Permalinks are the permanent URLs to your individual blog posts, pages, categories, and other content on your WordPress site. Think of them as the address for each piece of content. By default, WordPress might use "ugly" URLs that look like this:
This means a post with the ID number 123. While functional, these URLs aren't very user-friendly or good for search engines.
WHY ARE FRIENDLY PERMALINKS IMPORTANT?
Readable permalinks offer several benefits:
Improved User Experience: Visitors can easily understand what a link is about just by looking at the URL.
Better Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Search engines prefer descriptive URLs as they provide clues about your content.
Easier Sharing: Clean URLs are simpler to share on social media or in emails.
Instead of domain.com/?p=123, a friendly permalink might look like:
domain.com/name-of-post
FIXING 404 ERRORS AND SETTING UP PERMALINKS
Occasionally, you might encounter 404 "page not found" errors on your WordPress site. This can sometimes be resolved by refreshing your permalink settings. Even if you're not seeing errors, it's good practice to ensure your permalinks are set up for readability.
Here's how to configure your permalinks:
Access Your WordPress Admin: Log in to your WordPress dashboard.
Navigate to Settings: In the left-hand menu, click on "Settings."
Go to Permalinks: Under "Settings," click on "Permalinks."
Choose a Structure: On the Permalinks settings page, you'll see several options for your URL structure.
To get a clean, post-name-based URL, select the "Custom Structure" option.
In the box next to "Custom Structure," enter:
/%postname%/
Save Changes: Click the "Save Changes" button at the bottom of the page.