Ever wondered what is the most SEO-friendly permalink structure in WordPress? We are often asked this question by beginners. That's because in the past, the default URL structure in WordPress was not at all SEO friendly. However now that has changed. In this article, we will explain SEO Friendly URLs, and how you can customize your WordPress permalinks.
What is an SEO Friendly URL?
Before we dive into WordPress permalinks, it's important that we define what an SEO Friendly URL is (or an SEO friendly URL).
These SEO Friendly URLs contain article keywords, and they are easy to read by both humans and search engines. They also help improve your chances of being able to rank higher in search engines. If you still do not know the OnPage SEO techniques to increase website rankings in 2017, please immediately change and apply to your blog.
So, what does an SEO Friendly URL look like?
By default, WordPress now uses the post name in the URL and that is the best SEO Friendly URL Structure.
So why do beginners keep asking us about the best permalink structure?
That's because in the past, WordPress didn't use Pretty URLs also known as permalinks. The defaults used are the same as the non-SEO Friendly example we shared above.
This was changed in WordPress 4.2. If you have recently installed WordPress you may have noticed that your website URLs have become SEO friendly.
You can easily check your permalink settings in the WordPress admin area.
Permalink settings page explained
In WordPress, links are called Permalinks (short for permanent links). You will see the limited permalink structure and the URL structure used interchangeably.
The first thing you need to do is visit the Permalink settings page in your WordPress admin area.
Just click on Settings in the admin menu then click Permalinks. This will take you to a page that looks like this:
As you can see the page has several options available.
- Plain
https://dieuhau.com/?p=123 - Day and name
http://dieuhaucom/2016/01/22/vi-du/ - Month and name
http://dieuhaucom/2016/01/vi-du/ - Numeric
http://dieuhaucom/archives/123 - Post name
http://dieuhaucom/vi-du/ - Custom Structure
You define the URL structure yourself based on the default information provided by WordPress.
Let us explain these options a bit, and how useful they are for users and SEOs.
The first option is called Plain, which used to be the default WordPress URL structure. This is not an SEO friendly option.
Option Day and name is somewhat SEO friendly since it has the post title in it. However, when containing dates, the URLs become too long. But more importantly, after a while your content looks outdated, even if you regularly update it. Likewise, the Month and name option also carries this risk.
However, if you are a news publication then you will need to include the date in your URL to show recent times and improve user experience.
In our opinion, both of these structures are only good for news sites. Business websites that are hoping to generate Evergreen Content should avoid it.
Option Post name is the most SEO friendly because of its short and beautiful form.
If you are running a larger publication then you can use a custom structure which can also be SEO friendly.
At Hawk, we use a permalink structure Post name. Because our site was large and contained hundreds of articles, it became a great fit for us. You'll find larger publications have a similar URL structure.
To use a custom URL structure, you will need to add special tags in the custom structure box. Eg:
/% Category% /% postname% /
Notice how each card is wrapped between percent signs. Also note the slashes / before, after, and between tags.
Create custom URL structure with built-in tags
For best results, we recommend using the options we mentioned above.
You can copy the URL structure we use on the Hawks site or choose the post title as your URL structure.
However, there are many other combinations you can create using the cards. Here is a list of tags that you can use to create your own custom URL structure:
- %year% – year of the article, 4 digits, eg 2016.
- %monthnum% – month of the year, eg 05
- %day% – day of the month, eg 28
- %hour% – hour of the day, eg 15
- %minute% – number of minutes, eg 43
- %second% – number of seconds, eg 33
- %postname% – post name, eg the-nao-la-mot-seo-friendly-url-in-wordpress
- %post_id% – Post ID #, eg 423
- %category% – category name, including subcategories, eg thu-lose-wordpress.
- %author% – author name, eg dieu-hau.
Don't forget to click the button Save changes after choosing your permalink structure.
As soon as you click Save changes, WordPress will automatically update your site's .htaccess files and your site will immediately start using the new URL structure. You can open .htaccess to be able to see this change. In case you can't find the .htaccess file on WordPress, contact your hosting provider for help.
Warning: Important note for established sites
If your site has been running for more than 6 months please do not change your permalink structure.
You don't have to use the same constructs that we use.
If you try to change your permalink structure on an established site, you will lose all of your social media shares and risk losing your current SEO ranking.
If you have to change your permalink structure then hire a professional so they can set up the right redirects.
You will still lose your social media shares on the pages.
There is only one exception to this rule. If your site is using plain URLs no matter how old it is, you should update your URL structures for better SEO. Yes, you will still lose social media shares, but the benefits go beyond that.
We hope this tip helped you create an SEO Friend URL structure for your WordPress site. Let us know what you think about this article by leaving a comment below the article. And we believe you will be interested in 5 SEO trends to prepare for 2017.
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