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Setting up a solid WordPress permalink structure is critical in a digital world where good search engine optimization is crucial to your website’s visibility. By permalink structure, we mean all the permalinks on your website, such as pages, posts, categories, and tags.
Fortunately, if you use WordPress, this popular CMS platform includes a variety of solutions that allow you to create a search engine—and user-friendly permalink structure right out of the box. If you want more detailed customization, several plugins can take your permalink strategy to the next level.
Before we share our tips and explore different ways to create and set up WordPress custom permalinks, let’s first define a permalink and why it’s essential for your website.
What Is Custom Permalink In WordPress?
Permalinks, derived from the words “permanent” and “link,” represent the URLs of the content on your WordPress site, such as your pages, posts, categories, tags, and so on. People use these permalinks to access a specific page or post on your site, while search engines use them to link to your site.
A custom permalink is a URL structure appropriately configured for a specific WordPress page. It does not affect the settings of other permalinks or your WordPress URL structure.
Permalinks are essential because they represent your content in some ways and can tell people what to expect if they click on a specific page or post, encouraging more people to check them out.
Similarly, permalinks indicate to search engines what the page or post will be about, which can improve your page ranks and, as a result, the visibility of your content. As a result, you are strongly advised to assign appropriate permalink names to various types of content on your WordPress website.
Importance of Customized Permalinks
Custom Permalinks can benefit your business by saving time and money while optimizing site performance with:
1. Readability
Using personalized permalinks improves the readability of the link you’re using. If the custom permalink mentions the post’s topic, the reader will be more likely to have a preconceived notion when clicking the link. However, the link’s readability suffers if the permalink is just a string of characters with no meaning.
2. Presentable
A custom website URL improves the overall presentation of any website, making it more presentable and appealing. Proper use of the permalink will benefit individuals who understand its significance.
These are the primary reasons for using a WordPress custom URL or permalink. We’ll review how to change permalinks in WordPress in more detail.
Methods To Create Custom WordPress Permalinks
There are two methods for creating a custom permalink in WordPress. When users discuss changing the permalink of a WordPress post, they frequently refer to the post slug. We will demonstrate how to change the post slug.
However, in some cases, users may wish to create a unique URL structure, which we will demonstrate in WordPress.
Method 1: Modifying The Slug Of A Permalink
The term slug in WordPress refers to the URL-friendly name of a post, page, tag, or category. WordPress generates it automatically and uses it in the URL when you create a new item.
For instance, if you write a post titled ’20 Most Amazing Coffee Shops in Manhattan,’ WordPress will generate a post slug similar to this: 20-most-amazing -coffee-shops-in-manhattan. Your post URL would appear something like this, depending on the permalink structure you use:
https://example.com/2022/02/29-best-coffee-shops-in-manhattan/
The same applies to your pages, custom post types, tags, categories, taxonomies, etc. If you want to change the slug part of the permalink, it’s simple. You can do this without installing any plugins or writing any code.
Method 2: Modifying The Slug Of A Post Or Page
Editing a WordPress post, page, or custom post type is the simplest way to change the slug part of the URL.
Look just below the post title on the post edit screen. The post URL will be displayed, along with an edit button. You can change the post slug by clicking on this edit button. You can use alphanumeric characters and dashes in your post slug.
Choose a post slug that contains keywords that people would use to search for that content for a more SEO-friendly URL.
Changing Category and Tag Slugs
It is also straightforward to change the slug of categories and tags. Navigate to Posts, then Categories, and WordPress will display a list of categories.
You can navigate to a category and click the quick edit link. WordPress will display the category’s title and slug. To save your changes, change the URL slug and click the update button.
The same method applies to tags as well as custom taxonomies.
Method 3. Creating Completely Custom Permalinks
Changing the post’s slug does not affect the actual permalink structure. What if you modify the permalink for a single post, page, or taxonomy?
https://example.com/2022/02/20-most-amazing-coffee-shops-an-manhattan/
If you wish to replace it with the following:
https://example.com/best-Imsts/coffee-shops/top-coffee-shops-in-manhattan
Let’s look at another illustration. Your WordPress category URL looks like this:
https://example.com/category/travel
For this particular category, you should replace it with https://example.com/travel/
Typically, this would necessitate changing your permalink structure, affecting all your URLs.
Here’s how to create a custom URL without affecting other URLs on your website. Install and activate the Custom Permalinks plugin as your first step. After activation, you can modify a post or page and change its URL to whatever you choose.
Summary
WordPress’s permalinks are a convenient tool. You can utilize them to improve user experience and search engine rankings. You can set them to function just as you like for all post kinds, taxonomies, and custom slugs. If you adhere to the preceding instructions, your permalinks will be optimized.
Setting up Redirects for Custom Permalinks in WordPress
You need not worry about redirects when adding a custom permalink to a new post. However, if you change the URL of a published post, you must configure redirects.
Equally applicable to your categories and tags. If a category/tag archive page were indexed, it would no longer be accessible when the URL is changed. Users and search engines are directed to the new address. You must implement redirects to ensure users arriving at the old address from search engines and other websites can access the page.
