What is a permalink?
A permalink, short for permanent link, is the fixed URL where a piece of content lives, such as https://example.com/pour-over-guide/. The word comes from blogging, where it distinguished a post's own URL from the home page that listed it along with other posts.
In WordPress, "permalinks" also refers to the site-wide setting that decides how every post URL is constructed. That setting is one of the most consequential and least reversible choices on a WordPress site, because changing it later changes every URL at once.
How it works
WordPress builds URLs from a template of structure tags set in Settings → Permalinks. The common options:
| Setting | Example URL |
|---|---|
| Plain | /?p=123 |
| Day and name | /2026/09/30/pour-over-guide/ |
| Month and name | /2026/09/pour-over-guide/ |
| Numeric | /archives/123 |
| Post name | /pour-over-guide/ |
| Custom | e.g. /%category%/%postname%/ |
Post name (/%postname%/) is the usual choice: short, readable, and free of dates that make evergreen content look old. Category-based structures work for some news and magazine sites but tie URLs to categories, so moving a post between categories changes its URL.
Anything other than Plain requires URL rewriting on the server. On Apache, WordPress writes the rules to .htaccess; on Nginx, the host configures them.
Example
A food blog switches from Day and name to Post name. Every post moves:
/2019/04/12/sourdough-starter/ -> /sourdough-starter/
WordPress can often guess a post's new location from an old URL and redirect it, but do not rely on that. Check a sample of old URLs, add 301 redirects where needed, update internal links, and resubmit the sitemap.
In WordPress
Permalinks are set in Settings → Permalinks, where you can also change the category and tag bases. Hydrogen SEO's General screen has a Strip Category Base switch that turns /category/news/ into /news/ and 301-redirects the old addresses. It needs pretty permalinks. See general settings. Individual slugs are edited per post; see URL slug.
Common mistakes
- Launching on Plain permalinks, which gives every page an unreadable
?p=URL. - Changing the structure on an established site without planning redirects.
- Putting dates in URLs of content you plan to update for years.
Common questions
What is the best permalink structure for SEO?
Post name is the common recommendation because it is short and readable. The bigger factor is picking one and keeping it.
What happens if I change my permalink structure?
Every post URL changes. Old URLs need to redirect to the new ones, or they return 404 errors and lose their links and rankings.