Hello everyone! And in today’s blog, we’re going to learn how to configure our permalink settings in WordPress!

To configure your permalinks – from the WordPress dashboard, navigate and hover over Settings, and click on Permalinks.

Once you’re in the Permalinks Settings, you will see five options.

• Plain
• Day and Name
• Month and Name
• Numeric
• Post Name

You’ll see that you’re on the link structure called Plain – Select the Post name link structure and click Save. Navigate to your homepage and click on any page on your menu bar.

You should see that your link changed from /?page_id=123/ to a more uniform and organized link that your viewers would understand, like /blog/, /about/, /contact/, etc.

For Example

Plain Link Structure: www.dividemo.com/?page_id=123

Post Name Link Structure: www.dividemo.com/blog/

Thus making your links better for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – so you can be found in the search engine!

Now that you’ve configured your permalinks in WordPress – let’s learn about each permalink structure!

#1 Plain

WordPress uses the permalinks by default. Not only that, it doesn’t include any keywords in this version, but it’s identified by post ID also using a query string.

#2 Day & Name and Month & Name

For both these permalink structures – they have their uses but tend to have limits for most WordPress site owners. However, if you’re running a news site or produce content on time, it may work for you!

Do keep in mind that the date will never change even if you update the blog post.

#3 Numeric

Unfortunately, the numeric structure is not that useful, and since it defaults the %post_id% variable, it doesn’t have SEO Juice/Link Juice. Thus /archives/ being the default base of your website’s content which isn’t handy.

#4 Post Name

The post name is by far the most convenient permalink of all! Furthermore, when creating a post or page, WordPress will automatically use your post or page name/title as the slug.

Therefore makes it great for SEO as it uses the keywords in your title!

For Example

Post Name/Title ->  How to Configure General Settings of WordPress

Slug -> how-to-configure-general-settings-of-wordpress

Slug in URL -> https://www.dividemo.com/blog/how-to-configure-general-settings-of-wordpress

#5 Custom Structure

The custom structure permalink configuration will give you complete control over how you want your site to appear. You can also use the variables that change based on the post’s metadata and publishing information!

Do keep in mind that posts use whatever structure you choose in the settings. As for pages, it will automatically use the post name option.

Lastly, as a bonus, we’re going to look at the second option called Optional!

For the settings in Optional, you don’t need to do anything with it – you can leave it as is. But essentially, for the category pages, you can choose whether there is a directory before the category.

For Example

You can type in, “Topics” in the Category Base.

Click Save, and after saving the change, it will input the word “Topics” to the link from the categories page.

Without Category Base: www.dividemo.com/wp-guides/

With Category Base: www. dividemo.com/topics/wp-guides/

Again, you don’t necessarily have to do this because it’s not good for SEO!

Conclusion

Now that you know how to configure your permalinks in WordPress, you can freely change the permalink structures to your liking. But be warned, changing the permalinks may affect the indexed site causing it to lose traffic if done incorrectly. If this blog helped, please leave a comment or share this with your family and friends!