SayPro Permalink Setting

The Permalink Settings in WordPress control the structure and format of your website’s URLs (permalinks). Proper permalink settings can help with SEO, improve user experience, and make your URLs more readable.

Here’s how to configure your WordPress Permalink Settings:

📌 How to Access Permalink Settings

1. Go to your WordPress Dashboard.
2. Navigate to Settings > Permalinks.

🔧 Permalink Settings Breakdown

You’ll see several options to choose from. Let’s break them down:

1. Common Settings

Here, you can choose a permalink structure for your posts and pages.

Default (Plain):

• Example: http://yoursite.com/?p=123
• Not recommended for SEO, as it doesn’t describe the content of the post/page.

Day and Name:

• Example: http://yoursite.com/2025/05/07/sample-post/
• Useful for news/blog sites with frequent content updates, but can make URLs long.

Month and Name:

• Example: http://yoursite.com/2025/05/sample-post/
• Still includes date information but is shorter than the Day and Name format.

Numeric:

• Example: http://yoursite.com/archives/123
• Not recommended for SEO, as it’s not descriptive of the content.

Post Name: Select

• Example: http://yoursite.com/sample-post/
• Recommended for most websites as it is short, clean, and SEO-friendly.
• Best for SEO as it includes the post title in the URL, which is keyword-rich.

Custom Structure:

• If you need more flexibility, you can define your custom permalink structure. For example:
  • /blog/%postname%/
  • /category/%category%/%postname%/

2. Custom Structure (For Advanced Users)

You can create your own custom structure using tags like:

• %year%: The year the post was published.
• %monthnum%: The month the post was published.
• %day%: The day of the post.
• %postname%: The post’s name (slug).
• %category%: The post’s category.
• %author%: The author of the post.

Example:

• Custom structure: /blog/%category%/%postname%/ will create URLs like http://yoursite.com/blog/category-name/sample-post/.

How to Set It:

1. In the Custom Structure field, you can type the tags to suit your needs.
2. For example, to include the category and post name:
   /category/%category%/%postname%/
3. WordPress will automatically replace the tags with actual data.

🌍 Optional Settings

3. Category Base and Tag Base (Optional)

These settings allow you to customize the base of your category and tag URLs:

• Category Base:
  • Example: http://yoursite.com/category/category-name/
  • You can change “category” to something else, like “topics” (http://yoursite.com/topics/category-name/).
• Tag Base:
  • Example: http://yoursite.com/tag/tag-name/
  • You can change “tag” to another term like “labels” (http://yoursite.com/labels/tag-name/).

Why Customize These?

• It helps with SEO by making the URL structure cleaner and more relevant to the content.
• It gives you more flexibility in how your URLs are displayed.

🧑‍💻 What to Do After Updating Permalink Settings

1. Update .htaccess:
   After saving your permalink changes, WordPress will usually update the .htaccess file automatically. If for any reason it doesn’t, WordPress will provide the code you need to add to the file.
2. Redirect Old URLs:
   If you’ve changed your permalink structure (e.g., from the default ?p=123 format to /post-name/), you may want to set up 301 redirects to avoid 404 errors and preserve SEO value.
   • Use a plugin like Redirection to manage these redirects.
3. Test Your URLs:
   After updating the permalink structure, visit a few pages and posts to ensure the URLs work correctly and don’t lead to 404 errors.

🛠️ SEO Considerations for Permalinks

• Short, Descriptive URLs: Always aim for short, descriptive URLs that include important keywords (e.g., yoursite.com/seo-guide rather than yoursite.com/?p=123).
• Avoid Changing Permalinks After Publishing: Changing a post’s URL can negatively affect SEO, especially if it’s already indexed in search engines. If you must change the URL, set up a 301 redirect.
• Use Hyphens for Spacing: Always use hyphens (-) to separate words in your URLs. Avoid underscores (_) because search engines treat hyphens as word separators but treat underscores as part of the word.

⚠️ Things to Avoid in Permalink Structure:

• Including Dates: While it’s fine for blogs or news sites, including dates can make your URLs unnecessarily long and might make your content look outdated (e.g., 2025/05/07/your-post-name).
• Too Many Parameters: Avoid including query strings (like ?p=123) in your permalinks, as they aren’t user-friendly and are not SEO-optimized.