Optimizing your blog’s permalink structure can make a big difference in SEO and user experience. A well-crafted permalink helps search engines understand your page and makes URLs more appealing to readers. And once you grasp the basic principles, it’s quite easy 🙂
Ready? Here’s my beginner’s guide on how to optimize your blog’s permalink structure for SEO.
Table of Contents
NOTE: All my WordPress tutorials focus on WordPress.org, not WordPress.com. If you’re curious about the differences, here’s everything you need to know ☺️
Understanding URLs, Permalinks, and Slugs
Before we dive into the best practices for optimizing your permalinks, it’s important to understand the basics of URLs, permalinks, and slugs. This part might be a bit techy, but I promise it’s easy to understand 🙂
What is a Permalink?
A permalink, short for “permanent link,” is the full URL to a specific blog post or page on your website. It’s called permanent because it ideally remains unchanged over time 🙂
Permalinks are crucial for SEO as they help search engines understand the content and relevance of a page.
They also enhance user experience by providing clear and descriptive URLs that are easy to read and remember.
A well-structured permalink can improve your site’s navigation and indexing by search engines.
What is a URL?
A URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the web address used to access a specific resource on the internet, such as your webpage. It typically consists of several components, including:
- Protocol: Indicates how data is transferred (e.g., http, https).
- Domain Name: The main address of the website (e.g., www.yourdomain.com).
- Path: The specific location of a page or file within the website (e.g., /blog/post-title).
Note:
HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is the foundation of data communication for the web. It allows web browsers and servers to communicate, but the data sent is not encrypted, making it less secure.
HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) is a secure version of HTTP that encrypts data exchanged between the user’s browser and the server.
If your blog isn’t using HTTPS, you need to obtain an SSL certificate from a trusted Certificate Authority (CA) or your web hosting provider.
What is a Slug?
A slug is the part of a URL that comes after the domain name, or a path. It’s referring to a specific page or post.
For example, in the URL www.theblogsavvyva.com/how-to-optimize-permalinks-for-seo the slug is how-to-optimize-permalinks-for-seo
It should be descriptive and SEO-friendly, often containing keywords related to the page’s content.
Slugs help both search engines and users understand the content of the individual page or post.
Different types of permalinks you can choose in WordPress
WordPress offers several permalink structures to choose from, allowing you to customize your URLs for better SEO and usability.
Navigate to your WordPress Dashboard → click the Settings on the left side → go to Permalinks.
Here are the main options you can choose from for your WordPress permalinks:
- Plain: www.yourblog.com/?p=123
This is the default setting and is not SEO-friendly. - Day and Name: www.yourblog.com/2024/07/18/sample-post
This includes the date and post name, can be used for time-sensitive content. - Month and Name: www.yourblog.com/2024/07/sample-post
Similar to Day and Name but less specific. - Numeric: www.yourblog.com/archives/123
Uses a post ID, which is not SEO-friendly. - Post Name: www.yourblog.com/sample-post
This is clean, simple, and highly recommended for SEO. - Custom Structure:
Allows for a personalized format, such as /category/post-name/, offering greater flexibility and organization.
Choosing the right permalink structure depends on your content strategy and SEO goals.
Most experts recommend the “Post Name” or a custom structure for the best SEO results.
Best practices for permalink optimization
Optimizing your permalinks is key to improving your blog’s SEO and making it easier for your readers to navigate your site.
Here are a few tips to help you get started:
Keep your URLs simple and descriptive:
A clear and concise URL tells both search engines and users what your page is about.
Use words that describe your content well.
Avoid using unnecessary words or complex terms that don’t add value.
Use hyphens to separate words:
Use hyphens instead of other signs or space in your URLs is a great practice.
Search engines and users find hyphens easier to read than underscores. For example, use yourblog.com/seo-tips instead of yourblog.com/seo_tips.
Note:
If you use a space instead of a hyphen in a URL, the space will be replaced with %20 or another encoding, making the URL look messy and harder to read.
For example, yourblog.com/sample post becomes yourblog.com/sample%20post
It’s also best to avoid special characters.
Remove all unnecessary words:
You don’t have to use words like “and,” “or,” “but,” or even “a” or “the” in your URL. They are common stop words that don’t add significant meaning to the URL.
Removing them helps create shorter, cleaner, and more readable permalink.
Google likes short slugs. Remove all unnecessary words unless they are part of your keyword. Stick to essential words that clearly convey the core message of your post.
Include your main keyword
Including the most relevant keyword in your permalinks can help with SEO, but don’t overdo it. Keyword stuffing in URLs looks spammy and can harm your SEO.
Aim for a natural and easy-to-read URL structure.
Be consistent
Consistency is crucial. Use a consistent permalink structure across your entire blog. This helps search engines understand your site’s organization and also improves the user experience.
You can easily create a custom slug for each blog post or page using a SEO plugin like Rank Math or Yoast SEO.
Potential pitfalls and how to avoid them
Changing permalinks on existing posts
Permalinks are meant to be permanent. So whatever you do, don’t change them. The benefit is not worth the risk and it will have a big impact on your post’s SEO of you temper with the URL.
To put it simply, changing a permalink will harm your SEO. There’s also the risk of breaking links that others have shared, which can lead to 404 errors. Again, not something you want Google to see.
So what can you do if you need to change your URL for whatever reason?
You can set up a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one. This way, anyone who clicks on the old link will be automatically directed to the new URL, preserving your SEO rankings and ensuring a smooth user experience. However, we are not done yet…
Duplicate content issues
Improper changes to permalinks can result in duplicate content, where the same content is accessible via different URLs. This confuses search engines, and they don’t like it at all.
To prevent this, use canonical tags to indicate the preferred URL for your content.
Additionally, make sure that all your internal links point to the updated URL.
Regularly audit your site to identify and fix any duplicate content issues. You can use Google Search Console and tools like Ahrefs or Semrush to see if you have any issues with your URLs.
Both Ahrefs and Semrush offer free website audits that are worth checking out 😊
And there you have it, not that hard, right? 🙂
Have a lovely day!
