When I visit a blog that has been created by a new blogger, I immediately notice that the permalinks to their blog posts haven’t been changed. By default, WordPress uses a confusing permalink structure for each post, which most new bloggers don’t realize.
It is important for those setting up a blog to ensure they have modified the permalinks of their posts from their default value. It isn’t hard to change the structure, and can be done even after you have published several posts.
What are Permalinks?
When you publish a post it is immediately displayed on the home page of your blog. Once you publish another post, the first post is either moved down the page, or it is removed entirely, depending on how many posts you display. The problem is how someone would read the first post if it no longer appears on the home page. This is done using permalinks.
Permalinks, short for permanent links, is a URL that points to a specific blog post. This means that each post has a static URL that a visitor can enter into their browser to read that particular post. If you would like to link to a post, you can just use the permalink of that post.
Blogging platforms, such as WordPress and Blogger, create permalinks for each post you create. You can easily get the permalink for each post through the blog’s respective post management system, or by simply copying the URL from the blog post title when it is displayed in a browser. Usually the permalink is comprised of at least the title of the post.
For example, if you created a blog post titled “Why I Blog?” on March 23, 2008, your blog platform may create a permalink such as: http://[your domain]/2008/03/why-i-blog.htm. You may notice that in this example the permalink also uses the year and month of the publish date.
For WordPress, however, the default value does not use an easy to read permalink structure, which some new blogger’s don’t realize. The good news is that it is very easy to change the permalink structure, and the change can be made even after you have published several posts.
Changing Permalinks Within WordPress
To change the WordPress permalink structure, use the following steps:
- Log in to your WordPress administrative panels.
- On the far right, click the Settings option.
- In the second set of links at the top, click the Permalinks link.
- Under Common Settings, you will see various formats of permalinks. Select one of the options or create your own custom structure. For Technically Easy I chose the Month and name setting.
- Once you are done, click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the page to save your permalink structure.
- View your blog and click a post on the home page. You should now see your post displayed with the new permalink structure.
For Blogger users, you should automatically have a permalink structure defined that is similar to the one I described above, so no changes are needed.
One thing to note about Blogger’s permalinks: they can be truncated if the post titles are too long. You may need to keep this in mind if you move from the Blogger platform to the WordPress platform, but there is a plugin that can help you out. I have outline this information my post titled Blogger to WordPress – Part 4.