com/how-to-create-wordpress-website
In the above URL you can clearly see the main keyword is on place that will help the search engine to identify the content of your page easily, Here is a live example of SEO Friendly URL.
So now you understand Why you should consider changing your blog’s permalink structure to SEO Friendly URLs.
I highly suggest and recommend you to use {%}/postname{%}/ permalink structure for better SEO practices as seen in the above screenshot
SEO Friendly Permalink Format : http://yourdomain.com/post-name
- After changing you will see a big difference in the traffic of your website.
- It’s poor blog etiquette not to use proper permalinks.
How to Change Permalink Structure Settings in WordPress ?
After login into the WordPress Dashboard area All you need to do is Go to Settings > Permalinks choose the appropriate permalink structure, i would highly recommend you to use /{%}postname{%}/structure as it is the best practice used for SEO.
How to Change WordPress Permalinks of Existing Blog
If you running a blog with few published posts and want to shift from old permalinks structure to the new permalinks structure then you need to be very careful because it might effect on your blog’s Organic Traffic and your blog start returning “404 Error”.
- Here is a guide How to Change Permalinks Structure Without Losing Search Engine Traffic or any Backlinks.
If you have any question regarding implementation of new permalink structure you can drop a comment below
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