Hey there, WordPress user! Are your post and page URLs full of meaningless numbers instead of readable words? Those numbers aren‘t doing your site any favors with visitors or search engines.
Research shows that URLs containing relevant keywords have a 45% higher click-through rate than generic URLs. And descriptive URLs with 3-5 words tend to perform best in search engine rankings.
So if you want to boost your WordPress site‘s SEO and make your content more accessible, it‘s time to ditch those numbers in your URLs. Don‘t worry, it‘s easier than you might think!
In this guide, I‘ll walk you step-by-step through removing numbers from your WordPress URLs and optimizing your link structure for search. We‘ll cover:
- Why keyword-rich URLs are better for SEO
- How to change your WordPress permalink structure
- Editing slugs for individual posts and pages
- Creating custom permalinks for categories, tags, and archives
- Handling duplicate slugs and deleted content
- Setting up 301 redirects to avoid broken links
- Best practices for optimizing your URL slugs
By the end of this post, you‘ll be a pro at crafting clean, search-friendly WordPress URLs that drive more organic traffic. Let‘s dive in!
Why Descriptive URLs Without Numbers Are Better for SEO
First, let‘s look at why you should remove numbers from your WordPress URLs in the first place. It all comes down to making your site more search engine friendly.
Compare these two URLs:
example.com/?p=123
example.com/10-tips-for-planting-a-vegetable-garden/Which one gives you a better idea of what the page is about? The second one, right? That‘s the power of a descriptive URL slug.
Using relevant keywords in your URLs provides several SEO benefits:
- Helps search engines understand and index your page content
- Can improve your search rankings for those keywords
- Increases organic click-through rates by giving users a preview of the page in search results
- Makes your content more shareable and easier to find for repeat visitors or through external links
In fact, a study by Backlinko found that short, keyword-rich URLs rank significantly better than long, numeric ones. The average URL length for a top 10 Google search result is just 66 characters.
So while numbers in your URLs won‘t necessarily hurt your SEO, replacing them with descriptive, keyword-focused phrases can give your content a nice boost. And it‘s easy to implement with WordPress.
How to Change Your WordPress Permalink Structure
The first step to cleaning up your URLs is changing your WordPress permalink structure. Permalinks are the permanent URLs to your individual pages, posts, categories and tag archives.
By default, WordPress uses an "ugly" permalink structure that includes the post ID number, like example.com/?p=123. But you can easily change this to a more search-friendly and readable structure.
To modify your permalink structure:
- Log in to your WordPress dashboard and go to Settings > Permalinks.
- Under Common Settings, select the Post name option.
- Click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the screen.
Now all of your page and post URLs will use the title as the URL slug instead of a number. For example:
example.com/sample-post/example.com/about-us/example.com/contact/
Much better, right?
Note that changing your permalink structure will affect any existing links to your content. I‘ll show you how to properly redirect old URLs to avoid broken links later in this post.
If you‘re starting a new WordPress site from scratch, I recommend choosing the Post name permalink structure right away so you don‘t have to deal with changing URLs down the road.
Editing Slugs for Individual Posts and Pages
While switching your permalink structure will remove numbers from most of your URLs, you may want to optimize some slugs further for your target keywords. You can do this by editing the URL slug for individual posts and pages.
The slug is the editable part of a URL that comes after your domain name. It‘s based on the page title by default, but you can customize it however you want.
For example, if your page title is "5 Important SEO Trends for 2024," WordPress would automatically set the slug to 5-important-seo-trends-for-2024. But you could clean it up to just seo-trends-2024.
Here‘s how to edit a slug in the Block Editor:
- Open the post or page you want to edit.
- In the top toolbar, click the Page or Post tab.
- The current URL slug will be displayed next to the title. Click the Edit button (pencil icon).
- Type in your optimized slug and click the Save button.
And here‘s how to edit a slug in the Classic Editor:
- From the Posts or Pages screen, hover over the post title and click Edit.
- Under the title field, click the Edit button next to the permalink.
- Modify the slug and click OK.
Keep your slugs short and sweet – aim for 3-5 words and under 60 characters when possible. Use your primary keyword and omit any numbers, years, or unnecessary filler words.
Separate words with hyphens and always use lowercase letters. Avoid special characters like apostrophes, ampersands, percent signs, or emojis. Stick to letters, numbers, and hyphens only for the clearest URLs.
Here are some examples of optimized URL slugs:
vegetable-garden-tipsseo-guide-wordpressbest-electric-cars-2024homemade-pizza-recipe
Remember, if you change the URL of an existing page, you must set up a 301 redirect! I‘ll explain this critical step later.
Creating Custom Permalinks for Categories and Tags
Besides post and page URLs, you may also want to remove numbers from your category and tag archive URLs. These are the pages that list all posts in a particular category or tag.
Go to Settings > Permalinks to view your category and tag base in the Optional section:
[screenshot]WordPress places /category/ before your category slug and /tag/ before your tag slug by default. For example:
example.com/category/gardening-tips/example.com/tag/vegetable-garden/
Some sites choose to remove the /category/ and /tag/ bases for shorter, cleaner URLs:
example.com/gardening-tips/example.com/vegetable-garden/
You can make this change by simply deleting the base prefix and saving your permalinks.
I also recommend editing the slugs for individual categories and tags just like you did for posts and pages.
Go to Posts > Categories or Posts > Tags to see a list of your categories or tags. Hover over one and click the Edit link to customize its slug:
[screenshot]Use the same best practices for category and tag slugs as regular posts and pages. Aim for short, keyword-focused slugs without numbers or special characters.
Avoiding Duplicate Slugs and 404 Errors
Sometimes when you edit a post slug to remove a number, you might see a warning that the slug is already in use by another post or page. WordPress won‘t allow two pages to have identical slugs.
If you see a "Page slug already exists" error, that means you need to make your new slug unique. The easiest way is to add a relevant keyword to the end of the slug. For example:
/seo-trends//seo-trends-2024/
However, it‘s better to avoid this situation altogether by always using unique, descriptive slugs for each piece of content on your site.
Also keep in mind that when you delete a post or page, the old URL will result in a 404 error for visitors and search engines. You can avoid this by setting up a proper 301 redirect, which I‘ll cover next.
But if you later want to reuse the slug from a deleted post, you first need to remove it from the trash. In your dashboard, go to Posts > All Posts or Pages > All Pages and click the Trash link to view deleted content.
[screenshot]Hover over the trashed post and click Delete Permanently to completely remove it and free up the old slug for reuse.
How to Set Up 301 Redirects When Changing URLs
Whenever you change a post or page URL, whether to remove numbers or optimize the slug, it‘s essential to set up a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one.
A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect that passes 90-95% of the link equity (ranking power) to the redirected page. In other words, it tells search engines that your page has permanently moved to a new URL, and links to the old URL should be credited to the new one.
Without a 301 redirect, any links to the old URL from your own site, external sites, or social media will break and show visitors an ugly 404 error. You‘ll lose traffic and hurt your SEO.
Fortunately, setting up 301 redirects on WordPress is easy with the right plugin. I recommend Redirection, a free plugin that automatically detects permalink changes and sets up redirects for you:
[screenshot]To set up Redirection:
- From your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins > Add New.
- Search for "Redirection" and install the first result by John Godley.
- Once installed, click Activate.
- Go to Tools > Redirection to configure the plugin settings.
- Check the box for "Monitor permalink changes in WordPress posts and pages" and click Update.
Now when you change a post or page URL, Redirection will automatically create a 301 redirect in the background from the old permalink to the new one. It will also redirect requests for the old slug to the new URL.
You can view all redirects by clicking the Redirects tab. Here you can add new redirects manually, disable or delete old ones, and check for 404 errors:
[screenshot]I recommend leaving Redirection activated even if you don‘t change URLs often. It will help catch any potential 404 errors on your site that could hurt your user experience and SEO.
Tips for Optimizing Your URL Slugs for Search
Finally, here are some additional tips to keep your WordPress URL slugs optimized for both search engines and human visitors:
- Include your primary keyword in the slug whenever possible
- Place important keywords closer to the beginning of the slug
- Limit slugs to 3-5 words and under 60 characters
- Use lowercase letters and dashes (-) to separate words
- Avoid underscores (_), periods (.), and special characters
- Remove numbers from slugs unless absolutely necessary for context
- Aim to match the slug with the page title and H1 heading
- Create unique, descriptive slugs for every page to avoid confusion
- Use 301 redirects any time you change an existing URL
- Consider removing /category/ and /tag/ bases for shorter URLs
- Regularly check for and fix any broken links or 404 errors
By following these URL best practices, you can create an SEO-friendly link structure for your WordPress site that drives more organic traffic and helps visitors find your content faster.
Optimize Your WordPress URLs for Better Rankings & Traffic
I hope this in-depth guide has given you the knowledge and tools to clean up your WordPress URLs and remove those pesky numbers for good!
While it may seem like a small change, using keyword-optimized slugs instead of numbers can make a big impact on your search rankings and click-through rates over time. Clean, descriptive URLs are also easier for visitors to understand and share.
To recap, here‘s how you can remove numbers from your WordPress URLs:
- Change your permalink structure to use the post name instead of numbers
- Edit individual post, page, category, and tag slugs to be short and keyword-focused
- Set up 301 redirects with the Redirection plugin to avoid 404 errors when updating URLs
- Follow WordPress URL best practices to keep your link structure optimized
Now I want to hear from you: Are you using SEO-friendly permalinks on your WordPress site? What strategies have worked well for optimizing your URL slugs? Let me know in the comments!
If you found this guide helpful, please consider sharing it with your network. And for more WordPress tips and tutorials, be sure to subscribe to my blog or YouTube channel.
Happy optimizing!
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