Quick Introduction to Permalinks
This is an introduction to Permalinks for newbies and I’m going to keep it as simple as possible with only the most basic information and some really helpful tips.
After finishing this training you should be able to understand permalinks, the importance it plays in SEO and how to tweak your permalinks for better SEO.
Table of Contents:
Lesson 1: Quick Introduction to Permalinks
Lesson 2: WordPress Permalink Dashboard Settings Explained
Lesson 3: Understanding Permalinks for Posts and Pages
Lesson 4: 3 Tips to Optimize Posts/Pages’ Permalinks for SEO (with examples)
Lesson 5: How to Manually Change Your Permalink (URL) for a Post or Page
Lesson 6: Identifying Duplicate Posts/Pages With Permalinks
Lesson 7: SiteContent and Permalinks
What is a Permalink?
Any content on your website has a URL. This URL is called a Permalink (permanent link). Permalinks are the full URL that users and search engines see when navigating through your site.
Did you know you don’t have to use the permalink (URL) WordPress automatically creates for your posts/pages and it’s sometimes better to optimize (change) it?
Let me break a permalink down using an example of a test site I've created with the name “permalinks.siterubix.com”
I've created a post on my test site called “Understanding Permalinks and the Best Practices for SEO in 2020”
The permalink automatically created by WordPress will look like this:
The first part indicates whether the url is secure or not (HTTPS = secure / HTTP = unsecure).
The second part is my website’s domain (homepage).
The third part is the "slug" for the page/post title. You can manually change the “slug”.
What is the issue with this permalink? It's too long. I will come back to this later.
There are two places you can set (change) permalinks in WordPress:
- General permalink settings under “Settings”, “Permalinks” on your WordPress dashboard (BE CAREFULL! DON’T CHANGE THESE SETTINGS ON A LIVE SITE)
- Permalink settings for each post/page
I will discuss both types of settings and the importance of each in the following lessons.
Join the Discussion
Solutionist
Premium
Hello it's Taco Tuesday everyone!! Lol
So I just set up my second website for blogging and the content editing tools are not the same in my 2nd site as I have been using in my first site. I just upgraded to Premium a few days ago and I am a loss. I know this thread isn't about that topic but I couldn't find an article published relating to this issue.
Thanks Everyone!
So I just set up my second website for blogging and the content editing tools are not the same in my 2nd site as I have been using in my first site. I just upgraded to Premium a few days ago and I am a loss. I know this thread isn't about that topic but I couldn't find an article published relating to this issue.
Thanks Everyone!
Reply
RikaSF
Premium
What theme are you using?
Have you always edited in WordPress classic editor or block editor?
Give me a screenshot of the first website's editing tools and the 2nd website's editing tools you referring to.
Have you always edited in WordPress classic editor or block editor?
Give me a screenshot of the first website's editing tools and the 2nd website's editing tools you referring to.
Solutionist
Premium
RikaSF
Premium
You will see the last button in the first image is not selected like the last button in the 2nd image. What happens when you select it?
Solutionist
Premium
Solutionist
Premium
Hi thank you for sharing this article. I have one question about it. Lets say I shared this link several times before I made changes will it affect the link in the other locations I shared prior to the change? It won't disappear will it or have an error? Thank you so much for your time.
DCaribbeanQ
Premium
If you change the actual URL yes the other link will be affected.
Candy Benn
Candy Benn
Meenaf1
Premium Plus
Hello Solutionist,
Your change will be updated to everywhere else since it is live.
Your change will be updated to everywhere else since it is live.
RikaSF
Premium
Hi Wyvanna. I try to change my permalinks before I post. Otherwise, I use a redirection plugin called Redirection: https://wordpress.org/plugins/redirection/
This plugin track any changes to your permalinks and will redirect all previous permalinks to the current permalinks automatically.
Reply
This plugin track any changes to your permalinks and will redirect all previous permalinks to the current permalinks automatically.
Reply
Solutionist
Premium
RikaSF
Premium
WordPress core has some redirection build into it, but I prefer to use a plugin to make sure. With the redirection plugin, I'm sure it will redirect.
I would suggest you change one permalink and test what it does on some of your shared pages. Also if the content is already indexed in Google, click on the link and see what you get. It will either redirect or give a 404 (page not found) error.
Have look at this post: https://kinsta.com/blog/wordpress-redirect/
I would suggest you change one permalink and test what it does on some of your shared pages. Also if the content is already indexed in Google, click on the link and see what you get. It will either redirect or give a 404 (page not found) error.
Have look at this post: https://kinsta.com/blog/wordpress-redirect/
Solutionist
Premium
I thought I had responded to this so my apologies. I made the change without the tool you suggested and it works great, no error messages or broken links.
I have another question not related to this topic.
I am getting ready to build my second website so I can start writing content for another Niche Blog. Do I have to go in and manually make all the same changes in SEO like I had to the first webpage etc.. or does the first website setup transfer to other subsequent websites?
Thank you so much, you have been awesome!
I have another question not related to this topic.
I am getting ready to build my second website so I can start writing content for another Niche Blog. Do I have to go in and manually make all the same changes in SEO like I had to the first webpage etc.. or does the first website setup transfer to other subsequent websites?
Thank you so much, you have been awesome!
Meenaf1
Premium Plus
Hi,
Your first website has nothing to do with the second one as they will be two separate domain names and addresses. So you have to take the training all over again same way as you did when you were starting your first one.
I hope it makes sense and that it helps,
Kind regards,
Meena
Your first website has nothing to do with the second one as they will be two separate domain names and addresses. So you have to take the training all over again same way as you did when you were starting your first one.
I hope it makes sense and that it helps,
Kind regards,
Meena
RikaSF
Premium
It will be a new website and they are not linked at all. You have to manually set up all your plugins again and change your WordPress settings (if you made any changes). BUT some plugins like AIO SEO has an export function. Have a look at the tools section of the AIO SEO plugin.
For example, the premium theme I use has an export function and I can export my theme layout, colours and font to a new website.
I'm not sure if there is an easier way.
For example, the premium theme I use has an export function and I can export my theme layout, colours and font to a new website.
I'm not sure if there is an easier way.
Solutionist
Premium
Solutionist
Premium
Jude81
Premium
Hi Rika, thank you so much for creating this training, it was exactly where I was looking for. Thank you!
Do I understand it correctly that I can't change the Permalink in WordPress before I publish my post? I always have to publish first and then change it?
I was thinking perhaps the other way I could do it is creating the title and permalink in WordPress and then publish it and put the post on draft or doesn't this make sense?
Is the manual way of changing the permalink in WordPress after publishing your content free of risks to get 404 errors or is there still a chance this can happen?
Looking forwards to hearing from you and thanks a lot for the training.
Jude
Do I understand it correctly that I can't change the Permalink in WordPress before I publish my post? I always have to publish first and then change it?
I was thinking perhaps the other way I could do it is creating the title and permalink in WordPress and then publish it and put the post on draft or doesn't this make sense?
Is the manual way of changing the permalink in WordPress after publishing your content free of risks to get 404 errors or is there still a chance this can happen?
Looking forwards to hearing from you and thanks a lot for the training.
Jude
RikaSF
Premium
Hi Jude. When you create a post in WP you will save it to draft. As soon as you save it to draft it will create the permalink automatically and the edit button is available. You can definitely edit your permalink while in draft before you publish.
I do not recommend you publiish anything in WordPress before your content is ready. Google might just decided to crawl your page and index more quickly then you thought.
404 Errors occur because a spesific URL you shared, linked somewhere or was already indexed by Google is not there anymore (because you changed the permalink).
The best practice will be to change it before you publish and share. The second best option is to change it as soon as possible after publishing.
It's not recommended to do a major permalink overhaul on all your existing posts/pages unless it's really necessary. When you do this you will need a redirect plugin to link the old permalinks to the new permalinks.
I also use SiteContent but the problem is the post is never really ready for publishing in WordPress. You still need to optimize your images and do other stuff.
As soon as I publish from SiteContent I immediately unpublish it in WordPress until I'm ready to publish it again.
I do not recommend you publiish anything in WordPress before your content is ready. Google might just decided to crawl your page and index more quickly then you thought.
404 Errors occur because a spesific URL you shared, linked somewhere or was already indexed by Google is not there anymore (because you changed the permalink).
The best practice will be to change it before you publish and share. The second best option is to change it as soon as possible after publishing.
It's not recommended to do a major permalink overhaul on all your existing posts/pages unless it's really necessary. When you do this you will need a redirect plugin to link the old permalinks to the new permalinks.
I also use SiteContent but the problem is the post is never really ready for publishing in WordPress. You still need to optimize your images and do other stuff.
As soon as I publish from SiteContent I immediately unpublish it in WordPress until I'm ready to publish it again.
Jude81
Premium
Thank you so much for this clarification, very helpful indeed. So just to confirm, I only need the redirect plugin if the posts are older right? I published mine yesterday and changed the perma link after following your training today.
I was doing this for a while uploading uploading the the title with some images from site content and than do the rest in WordPress, I always make the post private though. Just recently had the thought to just try writing in WordPress as my gramerly works there as well.
I just wonder what the function and value is from filling out the URL on the bottom of our article for SEO value. I always change it but it doesn't change the URL right? What does it actually do?
Have a great day and thanks a lot for sharing your knowledge, it is appreciated.
Jude
I was doing this for a while uploading uploading the the title with some images from site content and than do the rest in WordPress, I always make the post private though. Just recently had the thought to just try writing in WordPress as my gramerly works there as well.
I just wonder what the function and value is from filling out the URL on the bottom of our article for SEO value. I always change it but it doesn't change the URL right? What does it actually do?
Have a great day and thanks a lot for sharing your knowledge, it is appreciated.
Jude
RikaSF
Premium
You can change the title tag (also called post title, meta title) in the SEO section. Whatever you put there is what will show on Google.
This means you override your post title to something you want people to see in Google. This does not change your post title on your post itself. When they click to your post the original title will still be there.
I change mine often. Google allows for 60 characters in your post title before it cuts off. I often have post titles with longer titles to be more descriptive, but I will change it in the SEO section to 60 characters or less for search engine purposes.
For example:
Post title on my blog:
20 Brilliant Ideas to Write Better Posts for SEO and People
Title people will see in Google after I change it in the SEO section at the bottom:
20 Briliant Ideas to Write for SEO and People
Hope I make sense.
PS: My permalink for this would be /write-better-posts-for-seo
All depends what my main keyword is.
This means you override your post title to something you want people to see in Google. This does not change your post title on your post itself. When they click to your post the original title will still be there.
I change mine often. Google allows for 60 characters in your post title before it cuts off. I often have post titles with longer titles to be more descriptive, but I will change it in the SEO section to 60 characters or less for search engine purposes.
For example:
Post title on my blog:
20 Brilliant Ideas to Write Better Posts for SEO and People
Title people will see in Google after I change it in the SEO section at the bottom:
20 Briliant Ideas to Write for SEO and People
Hope I make sense.
PS: My permalink for this would be /write-better-posts-for-seo
All depends what my main keyword is.
RikaSF
Premium
Understand now. You use Yoast SEO and canonical urls has do do with duplicate content. Here is a link you can use to understand this better. If you can avoid using it, it's better.
Your permalink is already created in the post and can be edited in the post.
https://yoast.com/what-is-a-canonical-url/
Your permalink is already created in the post and can be edited in the post.
https://yoast.com/what-is-a-canonical-url/
