Permalink
A permalink is the permanent web address of a single page or post — like yoursite.com/about. Good permalinks are short, readable, and stay put, which helps both visitors and Google.
Also known as: permalinks · url structure · slug
In plain English
A permalink is just the full web address for one specific page on your site — yoursite.com/services or yoursite.com/blog/my-post. "Perma" because it's meant to be permanent. WordPress lets you control how these are structured, and the goal is simple: short, clear addresses that describe the page (/contact) rather than messy ones full of numbers and symbols.
Why it matters for your business
Clean permalinks help in two quiet ways. Visitors trust and remember a tidy address, and Google reads the words in your URL as a small clue about what the page is about. The risk: if a permalink changes — during a redesign or a careless settings change — the old address breaks, and anyone who bookmarked it or any site linking to it hits a dead end. That costs you traffic and search ranking.
When to be careful
Changing your permalink structure on an existing site isn't something to do casually. If addresses must change, the old ones need redirects so visitors and search engines land in the right place instead of a 404.
Common questions
- Can I change a page's URL after it's published?
- You can, but be careful — the old address breaks for anyone who bookmarked or linked to it, and you can lose search ranking. If you must change it, set up a redirect from the old URL to the new one.
- What's the best permalink structure for SEO?
- Short and descriptive — usually the page or post name (`/your-service`), not dates or numbers. Clean, readable URLs help both visitors and search engines understand a page at a glance.
Related terms
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