Table of contents

What are WordPress permalinks?Are permalinks only in WordPress?What is the purpose of permalinks in WordPress?Are WordPress permalinks good for SEO?How do I change permalinks in WordPress?How do I create custom permalinks in WordPress?How do I flush permalinks in WordPress?Can I remove dates from WordPress permalinks?What happens if I change a permalink after publishing?Next stepsAdditional resources

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WordPress Guide → Admin → Permalinks

WordPress permalinks: All your questions, answered

Want to change your WordPress URLs but worried about breaking something? Permalinks can be tricky when you’re first starting out, but they’re also one of the most important features to get right.

Here’s everything you need to know about WordPress permalinks, from what they are to how to change, customize, and reset them.

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What are WordPress permalinks?

Permalinks are the permanent URLs to your WordPress posts, pages, categories, and other content types. They define how each piece of content is accessed on the web. A typical permalink might look like this:

https://example.com/my-blog-post

WordPress automatically generates permalinks for new content based on the structure you choose in your settings.

Are permalinks only in WordPress?

No—permalinks exist on all websites, not just WordPress. The term “permalink” is widely used in content management systems (CMSs) to describe a permanent, human-readable URL that leads to a specific page or post.

What makes WordPress unique is how easy it is to manage and customize permalinks right from your dashboard, without writing any code.

What is the purpose of permalinks in WordPress?

Permalinks serve several key purposes:

Navigation: They let users access and share your content.
Organization: They reflect your site’s structure (e.g., category/post-name).
SEO: Clean, keyword-rich URLs help search engines understand your content.
Permanence: They provide stable links that won’t change when you update a post.

Bad permalinks can confuse visitors and hurt your rankings. Good permalinks make your site more usable and findable.

Are WordPress permalinks good for SEO?

Yes—if you choose the right structure. WordPress lets you select from several built-in permalink formats. For SEO, the best practice is to use the Post name structure (/sample-post/) or a custom structure that includes relevant keywords.

Avoid default formats like ?p=123, which don’t describe the page content. Instead, aim for short, descriptive slugs that include target keywords.

Easy to read
Relevant to the page content
Free of unnecessary parameters

How do I change permalinks in WordPress?

To change your permalink structure site-wide:

Log in to your WordPress admin dashboard.
Go to Settings > Permalinks.
Choose one of the preset options, like “Post name,” or create a custom structure.
Click Save Changes.

If you already have content published, changing your permalink structure can cause 404 errors. To avoid this, set up 301 redirects from the old URLs to the new ones using a plugin like Redirection.

How do I create custom permalinks in WordPress?

You can customize permalinks globally or on a per-post basis.

To create a custom permalink for a specific post or page:

Open the post or page in the WordPress editor.
Click the URL slug under the title (next to “Permalink”).
Edit the slug to your preferred text.
Save or update the post.

To define a custom structure site-wide:

Go to Settings > Permalinks.
Choose “Custom Structure.”
Use tags like %category%, %postname%, or %author% to build your URL format.
Click Save Changes.

How do I flush permalinks in WordPress?

Flushing permalinks clears and rebuilds WordPress’s internal rewrite rules. This is useful when:

You install or remove a plugin that adds custom post types
Your URLs stop working (404 errors)
You’ve manually changed your .htaccess file

To flush permalinks manually:

Go to Settings > Permalinks.
Click Save Changes without modifying anything.

You can also flush permalinks programmatically with this code in your theme or plugin:

flush_rewrite_rules();

Avoid using this function on every page load—only run it on activation hooks or admin actions.

Can I remove dates from WordPress permalinks?

Yes. If your site currently uses a date-based structure like /2025/05/14/post-name/, you can switch to a cleaner format:

Go to Settings > Permalinks.
Select the “Post name” option.
Click Save Changes.

Be sure to set up redirects from the old URLs to avoid losing traffic or SEO value.

What happens if I change a permalink after publishing?

If you edit the URL slug of a published post or change your permalink structure, the original URL will no longer work unless redirected. This can cause 404 errors and hurt your SEO.

To prevent this, use a redirect plugin like Redirection to map the old URL to the new one.

For high-traffic sites, it’s best to plan your permalink structure early and avoid changes unless necessary.

Next steps for mastering WordPress permalinks

Permalinks are a small setting with big consequences. Choosing the right structure boosts SEO, improves user experience, and helps future-proof your site.

If you’re making changes to an established site, always test thoroughly and use 301 redirects to preserve your traffic and search rankings.

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