What Is The Difference Between WordPress Permalinks?

WordPress permalinks are the URLs (uniform resource locators) pointing to specific posts, pages, or other content on a WordPress site. These URLs are essential for human visitors and search engines to navigate and understand the structure of your site.

WordPress offers several permalink structures, each with its own advantages and considerations. See the difference between WordPress permalinks below:

1. Plain: This is the default permalink structure, which uses URLs like http://yoursite.com/?p=123. While simple, these URLs are not very user-friendly or SEO-friendly.
2. Day and Name: This structure includes the date and post name in the URL, such as http://yoursite.com/2024/04/24/sample-post/. It’s good for sites where publishing date matters and can improve SEO by providing more context to search engines.
3. Month and Name: Similar to the Day and Name structure, but with only the month included in the URL, like http://yoursite.com/2024/04/sample-post/.
4. Numeric: This structure includes only the post ID, resulting in URLs like http://yoursite.com/archives/123. It’s not very descriptive but it can be useful if you have a large number of posts and want shorter URLs.
5. Post Name: This structure includes only the post name in the URL, such as http://yoursite.com/sample-post/. It’s simple, clean, and SEO-friendly, making it a popular choice for many websites.
6. Custom Structure: This option allows you to create a custom permalink structure using placeholders for different elements like post ID, category, tag, author, etc. For example, you could have a structure like http://yoursite.com/%category%/%postname%/, which would include the category followed by the post name in the URL.

When choosing a permalink structure, consider factors such as SEO, usability, and your site’s content structure. Using either the Post Name structure or a custom structure tailored to your specific needs is generally recommended. Additionally, once you’ve set your permalink structure, it’s important to avoid changing it frequently to prevent broken links and negative impacts on SEO.

If you need help choosing an SEO plugin, check out this article we wrote.