Permalinks & Search Engine Optimization

Permalinks are what WordPress likes to call page links. These make it easy for people to link back to your blog post and they tell your browser exactly where to go.

But from a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) point of view the default permalinks aren’t very good.

Here is what a default permalink would look like:

http://www.yoursite.com/?p=89

p=89 means that this is your 89th post (you’ve been busy)

What we really want the link to look like would be something like this:

http://www.yoursite.com/carpet-cleaning-tips/

Now what you have here is a keyword phrase “carpet cleaning tips” and a link that tell you and the search engines exactly what the post is all about.  It gives pertinent information.

So how do  we go from p=89 to carpet-cleaning-tips? Simple!

From your WordPress Dashboard go to the:

Settings tab and select Permalinks.

That takes you to the Permalinks menu where you will see Common Settings.

At the bottom of the list is Custom Structure. Hit the radio button and in the box write:

/%postname%/

Click Save Changes and you are done!

Now your post title will be part of your URL. And your readers and the search engines will be happy because they know what your post is all about.

If you have any questions about blog setup let The Blog Builder Guy know and I’ll do my best to help you out!