WordPress How To: SEO Permalinks
The default URLs or Permalinks created by WordPress are not user or search engine friendly. There all kinds of ways to tweak your Permalink structure to suite your needs, you can read all about Permalinks here.
For example the WordPress default Permalink looks something like this:
http://www.theistudio.com/muse/?p=123
So here’s a quick and easy tip to solve both of these issues.
When in WordPress, go to Settings > Permalinks. Select “Custom Structure” and then enter:
/%post_id%/%postname%
This will instruct WordPress to use the title of your post as the URL instead of the funky characters, numbers or other date related options.
For example, this post’s Permalink is:
http://www.theistudio.com/muse/3452/wordpress-wednesday-seo-permalinks/
Much better, yes? Now, what about any URLs that are “out there” or ranked with search engines? Changing your Permalink structure does in fact change all your site’s URLs.
So all we need to do is add a Permalink redirect plugin and you are good to go! With the simple addition of a nifty plugin, you can safely change your Permalink structure without breaking the old links to your site, and not affect your search engine rankings in the process.
You can get the plugin I’ve used here:
Permalinks Migration Plugin for WordPress
SEO’d and readable URLS — they’re a beautiful thing!
At your service,
Your WordPress Consultant
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