The permalink structure you choose can affect the search engine optimization (SEO) of your website . WordPress allows you to select from multiple URL formats, but not all of them are SEO friendly or easy to use. Therefore, understanding how permalinks work in WordPress and their impact on SEO is essential. That’s why we’ll introduce you to permalinks and the options WordPress offers, then explain how permalinks and SEO go hand in hand.

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What is a permalink?
A permalink is a URL. When we talk about permalinks in WordPress , we are referring to the URL structure you use on your website. By default, new WordPress sites use a link format similar to the following for pages and posts :

tuositoweb.co.uk/?p=123

This is the structure of the “simple” permalink. The number at the end of the URL corresponds to a specific post or page ID , but until you click on that link, you can’t know where it leads.

In addition to that basic structure, WordPress offers many other options for permalinks, especially if you are using WooCommerce .

WordPress allows you to change your site’s permalink structure at any time. However, we usually recommend that you choose a URL format as early as possible in the life of your site and always stick to that. Changing permalinks becomes more messy as your website grows and develops a large library of content. Such growth means updating dozens or hundreds of URLs and having to wait for search engines to do the same. Also, when URLs change, you can lose important backlinks to your site , but links to them do not.

As a general rule, the best options for permalink structures are the name of the post or a custom layout that adds the category to the URL so that it looks like this:

tuositoweb.co.uk/category/post-name

In the following sections, we will discuss why these are your two best options. For now, let’s talk about the connection between URL structure and SEO.

How do permalinks affect SEO?
There is a clear correlation between permalinks and SEO. Google considers your URLs as ranking factors . In short, the search engine uses permalinks to get information about your content and position it accordingly in its search engine results pages (SERPs).

URLs should provide some information about a page’s content something you cannot get with a link similar to tuositoweb.co.uk/?p=123.

If your permalinks are not related to your content, Google may not rank them high in relevant search results. In addition, you may turn away potential readers: if they see confusing links, users are less likely to click on them and read your articles.

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How to set up your Permalinks for SEO in WordPress.
Permalinks are fully customizable, and WordPress also offers a number of variables so you can set them up however you like. We will now explore some of the different options for your posts and pages.

Setting the Slug URL in a post or page
WordPress automatically generates a URL for every page and post you publish. However, you can control the last part of the link, called the “slug” .

In the following URL, the slug is post-name :

tuositoweb.co.uk/post-name

When using the WordPress editor, you can update the slug of a page by opening the post settings in the Block Editor. The tab with the Post settings has a section called Permalink. Inside you will find a URL slug field . It contains the slug that WordPress generates from the title of the post or page.

When you set a title for a post or page, WordPress uses it to generate a slug. It includes each word in the title, separated by hyphens.

For short titles, you could leave the slug as is. TAny way, we generally recommend cutting off part of it to make the URL more concise.

Decide how many words the URL Slug should include.
URL slugs should be relatively short and direct. In most cases, 2-6 words in length gives you enough room to include the main keyword of the article and reduce unnecessary parts of the title .

Take the title of this post, for example, which is “How do permalinks affect SEO?” Instead of keeping the entire title as the slug of the post, we have reduced it to: /permalink-seo

These two words are enough to let you know what you will read if you see the URL in SERPs. The link also provides information to Google about the topic of the post. Ideally, you will also include the keywords you wish to target in the URL slug. If this post was specifically about keywords in permalinks (as in the next section being the entire post), we might choose /permalinks-keywords-seo to better fit what Google and users would expect.

Using keywords in permalinks
If you are targeting a specific keyword (or several) in your content, it should be part of the slug. Ideally, you will include the main keyword in both the title and the slug (and the meta description!). This way, everything will look natural once users read the title of the post.

Since you have to keep slugs relatively short, it may be difficult to include multiple keywords in less than five words. In most cases, you should focus on the main key phrase. This way, your slug will be concise and you will avoid keyword stuffing in your URLs.

Adding categories and tags in permalinks for SEO
Many WordPress websites add categories and/or tags to their permalink structures. Putting the category in front of the slug of a blog post is like this example:

tuositoweb.co.uk/category/slug

Adding categories and tags to your slugs might be a good idea if you run a website with a lot of content and multiple categories. This way, you can avoid confusion among similar URLs. However, this approach generally works well only if you have short category names.

However, URLs can get out of hand quickly when you add multiple categories to a blog post or use tags with numerous words. Both users and search engines prefer short URLs that are more relevant and easy to understand.

If you decide to add categories to WordPress permalinks, be sure to assign one category per page or blog post. This way, you can keep URLs short. Also, don’t be afraid to update category names if your current taxonomy uses multiple words.

Conclusion
When browsing a website, it can be easy to not pay attention to the URLs of the pages you are visiting. However, these links play a significant role in SEO. Search engines prefer short URLs. In addition, using permalink structures with descriptive slugs can improve your site’s ranking.

We recommend keeping URL slugs between two and five words for the best possible results. You can also benefit from including keywords. In most cases, the main keyword for each page or post will be an excellent slug URL. In addition, WordPress makes it easy to update your website’s permalink structure.