WordPress permalinks determine how your URLs look and significantly impact SEO. Whether you want clean URLs, custom structures, or category-based links, understanding permalinks is essential for every WordPress site. Here’s your complete guide to WordPress permalinks in 2026.
Permalinks are the permanent URLs to your posts, pages, categories, and archives. A well-structured permalink improves both user experience and search engine optimization.
Navigate to Settings → Permalinks in your WordPress dashboard. You’ll see several predefined options and a custom structure field.
For most websites, the “Post name” structure is recommended:
Click “Save Changes” to update your permalink structure. WordPress will automatically update your .htaccess file (Apache) or nginx configuration.
WordPress provides these structure tags for custom permalinks:
| Tag | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| %year% | Four-digit year | 2026 |
| %monthnum% | Month number | 01-12 |
| %day% | Day of month | 01-31 |
| %postname% | Post slug | my-post-title |
| %post_id% | Post ID | 123 |
| %category% | Category slug | news |
| %author% | Author slug | john |
Shorter URLs perform better in search results. Remove unnecessary words like “the,” “and,” “a” from your slugs.
Include your target keyword in the URL slug naturally. This helps search engines understand your content.
Stick to lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens. Avoid underscores, spaces, and special characters.
Unless your content is time-sensitive (news), avoid dates in permalinks. They make URLs longer and can make evergreen content look outdated.
Changing permalinks on an established site can break existing links and hurt SEO. Always set up redirects when changing URLs.
Install a redirect plugin before changing permalinks:
Create 301 (permanent) redirects from old URLs to new ones. This preserves SEO value and prevents 404 errors.
Custom post types can have their own permalink structures:
Most plugins that create custom post types let you customize their permalink base in settings.
By default, category archives use: example.com/category/category-name/
You can customize this in Settings → Permalinks → Optional section.
Tag archives default to: example.com/tag/tag-name/
Change the tag base in the same Optional section of permalink settings.
Some prefer URLs without /category/. Use plugins like “Remove Category URL” or Rank Math’s settings to achieve this.
The “Post name” structure (%postname%) is generally best for SEO. It creates short, keyword-rich URLs without unnecessary information.
It depends. Category-based URLs add hierarchy but make URLs longer. Most sites do fine with just the post name.
Yes, but carefully. Set up 301 redirects from all old URLs to prevent losing SEO rankings and breaking existing links.
This is the default “Plain” structure. Change it in Settings → Permalinks to enable pretty permalinks.
For most websites, we recommend:
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Erik Keller
