Whenever you open a post or page of a WordPress website, you see a particular URL in the browser. This particular URL is called permalink. It is the permanent URL of your individual page or post.
If I say in one line then “permalink is the permanent URLs of post or page or other content on your site”.
You should set this in the starting of launching of your website. This is an important thing for your site, and you should have a permalink structure in the right way.
How Should be Your permalink?
Whenever you set your permalink, you must set it with care as per your content and site nature. In my opinion you should see the following things:
Relevant Information: Your URL should have relevant information.
Look Professional: The URL should look professional. It should have a positive impact on your visitors.
Short URL: It should be short.
SEO Friendly: It should be SEO Friendly.
Easy to Remember: It should be easy to remember and understand.
Permalink Structures in WordPress
There are mainly six type of structure available. These are – Plain, Day and name, Month and name, Numeric, Post name, Custom Structure. I am just discussing a brief note of these structure in this article.
1- Plain
This one is the default setting in your WordPress. The above image is about the default format of my site. You can see your default setting by following Setting>Permalink.
Normally, it is not known as SEO-friendly and good for visitors. It will show your domain name and post’s number. There is no additional information about the page or post. How users will know, the article is what about.
2- Day and Name
This permalink structure includes the day on which you publish your post or page and it includes your post or page’s name. But this URL structure is not very useful apart from some particular nature of content.
Whenever users will see the URLs of the post, they will notice that how old is your content. Some readers may avoid reading old content.
3- Month and Name
This permalink structure includes the month and name of the post or page. It is almost similar to Day and name but it doesn’t have a particular day of publication.
4- Numeric
This Structures provides a short URL to Post or page. But it may not be so user-friendly and SEO-friendly. However, in some cases, it may be useful.
5- Post Name
Most of the digital marketing expert will suggest you this Permalink structure to your content. However, there may be some type of website, where you might use another structure.
I am also using the Post Name setting in my WordPress website. It is SEO friendly, has clear information about the content, looks professional also.
6- Custom Structure
There is another option in WordPress that is called Custom Structure. Apart from Plain, Day and Name, Month and Name, Numeric, Post Name, you can also use the option of custom structure.
You can create a custom permalink for your individual post or page. There are 10 types of tags available in WordPress which you can use to create the URL.
Should You Change Your Permalink?
You can change the permalink of your page or post anytime. But should you do it at any time? ideally not. Normally, you should not change if you have already published your content.
If you change your post or page’s URLs or delete the post or page then make sure you have redirected it. If you are using Yoast SEO or Rank Math plugin, you can manage your redirect through these plugins also.
Permalink Setting in WordPress
You can set the link structure through your WordPress dashboard. First of all, You just need to log in to your WordPress dashboard. Go to setting and click on permalink. You will see the page of common setting page.
You will see common settings as shown in the above image. Now you can select which option you want. After the selection, click on save.
Available Tags
In WordPress, you have the option to create a custom permalink. For this, you can use these available tags in WordPress. These tags are as follows.
- %Year%
- %Monthnum%
- %Day%
- %Hour%
- %Minute%
- %Second%
- %Post ID%
- %Post Name%
- %Category%
- %Author%
You can create your custom structure by using the available tags as per your choice.
Why Permalink is Important?
Suppose you want to share your post on social media. What will you do? of course, you will share the URL of the post. What if you want to add an internal link or external links?
What will you do if you want to link the content of another site in your post? Of course, you will link the permalink of the other site into your post.
Either I talk about search engines or visitors, it is important for both. Permalink has its own importance and should manage it carefully.
Conclusion
Always have your Permalink short, simple, informational, relevant, professional, and SEO friendly. Ideally, avoid changing any URLs of page or post if it is already published.
Whenever you launch your site, you should have a clear goal which kind of permalink you want to have. Check your content, what kind of content you are creating. You should select the link structure as per your content and its objective. It is not necessary that the Post name option is the only best option.
More Posts:
Why Use WordPress? 11 Reasons Why You Should Use WordPress for Your Website
