{"id":3816,"date":"2018-09-27T10:00:48","date_gmt":"2018-09-27T15:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/blog\/custom-permalink-structure-wordpress-how-to\/"},"modified":"2018-09-27T10:00:48","modified_gmt":"2018-09-27T15:00:48","slug":"custom-permalink-structure-wordpress-how-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/blog\/custom-permalink-structure-wordpress-how-to\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Create a Custom Permalink Structure for Your WordPress Site"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Your site\u2019s permalinks are more important than you may realize. Far from being a seemingly arbitrary set of characters that direct to your site\u2019s pages, how you structure your permalinks can have an effect on how well your site ranks in search engines. This also affects your click-through rate (CTR).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Given this, WordPress provides you with several pre-configured permalink structures you can choose for your site. However, it also enables you to customize your permalinks by creating your own custom structures. This can be particularly handy if you find the default options unsuitable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this article, I\u2019ll explain what custom permalink structures are. I\u2019ll also walk you through the process of creating them, and provide advice for how to settle on the most effective structure. Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter wp-image-29805 size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/getflywheel-images.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2018\/09\/betty-desk-scene-custom-permalink-structure.png\" alt=\"female developer at desk working on permalink structure in WordPress\" class=\"wp-image-29805\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"toc-an-introduction-to-permalink-structures\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">An Introduction to Permalink Structures<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Simply put, <a data-analytics-action-type=\"link\" data-analytics-link-location=\"Post Content\" data-analytics-link-type=\"outbound\" href=\"https:\/\/codex.wordpress.org\/Using_Permalinks\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a permalink<\/a> is the unique URL used to access each individual part of any website. It\u2019s what you enter into the address bar to access the site, or include in posts or emails when you want to share a post with others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To illustrate, consider that the permalink to WP Engine\u2019s home page is <a data-analytics-action-type=\"link\" data-analytics-link-location=\"Post Content\" data-analytics-link-type=\"internal\" href=\"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/wpengine.com\/<\/a>. In contrast, the permalink for a specific post on Layout looks like: <a data-analytics-action-type=\"link\" data-analytics-link-location=\"Post Content\" data-analytics-link-type=\"internal\" href=\"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/blog\/why-choose-wp-engine-for-wordpress-managed-hosting\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/wpengine.com\/blog\/why-choose-wp-engine-for-wordpress-managed-hosting\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this case, the permalink is made out of a few main components: the domain name (<code>wpengine.com<\/code>), a category (blog), followed by <a data-analytics-action-type=\"link\" data-analytics-link-location=\"Post Content\" data-analytics-link-type=\"outbound\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/prettylinks.com\/2018\/03\/url-slugs\/\" target=\"_blank\">the slug<\/a> (why-choose-wp-engine-for-wordpress-managed-hosting). When talking about permalink structures, it\u2019s the two latter parts you want to focus on. This is essentially how you structure, categorize, and label your posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>WordPress users can easily set a site\u2019s permalink structure \u2013 in your <strong>Settings<\/strong> screen, you\u2019ll find a selection of default options:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When you first install WordPress, the <strong>Plain<\/strong> option will be set by default, which will create permalinks using each page\u2019s unique ID number. However, you should always change this, as this structure is hugely lacking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While it might seem like a minor concern, it\u2019s actually quite important to use a permalink structure that works best for your site and its content. If you\u2019re using permalinks that are long, difficult to remember, or don\u2019t accurately convey each page\u2019s content, your pages could be <a data-analytics-action-type=\"link\" data-analytics-link-location=\"Post Content\" data-analytics-link-type=\"outbound\" href=\"https:\/\/backlinko.com\/google-ranking-factors\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">less visible in search results<\/a>. Users could also be less willing to click links if the URL looks messy or doesn\u2019t include information about the page\u2019s content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>Plain<\/strong> structure falls into several of these traps, so choosing another structure is usually a paramount step. However, even with these default options, you might still want to structure your permalinks differently. Fortunately, WordPress makes this just as easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"toc-why-you-might-use-a-custom-permalink-structure\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why You Might Use a Custom Permalink Structure<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Rather than just sticking with WordPress\u2019 default permalink options, you may find that creating your own custom permalink structure is best. WordPress enables you to do this by specifying various <a data-analytics-action-type=\"link\" data-analytics-link-location=\"Post Content\" data-analytics-link-type=\"outbound\" href=\"https:\/\/codex.wordpress.org\/Using_Permalinks#Structure_Tags\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">structure tags<\/a>. I\u2019ll discuss these in more detail later on when we look at how to actually create your own permalink structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/getflywheel-images.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2018\/09\/betty-background-custom-permalink-structure.png\" alt=\"female developer at desk working on permalink structure in WordPress\" class=\"wp-image-29806\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, there\u2019s no <a data-analytics-action-type=\"link\" data-analytics-link-location=\"Post Content\" data-analytics-link-type=\"outbound\" href=\"https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress-seo-url-permalink\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">perfect permalink structure<\/a>, and what you decide to use is entirely up to you. Different sites have different goals and purposes, after all. However, there are some things you should take into consideration when you create your permalink structure:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Whether or not to include dates.<\/strong> While it can sometimes be handy to include date information in your links, it can also make the content seem old. If somebody comes across a post of yours using a search engine, but notices it was posted several years ago, they\u2019re much more likely to find a more recent alternative.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Avoid post IDs.<\/strong> I already mentioned this earlier, but it bears repeating. Including unclear and ambiguous data in URLs has no benefit, as it won\u2019t help you organize your posts better, nor will it give users any idea of the content. As you can imagine, this also affects your Search Engine Optimization (SEO).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Make them as short as possible.<\/strong> The shorter your permalinks, the easier they are to remember and share. This is a big reason why you may want to avoid including categories and tags as part of your permalinks. The link <code>yoursite.com\/blog-post<\/code> is infinitely more memorable and readable than <code>yoursite.com\/blog\/news-updates\/2018\/08\/31\/blog-post<\/code>, for example.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>One important thing to remember before you proceed is that you should avoid changing the permalink structure if you already have a considerable amount of content on your site. Naturally, this is because changing every URL on the site may lead to many broken links. Permalinks are meant to be permanent, after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, if you do wish to change your permalinks after the fact, you will need to redirect the original links to their new URLs. This can be a relatively involved process, so be absolutely sure you\u2019re ready to proceed before you make any changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"toc-how-to-create-a-custom-permalink-structure-for-your\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">How to Create a Custom Permalink Structure for Your WordPress Website<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s now take a look at how to set your site\u2019s permalink structure, and how to create your own custom variation. As I mentioned earlier, WordPress makes this process very easy, so start by accessing your site\u2019s admin dashboard and navigating to <strong>Settings &gt; Permalinks<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/getflywheel-images.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2018\/09\/custom-permalink-structure-wordpress-permalink-settings.png\" alt=\"custom permalink structure WordPress dashboard screenshot\" class=\"wp-image-29800\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Here you\u2019ll see the different default permalink options. However, we\u2019re primarily interested in the field underneath them:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/getflywheel-images.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2018\/09\/custom-permalink-structure-wordpress-date-post-name.png\" alt=\"custom structure settings in wordpress dashboard when creating a customer permalink structure with date and post name\" class=\"wp-image-29802\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>To construct your permalink format, you\u2019ll be using <a data-analytics-action-type=\"link\" data-analytics-link-location=\"Post Content\" data-analytics-link-type=\"outbound\" href=\"https:\/\/codex.wordpress.org\/Using_Permalinks#Structure_Tags\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">structure tags<\/a>, which I touched on briefly in the previous section. These represent different properties of a post. There are various types you can use to include the post\u2019s title, the date when the post was published, a category, and even the name of the post\u2019s author.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, if you wanted to include the year and the post title, you would use the following structure:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><code>\/%year%\/%postname%\/<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This would render permalinks that look as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>https:\/\/yoursite.com\/2018\/the-title-of-this-post\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All you need to do to build your structure is to click the buttons underneath text field. This adds the selected tag to the current structure. For example, here I\u2019ve clicked <code>%postname%<\/code>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/getflywheel-images.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2018\/09\/custom-permalink-structure-wordpress-postname.png\" alt=\"custom structure settings in wordpress dashboard when creating a customer permalink structure set to post name\" class=\"wp-image-29801\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>All you need to do is add the tags you require until you\u2019ve completed your custom structure. For this example, I\u2019ll use the post\u2019s author and title in the permalinks, which requires the following tag structure:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><code>\/%author%\/%postname%\/<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When you\u2019ve finished, click Save changes to apply your new permalink structure. You will be able to see the effect immediately in all your URLs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, let\u2019s say we started out using the following permalink structure:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><code>\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/%postname%\/<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This would have made our permalinks look like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/getflywheel-images.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2018\/09\/custom-permalink-structure-wordpress-blog-post-date-title.png\" alt=\"custom structure settings in wordpress dashboard when creating a customer permalink structure set to date and post name view from post tab in dashboard\" class=\"wp-image-29803\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>However, now we\u2019ve changed it, you can see the difference just by accessing or editing a post:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/getflywheel-images.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2018\/09\/custom-permalink-structure-wordpress-blog-post-title.png\" alt=\"custom structure settings in wordpress dashboard when creating a customer permalink structure set to post name view from post tab in dashboard\" class=\"wp-image-29804\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>This means you\u2019ve successfully created and applied a custom permalink structure on your site!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"toc-conclusion\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Conclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Taking a moment to consider your site\u2019s permalink structure is not time wasted. In fact, by settling on a simple structure containing the most important information, you can improve your SEO and make your links more trustworthy and clickable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fortunately, WordPress makes it easy to configure your permalinks. While you could stick with the default options, you can just as well create your own customized permalink structure. This gives you total control over how your links look, both when shared and in search engines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And when you choose the right <a data-analytics-action-type=\"link\" data-analytics-link-location=\"Post Content\" data-analytics-link-type=\"internal\" href=\"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/wordpress-hosting\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">WordPress hosting<\/a> provider, you can rest assured that every page and permalink loads lightning fast!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Your site\u2019s permalinks are more important than you may realize. Far from being a seemingly arbitrary set of characters that direct to your site\u2019s pages, how you structure your permalinks can have an effect on how well your site ranks in search engines. This also affects your click-through rate (CTR). Given this, WordPress provides you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":1320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"mediapress_draft_name":"","_mediapress_is_draft_copy":false,"_time_to_read":7,"footnotes":""},"audience":[],"blog-category":[121],"buyer-stage":[],"company-and-culture":[],"content-type":[54],"location":[],"persona":[106],"product":[],"topic":[100],"use-cases":[],"class_list":["post-3816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","blog-category-best-practices","content-type-blog","persona-developer","topic-wordpress"],"acf":{"hero_image_alt_text":"","featured_on_hub_page":false,"featured_on_tag_page":false,"featured_on_category_page":false,"wp_engine_pick":false,"display_author_bio":false,"taxonomy_selector":{"":null,"taxonomy-audience":false,"taxonomy-buyer-stage":false,"taxonomy-company-and-culture":false,"taxonomy-content-type":[54],"taxonomy-location":false,"taxonomy-persona":[106],"taxonomy-product":false,"taxonomy-topic":[100],"taxonomy-use-cases":false}},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How to Create a Custom Permalink Structure for Your WordPress<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How you structure your permalinks can have an effect on how well your site ranks in search engines. Here&#039;s how you customize yours.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/blog\/custom-permalink-structure-wordpress-how-to\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Create a Custom Permalink Structure for Your WordPress\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How you structure your permalinks can have an effect on how well your site ranks in search engines. Here&#039;s how you customize yours.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/blog\/custom-permalink-structure-wordpress-how-to\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"WP Engine\u00ae\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wpengine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-09-27T15:00:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/WPE-IMG-Thumbnail-1200x630-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"WP Engine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@wpengine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@wpengine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"WP Engine\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wpengine.com\\\/blog\\\/custom-permalink-structure-wordpress-how-to\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wpengine.com\\\/blog\\\/custom-permalink-structure-wordpress-how-to\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"WP Engine\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wpengine.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/bf22ca48719dba40ad1a1d4161eb01e9\"},\"headline\":\"How to Create a Custom Permalink Structure for Your WordPress Site\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-09-27T15:00:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wpengine.com\\\/blog\\\/custom-permalink-structure-wordpress-how-to\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1245,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wpengine.com\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wpengine.com\\\/blog\\\/custom-permalink-structure-wordpress-how-to\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wpengine.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/09\\\/custom-permalink_1100x500.png\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wpengine.com\\\/blog\\\/custom-permalink-structure-wordpress-how-to\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wpengine.com\\\/blog\\\/custom-permalink-structure-wordpress-how-to\\\/\",\"name\":\"How to Create a Custom Permalink Structure for Your WordPress\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wpengine.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wpengine.com\\\/blog\\\/custom-permalink-structure-wordpress-how-to\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wpengine.com\\\/blog\\\/custom-permalink-structure-wordpress-how-to\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wpengine.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/09\\\/custom-permalink_1100x500.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-09-27T15:00:48+00:00\",\"description\":\"How you structure your permalinks can have an effect on how well your site ranks in search engines. 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