WordPress gives you several different options for how URLs are structured, and you need to make sure you are using the most SEO-friendly option. To set SEO friendly URL we need to understand what is URL and how to set SEO friendly URL in WordPress

By default, WordPress uses URLs like this:https://domain.com/?p=123. These URLs are not search engine-friendly, and there is absolutely no way to even begin to identify what the page is about from the URL alone.

What is a URL?

A URL is a permanent link to your page and posts, and it doesn’t change with time. So, choosing the perfect and SEO friendly permalinks is one of the important parts while talking about SEO.

What is Permalink

The permalink is the full URL you see – and use – for any given post, page or other pieces of content on your site. It’s a permanent link, hence the name permalink. It could include your domain name (www.yoast.com) plus what’s called a slug, the piece of the URL that comes after the domain name. This might include a date or a category or anything you please. A simple permalink makes a URL easy to understand and share

You can change the structure of the permalink from the WordPress dashboard setting at any time. But this is not the recommended practice. This can cause your search engine traffic and referral traffic to drop considerably as visitors are presented with 404-page errors instead of the page they wanted to view. Changing the permalink will move your website content to the new address and indexed and referral will come on the same link and find nothing. It impacts very bad for SEO and your website visitors thoughts.

What is SEO Friendly URL in WordPress?

URL is one of the key factors for attracting users to your site. A well-organized and unique style of permalinks will surely attract your visitors, making it easy for visitors and search engines to navigate and refer to your content. URLs must be in human-readable form. It improves the rank of your website in search engines.

Example of SEO friendly URL Structure
www.wordpresskolkata.com/seo-friendly-url-wordpress/

Example of Non-SEO friendly URL Structure
www.wordpresskolkata.com/?p=123

Now, you want to make your site permalinks SEO friendly, right?

How to Set SEO friendly URL in WordPress Website?

To make your website URL SEO friendly is easy. WordPress offers great settings to change your URL structure(Permalink) for SEO. Lets, check the below steps to change the URL structure.

  • Go to Admin Menu ( Dashboard )
  • Go to Settings Section and Permalinks
  • Select Post name URL structure
  • Click on Save Changes to save this structure.

WordPress has 6 different types of permalinks structures and Post Name is the best and recommended URL structure for permalinks.

How to Make SEO Friendly URL in WordPress
How to Make SEO Friendly URL in WordPress

Permalinks Types

Default:

Default permalinks look like www.wordpresskolkata.com/?p=123, where 123 is the ID of post or page in the database.
Day and Name:

Permalinks are visible based on day and name of the post. It looks like, www.wordpresskolkata.com/2018/01/31/sample-post/

Month and Name:

It looks like the same as day and name but here day is missing. Permalink will appear based on year, months and name. Sample link looks like, www.wordpresskolkata.com/2018/01/sample-post/

Numeric:

Numeric permalinks will be set based on the post and page IDs. Sample link for numeric permalinks looks like, www.wordpresskolkata.com/archives/123

Post Name:

This is one of the popular permalink settings and this is the best permalink for SEO on WordPress and this is a highly recommended permalink setting. It is very popular because it generates short memorable and human-readable links for the post and page.

This type of permalink is based on the slug. Even if you have the same post name, your URL will automatically change to unique. You can further customize the URL from the single post/page settings. The same slug cannot be set on two posts.

Sample permalink is www.wordpresskolkata.com/sample-post you can customize the slug for individual posts and pages easily with the help of the option below the title section of the page or post editor.

Custom Structure:

This type of permalink helps you to set your own desired permalink. Example is /archives/%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/. You can choose the date, post name or any other parameters for this structure. If any of the above permalinks are not suitable for your need, you can use the custom structure for it.