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WordPress Permalinks Settings & Media: Optimize Link Sharing

Diving into the world of WordPress, one of the essential features to understand is the WordPress Permalinks Settings. You might wonder what permalinks are and why they are so important. In essence, permalinks are the permanent URLs for your posts, pages, and other content on your website. They are the web addresses that users and search engines use to navigate and reference your site. This article will elaborate on permalinks and how to optimize them using WordPress Permalinks Settings.

The current article is "5.11. Permalinks Settings" of our Complete SEO Guide Box.
Previous Article: 5.10. Discussion Settings. Next Article: 5.12. WP Built-in Tools

Permalinks, short for permanent links, are the unique web addresses for each piece of content on your website. They are designed to remain the same for the lifetime of the content, hence the term ‘permanent’ in permalinks.

Permalinks are more than just URLs; they are vital in enhancing your site’s user experience and SEO. A well-structured permalink hints about the content before it’s clicked, improving user experience and thus potentially boosting your site’s search engine rankings.

To access the WordPress Permalinks Settings, go to your WordPress dashboard, click “Settings,” and then select “Permalinks.”

The WordPress Permalinks Settings page offers several options for your permalink structure:

Plain: The default setting is by using page numbers as the URL.
Day and name: This option includes the year, month, and day, along with the post name in the URL.
Month and name: This option includes the year and month and the post name in the URL.
Numeric: This option uses the unique ID of the post as the URL.
Post name: This option uses the post name as the URL.
Custom Structure: Create a custom URL structure for your permalinks.

Each structure has advantages and disadvantages; the best choice depends on your needs. Check our article for best practices on Optimizing URL Structure for SEO and User Experience.

Login to your WordPress Dashboard.
On the left side menu bar, hover with your mouse cursor over [Settings], then click on [Permalinks] in the drop-down menu.

Select:
(*) Custom Structure
In the textbox, paste these variables:

/%category%/%postname%

WordPress Permalinks settings Example:
Suppose you have a post “how-to-buy-an-iphone” inside the “guides” category. In that case, your URL will look like this (if you set your URL to use the “www” prefix. If you didn’t, then you will not see the “www” prefix):

https://www.yourdomain.com/guides/how-to-buy-an-iphone

Note: Don’t add a backslash “/” character after the “%postname%” variable. Or you will have title HTML anchors look like:

yourdomain.com/category/postname/#title

and it should be:

yourdomain.com/category/postname#title

Note: you should not change these settings after you already have some posts. Since Search Engines already indexed the links as you set them the first time. If you change these settings, you will get a 404 error on the old links, and Search Engines will need to reindex new links. So, we advise you not to change these settings after posting content.

Click [Save Changes].

To change the Permalinks behavior for Media files like images, there is a setting you should change in the Media section also. By default, WordPress saves uploaded images with this structure:

https://www.yourdomain.com/wp-content/uploads/<Year>/<Month>/<File Name>

For example:

https://www.yourdomain.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/red-car.jpg

It is advisable to make your permalinks as small as possible. We can remove the date part of the permalink, which will make our permalink smaller, like so:

https://www.yourdomain.com/wp-content/uploads/red-car.jpg

On the left side menu bar, hover over [Settings], then click [Media].
Scroll down to the “Uploading Files” section and uncheck:
[ ] Organize my uploads into month- and…
Click [Save Changes].

Read More

You can read more about WordPress Permalinks settings in WordPress Docs.

Conclusion

Mastering WordPress Permalinks Settings is a crucial step toward optimizing your website. A well-structured permalink can enhance your site’s SEO, improve user experience, and facilitate content sharing. Explore the WordPress Permalinks Settings and choose the best structure for your site.

The current article is "5.11. Permalinks Settings" of our Complete SEO Guide Box.
Previous Article: 5.10. Discussion Settings. Next Article: 5.12. WP Built-in Tools

 

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