Permalinks & URL structure
Learn what WordPress permalinks are, how to choose the right URL structure, and why it matters for SEO and usability.
Every page and post on your WordPress site has a web address — its permalink (short for "permanent link"). The permalink settings control how those addresses are formatted. Getting this right matters for SEO and for sharing clean, readable links.
Quick summary
Go to Settings → Permalinks and choose Post name as your structure. This gives you clean, readable URLs like yoursite.com/about-us. Click Save Changes. Avoid changing this on an existing live site without planning — it will break existing links.
What you'll need
Beginner 5 minutes- Administrator access to your WordPress site
What is a permalink?
A permalink is the URL of a specific page or post. For example:
yoursite.com/services— the permalink for your Services pageyoursite.com/blog/how-to-plan-a-rebrand— the permalink for a blog post
WordPress lets you choose the format of these URLs. The format is called your permalink structure.
The permalink options
Go to Settings → Permalinks to see your choices.
| Structure | Example URL | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Plain | /?p=123 | Numbers only. Ugly, hard to share, bad for SEO. |
| Day and name | /2024/03/15/post-name/ | Dates in URLs look outdated quickly. |
| Month and name | /2024/03/post-name/ | Same problem with dates. |
| Numeric | /archives/123 | Numbers only — not descriptive. |
| Post name | /post-name/ | Clean, readable, SEO-friendly. Recommended. |
| Custom structure | Whatever you set | Advanced — only change with guidance. |
Post name is almost always the right choice. It creates clean, human-readable URLs that both visitors and search engines can understand at a glance.
How to set (or check) your permalink structure
Go to Settings → Permalinks in your WordPress dashboard.
Select "Post name" (unless your developer has recommended something different).
Click Save Changes. WordPress updates immediately — you'll see a confirmation message.
WordPress often needs a re-save
Even if you don't change anything, clicking Save Changes refreshes your site's rewrite rules. This can fix 404 "page not found" errors that sometimes appear after plugin updates or hosting changes.
Important: don't change this on a live site without planning
Changing permalinks breaks existing links
If you change your permalink structure after your site is live and already indexed by Google, all your existing URLs will change. Every link from other sites, saved in someone's browser, or indexed by Google will break.
If a change is truly necessary, it requires setting up 301 redirects to point the old URLs to the new ones. This is technical work — contact us before changing your permalink structure on a live site.
Custom URL slugs for individual pages
Even with Post name selected, you can customize the URL for any individual page or post. When you're editing a page, look for the Permalink field below the page title (in the block editor, check the right sidebar under the URL section).
For example, a page titled "About Our Team" might auto-generate a slug like about-our-team. You could shorten it to just about by editing the slug field directly.
Good URL slugs are:
- Short and descriptive
- All lowercase, with hyphens between words
- Free of unnecessary words like "the," "a," and "and"
Category and tag base (optional)
At the bottom of the Permalinks settings page, you can set custom prefixes for category and tag URLs. By default, categories appear at /category/your-category/ and tags at /tag/your-tag/. Most sites leave these at their defaults.
Common questions
Related guides
- WordPress general settings explained
- Setting your homepage
- Editing SEO titles & descriptions
- SEO-friendly URLs
- How to create a new page
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