Every post and page you publish gets its own web address. In WordPress, that address is called a permalink, short for "permanent link". It is the full URL that people use to visit, share and bookmark your content.
Since it is meant to stay the same forever, choosing the right permalink structure early saves you a lot of trouble later.
What is a Permalink?
A permalink is just like the postal address of a house. Once friends, search engines and other websites know it, they expect to find your content there every single time.
For example, example.com/best-pizza-recipes/ is a clean permalink, while example.com/?p=123 is not. The first one tells both readers and Google what the page is about.
Permalink structures in WordPress
WordPress lets you pick one structure for all your posts under Settings → Permalinks. Here are the options:
- Plain: uses the post ID, like
?p=123. - Day and name or Month and name: add the date before the post name.
- Numeric: uses
/archives/followed by the post ID. - Post name: uses only the post's slug, like
/sample-post/. - Custom Structure: lets you build your own with tags such as
%category%and%postname%.
We recommend Post name for most blogs because it is short, readable and doesn't look old the way dates do.
How to change your permalink settings
- First, go to Settings → Permalinks in your dashboard.
- Next, select Post name or your preferred structure.
- Now, click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.
Saving this page also refreshes the rewrite rules WordPress uses to understand URLs. That is why simply re-saving permalinks often fixes sudden 404 errors, as we explain in our guide on how to fix broken permalinks in WordPress.
Changing the structure on an old site changes the address of every post. Set up 301 redirects from the old URLs, or you may lose visitors and search rankings.
A clean permalink is easy for people to read and for search engines to understand. That's all about permalinks. Do let us know in the comment box below which structure you use.