Creating SEO Friendly Permalinks in WordPress
Posted on 23. Jan, 2009 by Joshua Ferris in Blog, Featured, WordPress
There is much debate in the SEO community as to what type of permalinks work best in WordPress. Now before we begin on what we feel works best let’s talk about what permalinks are.
Definition of permalink from Wikipedia.org:
“A permalink, or permanent link, is a URL that points to a specific blog or forum entry after it has passed from the front page to the archives. Because a permalink remains unchanged indefinitely, it is less susceptible to link rot.“
So what is the best, most search engine friendly permalink style for your WordPress site? Let’s look at some of the options available in the WordPress admin panel:
Common Settings
Default http://housemeetsowner.com/?p=123
Day and name http://housemeetsowner.com/2009/01/23/sample-post/
Month and name http://housemeetsowner.com/2009/01/sample-post/
Numeric http://housemeetsowner.com/archives/123
None of these default options are bad but Joost De Valk over at Yoast makes a solid recommendation in changing your permalinks to be even more SEO friendly than the above options. How do you do this?
1. Go to the Custom Structure field on your Permalinks page.
2. Enter the following code into the field:/%category%/%postname%/
3. Go to the Optional fields at the bottom of the Permalinks page and enter a word or phrase for your base category and tags.
Note: What you enter will be displayed in your website address. For example, if you entered “monkey” (without the quotes) as your category base then your category page links will appear as http://yourwebsite.com/monkey/category-name/.
The same applies for your tags which will appear as http://yourwebsite.com/basetag/tag-name/.
4. Click “Save Changes” at the bottom of your Permalinks page.
Now your website links will appear as http://yourwebsite.com/category/postname/.
Notice how the website address is much more search engine friendly because it describes what your post is all about whereas http://housemeetsowner.com?p=123 neither describes what your topic is about nor does it make your website easy for readers to remember.
That’s all there is to it, your website links are now optimized for search engine bots!