A permalink – short for ‘permanent link’ – is the full URL for a page on a website. It could include your domain name, plus a slug (the part of the URL that follows the domain name). As we explain in this article on permalinks, it’s very important to make sure your permalinks are SEO-friendly. But how do you change the permalink structure? That’s what we’ll explore in this article! Please be careful with changing your permalinks if your site has been around for a while. Changing your permalinks if you already have a lot of content can lead to issues such as 404 errors.
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Why you should change the permalink structure
The folks at Yoast explain in this article on why you should change your WordPress permalink structure, we highly recommend you use just /%postname%/
for your site structure. If you are using the default permalink setting (http://www.example.com/?p=123), we will display a notice that recommends changing the structure.

How to change the permalink structure in WordPress
- Log in to your WordPress website. When you’re logged in, you will be in your ‘Dashboard’.
- Click on ‘Settings’. On the left-hand side, you will see a menu. In that menu, click on ‘Settings’.
- Click on ‘Permalinks’. The ‘Settings’ menu will expand providing you additional options. Click on ‘Permalinks’.
- Select ‘Post name’.
- Click ‘Save changes’.
- Use this tool to generate the correct code.
- Add the code you generated in the previous step to your site’s .htaccess file. Not sure how to edit the .htaccess file? Yoast has a ‘How to’ guide available here.

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