WordPress permalinks are the permanent URLs or web addresses that point to individual posts, pages, or other types of content on a WordPress website. Permalinks are an essential part of a website’s URL structure and play a significant role in search engine optimization (SEO) and user experience.
WordPress offers different permalink structure options that can be customized to suit the needs of your website. Here are the commonly used permalink structures:
- Plain: This is the default permalink structure with URLs ending in a query string (
?p=123). It is not recommended for SEO because it lacks descriptive keywords and does not offer any insight into the content of the page. - Day and Name: This structure includes the date and post name in the URL (e.g.,
https://example.com/2023/06/16/sample-post/). It can be useful for websites that publish time-sensitive content, such as news or blogs, but it can result in longer URLs. - Month and Name: Similar to the “Day and Name” structure, this includes the month and post name in the URL (e.g.,
https://example.com/2023/06/sample-post/). It is useful for blogs with frequent posts but still produces longer URLs. - Numeric: This structure uses only the post ID as a numeric value (e.g.,
https://example.com/archives/123). It is not recommended for SEO and user experience, as it provides no descriptive information about the content. - Post Name: This is one of the most commonly recommended permalink structures. It uses the post name as the URL (e.g.,
https://example.com/sample-post/). It is short, descriptive, and SEO-friendly. - Custom Structure: With the custom structure option, you can create your own permalink structure using a combination of available tags, such as %postname%, %category%, %year%, etc. (e.g.,
https://example.com/%year%/%postname%/). This allows for more customization and flexibility.
By default, WordPress generates permalinks that use a combination of numbers and question marks (e.g., https://example.com/?p=123). However, it is highly recommended to use descriptive and SEO-friendly permalinks that include meaningful keywords and titles for better readability and search engine visibility.