Setting Best Permalink For WordPress

The default setting permalink for wordpress is a bit gnarly. They look like this http://yourdomain.com/?p=13  . Yep, that is the one which comes in default. Is there any better setting than that? At least for default which is making more prettier and seo friendly? Well, it’s because this setting doesn’t require any special server files or set up at all. The “?p=”   part of the URL references Post and Page IDs (codes that are created for the post or page, random numeric). The value after the equal sign is the value for that particular parameter. So the link above tells WordPress to “retrieve and display the Post or Page that has the ID value of 13 . As practical as these  default URLs are, you would rather that your URLs looked more readable, like “http://yourdomain.com/seo-tips/” .With a URL like that, the server is by default going to look for a file or subdirectory named “seo-tips” and take you there. However, if you find all over your directory, there is no such directory like that. It doesn’t even exist at all!  WordPress doesn’t actually create a physical directory  structure for all of your posts and pages, it just “illusion” with a little touch from a special little file called .htaccess.

The full name for this file is literally “.htaccess”. Weird extension ,but it’s working in server world.Simple,litle yet powerfull.This file makes all special permalink handling possible in WordPress.The .htaccess probably the most usefull and powerfull tool provided for us (if we hosting a site in a hosting service company) to customize hosting server,how it works,how it executes commands writen by you in that file.You can even compress your site using it.This .htaccess  file should exist at the root directory of your WordPress install.In your file manager in CPanel,you can choose to show hidden file(s).The .htaccess is a dot file which is ussualy hiden.But if you don’t find any,you can craete one with your notepad or any text editor,here is an example. In many server environments, WordPress can do this automatically for you, which is the best way to go.To check if your htaccess file has created,you can go to your Settings > Permalinks area and choose any setting other than the default and click “Save Changes.” If you received the following response message,you are all set:

Permalink structure updated

In this permalink setting you can choose which one fits you.As you may see, there are different seeting for permalink.Now if your site is a blog which updated daily,using permalink based on date probably the best.If your blog considured to be a review site which contain many articles,setting a custom permalink structure like this probably better for you /%category%/%postname%/ .But if your blog planed to be really not updated regularly,daily bassis or 2-3 posts per week and you are planing to write content that is timeless,then a custom structure like this one /%postname%/ maybe the best for you just like mine .Take a note,it is much better not to use an extension for your permalink like .html  or .htm or else.This way you can reduce chance to get penalized because of duplicated content. Finally, if your blog more like a news or magazine,or something that is updated often enough this setting is the best /%post_id%/%postname%/  The post ID make database queries easier and lighter,which is good if your site is crowded with traffic everyday.

Now here is quick tips as a conclusion for setting permalink :

• Decide your permalink structure and stick with it
• The shorter the better
• Keep the overall URL structure relevant to the site
• Make the slug a memorable representation of the post
• Better to use only one category per post
• Using multiple tags per post

Remember also to not go overboard by creating hundreads of categories.Arround 10-15 categories would be a perfect choice.

Tagged as: best permalink, best permalink setting, setting permalink