A permalink is the permanent address of a single page or post – the URL under which a piece of content stays reachable in the long run. The word combines ”permanent” and ”link” and comes from the early days of blogging; today you mostly come across it in WordPress.
There, under Settings → Permalinks, you define the pattern WordPress uses to build the addresses of all your posts.
Which permalink structure is the right one?
By default, WordPress generates addresses such as ?p=123. They tell neither people nor search engines what a page is about. For almost every website, the ”Post name” structure is the best choice.
A good permalink is:
- short and descriptive, for example
/seo-tips/ - lower case, with words separated by hyphens
- free of dates, IDs and filler words
- chosen so that it never has to change again
Why do permalinks matter for SEO?
The URL shows up in the search result, gets shared and is linked to by other websites. A readable address builds trust and reveals the topic before anyone clicks.
Things get critical when you change permalinks later on. The old address then leads nowhere: visitors land on an error page and the strength of existing backlinks is lost. Every changed URL therefore needs a 301 redirect to the new one. A WordPress SEO agency plans changes like this so that no rankings are lost.
