One of the most frequently asked questions I get asked is how to change the permalink of a page in WordPress. So, here comes this article, which I hope might help many of you understand a bit better about your website’s URL structure.
First of all, let’s see what is an SEO-Friendly URL.
An SEO-Friendly URL contains keywords that explain what the page is about. These URLs are easy to read by both humans and search engines. For this reason, they also improve your chances to rank higher in search engines. An SEO-friendly URL, for example, is: https://pinkseo.marketing/on-page-optimisation-keywords/
A non-SEO friendly URL, instead, would be: https://pinkseo.marketing/?p=2633 As a website user, you’d feel puzzled, seeing it, wouldn’t you? This happens because this URL does not explain hat the article is about. A visitor – and a spider bot/crawler of a search engine – wouldn’t understand what the page is about, by seeing it.
Before
version 4.2, WordPress users by default the non-SEO friendly URL as a permalink. Instead, the more recent releases use SEO friendly URLs by default.
What is a permalink in WordPress
The word “permalink” is short for a permanent link. Its structure determines the default structure of the URLs of your website.
How to change a permalink in WordPress
- Log into your WordPress backend
- Click on Settings
- Select Permalinks
Changing your permalink structure, you will lose your social media share counts and might lose your existing SEO ranking.
Ask me for assistance, if you like: I can assist you professionally with that, if you must change your permalink structure, setting up proper redirects.