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How to Change Your WordPress Permalink and Why Bare Links Are Better for SEO
Permalinks are the permanent URLs that link to your WordPress posts, pages, and other content. By default, WordPress assigns permalinks that may include dates or post IDs, which can be confusing to users and less optimal for search engines. Changing your permalink structure to use bare links—URLs that contain keywords relevant to your content—can make your site more user-friendly and improve its SEO performance. Fortunately, WordPress makes it easy to customize your permalink structure directly from the dashboard.
To change your permalink structure, log in to your WordPress admin panel and navigate to Settings > Permalinks. Here, you’ll find several options, including the default settings and a custom structure option. For SEO purposes, choose the Post Name option, which uses the title of your post or page as the URL. This format keeps your URLs clean and descriptive, making it easier for search engines to understand your content. Once you select your preferred structure, click Save Changes to apply it across your site. Be mindful that changing permalinks on an existing site can break old links, so use a plugin like Redirection to set up 301 redirects for any affected pages.
Using bare links (e.g., yourwebsite.com/sample-post) rather than date-based URLs (e.g., yourwebsite.com/2024/11/23/sample-post) is essential for SEO. Bare links highlight the content’s relevance rather than its publication date, which is especially useful for evergreen topics that remain valuable over time. Search engines prioritize content that appears fresh and relevant, and date-based URLs can give the impression that older posts are outdated, even if the content is still useful. By adopting a clean permalink structure, you make your site more accessible to users and search engines, ultimately improving your site’s visibility and ranking potential.