When you install a new website, one of the first things you need to do is set ‘permalink structure‘.You need to consider this before making your first post on your website or blog. So, just imagine how important it is? Further, once decided structure, it is difficult to change the structure in future. Changing permalink structure will impact your website badly.
Before starting with this article, let us first understand what is Permalink and how it would impact your website?
What is Permalink?
In simple language, Permalink refers to the URL structure of your website. It decides how to show the link address of your post, category and so on. For example
- website address/category/big-b-tweet-vodafone-service/
- website address/category/big-b-tweet-vodafone-service/
- website address/big-b-tweet-vodafone-service/
Above all the links are one and same. They all will get redirected to the same post. You can select any one of them. The selected format will become the permalink structure of your website or blog.
Importance of Permalink
It’s a simply an URL structure of your website. How could it impact your website? Yes, it is simply a structure of your URL link. But it could impact your website so badly that you will get lost out of the business.
Just suppose, initially you decide to go with the first option. Your Post URL will include, the name of the respective category. Now, after a year, you change the category of the post. Next, this will change the URL address of your post. Now you will have a new address. All your previous links will be no longer accessible and you will get content not found (404 error) error on it.
Confused, let us understand this with an example. Suppose you wrote a post on ‘How to increase Adsense earning?’ under the AdSense category. Then the URL address would be ‘website address/adsense/how-to-increase-adsense-earning’. But now you change the category of the post from adsense to Goggle Adsense. Then, the URL address of the post will be ‘website address/google-adsense/how-to-increase-adsense-earning’. These both the URL address are different for Google and your previous address will stop working once you change the category of the post.
Of course, there are ways to resolve this problem but better you should avoid those techniques. Always try to keep the website neat and clean. Further, we will discuss those techniques at the end of this article.
Types of Permalink Structure
Below are the various different types of permalink you can use on your website
Plain with post ID:
It’s a default type of permalink. This can be used effectively on the e-commerce website which includes the products with the same name. For example: If you selling Machine Embroidery Designs online, then the name of the designs could be the same but for the identification purpose, it needs to be separated by an Identification number.
Ending with Month and Year:
It’s another type of permalink. It includes ‘Month’ and ‘Year’ at the end of the link. This structure will work best for the News Website. This type of permalink looks professional on such kind of website.
Post Name:
This is our favorite. It works well for all type of websites. This structure will work best even you change or delete the category name. Even we are using this structure on our website.For example website, ‘address/big-b-tweet-vodafone-service/’;
In this case, changing or deleting the category name will not have an impact on URL structure. It will remain the same unless you delete or change the URL of the post.
Custom Structure
It is also possible to design a custom permalink for your website. You can design the link as per your requirement. We suggest not to use this structure unless you are aware of its impact. This is a little bit technical in nature.
Above all are the most common permalink structure for the website. You can use any one of the permalinks on your website at a time.
Best Permalinks Structure
Remember, there is no such best structure for the website. You can use any of the above permalinks on your website. It would not impact your website if properly used. Yes, all the above permalinks work fine unless you change or delete something.
But if you are looking for the structure that does not get impacted by changing or deleting category then ‘Post Name’ will work best for you. It will remain the same for all category.
You can even use the ‘Month’ and ‘year’ at the end of the link if you are running any News website. It is almost similar to ‘Post Name’ permalinks except it will be a little bit longer and will reflect the actual month of posting.
So, the best permalink structure is the one which does not get change with the post update.
How to change this Structure?
If you using an online platform to build your website then you can change the permalink using plugin or module. You will not require technical knowledge for it. the same. For a custom website, contact your consultant for the same.
Please do not change the permalinks if your website very old and already crawled lots of page on your website. To know how to tell Google about your website please refer below article
How to tell Google about Your Website
WordPress Permalink Structure
If you are using WordPress then there is no need of installing third-party plugins to change the permalinks of your website. It is inbuilt available on the WordPress website.
This option is available in the setting page of WordPress. Select Permalink from Setting option to use this option.
Category and Tag Permalink
Similarly, you can change the structure of ‘Category’ and ‘Post’ on the same page.
Category and tag permalink in WordPress
As discussed above, select the best permalink as per the nature of your website and click ‘Save Changes’.
Please do not change the permalinks setting unless required. You can play with this setting if you have created a new website recently.
How to Repair old permalinks?
What if we changed the permalinks and now getting ‘content not found’ error. You can repair this error by creating a 301 redirect link. It means it will redirect the old links to new links. It is easy to create a redirect link using third-party plugins or module. You can also create the redirect rule in the htaccess file.
Take away tips for Permalink Setting
- Use a simple URL structure
- Avoid using stop words like ‘on’,’of’,’the’ etc in your URL structure
- Use your focus keyword in the post URL
- Never change the structure of the permalink unless it is fully unavoidable.