Setting Up Permalinks on your WordPress Site

Permalinks are permanent URLs to your individual posts and pages. Creating permanent links to your content can make it easier to share links and help Search Engine Optimization (SEO). There are multiple options on how to create the structure of permalinks such as date, article number, or another customized format. If you are troubleshooting a permalinks issue (such as a 404 error) we also have a full guide on How to Reset WordPress Permalinks.

Setting Up Permalinks

The default settings in WordPress, create links to new blog posts so your URL will resemble something similar to this: https://youdomain.com/?p=123. You can change the URL that is automatically generated by modifying your settings in the Permalinks section of the WordPress dashboard. To change how WordPress generates links, first you will need to log into your Dashboard. Once logged in, under the “settings” in the left menu pane select “Permalinks.” 

On the page above, you will notice the following options to change your link structure:

• Plain – https://example.com/?p=123
• Day and Name – https://example.com/2011/04/05/sample-post/
• Month and Name – https://example.com/2011/04/sample-post/
• Numeric – https://example.com/archives/123
• Post Name – https://example.com/sample-post/
• Custom Structure – This allows you to set up your URLs with your own structure, such as using the Topics as your category base.

Once you have selected the specific format you want, click “Save Changes.” There are some conflicts with Permalinks, so if you do change the format from the default setting, you may want to make sure that all your Plugins are still operating correctly.