How to Create an SEO-Friendly URL Structure for Your WordPress Site in 2024
If you want your WordPress website to rank high in search results and drive organic traffic, having an SEO-friendly URL structure is critical. Search engine optimization (SEO) involves many different on-page and technical factors, but URL structure is one of the most fundamental.
In this in-depth guide, we‘ll explain what makes a URL SEO-friendly, walk through how to set the optimal permalink structure in WordPress, and share additional tips to boost your site‘s SEO in 2024 and beyond. Let‘s dive in!
What Is an SEO-Friendly URL?
An SEO-friendly URL is one that is optimized to help both search engines and human users understand what a webpage is about. The URL acts as a concise description of the page‘s content.
Some key characteristics of SEO-friendly URLs:
- Short and descriptive, including the page‘s primary keyword or topic
- Uses hyphens to separate words (not underscores, spaces, or other characters)
- Is in lowercase
- Avoids unnecessary folders, numbers, or gibberish parameters
- Uses HTTPS protocol (sites with SSL)
Here‘s an example of an SEO-friendly URL for a blog post:
https://www.example.com/5-yoga-poses-for-back-pain
And here is an example of a messy, non-optimized URL:
http://example.com/blog/2024/6/8/8bdjs93.php?p=57392
While URLs are not a major Google ranking factor compared to quality content, backlinks, etc., they do matter for SEO. Clear, keyword-rich URLs help search engines index and rank pages appropriately. They also improve user experience and make people more likely to click through from search results.
WordPress Default Permalink Settings
WordPress is the most popular content management system in the world, powering over 40% of websites. One reason is its SEO-friendliness right out of the box.
In the WordPress admin dashboard under Settings > Permalinks, you can choose your default URL structure. The options are:
- Plain (https://example.com/?p=123)
- Day and name (https://example.com/2024/06/08/sample-post/)
- Month and name (https://example.com/2024/06/sample-post/)
- Numeric (https://example.com/archives/123)
- Post name (https://example.com/sample-post/)
- Custom structure
As of WordPress 4.2, the default permalink setting is "Post name", which takes the page or post‘s title to create a URL slug. This is generally the best choice for most websites from an SEO perspective because it leads to short, descriptive URLs.
The plain and numeric options are not at all SEO-friendly because they provide no context. The day/month and name options can be acceptable for news sites and blogs that publish content frequently, as the date tells users how current the information is. However, dates also make the URL longer.
Avoid Changing URL Structure On An Existing Site
If you have an established WordPress site that has been running for more than 6-12 months, be very cautious about changing the permalink structure. Doing so can lead to SEO and user experience issues like:
- Losing existing search engine rankings and traffic
- Breaking internal links and backlinks from other sites
- 404 errors when people try to access old URLs
- Resetting social share counts back to zero
The one exception is if your site is using the plain "?p=" URL structure – it‘s worth updating to a more SEO-friendly permalink setting even on an older site. But you‘ll want to hire an experienced developer to set up the proper 301 redirects from the old URLs to the new ones to minimize problems.
How to Customize Your WordPress Permalink Structure
For a new WordPress site, the post name permalink setting will likely be sufficient. But some larger sites may want to create a custom URL structure for better organization and SEO.
Under Settings > Permalinks, select the "Custom structure" option. Then you can use WordPress‘ structure tags to specify the components you want in your URLs. Some useful tags are:
- %postname% – the post/page title
- %category% – the post‘s category
- %author% – the post‘s author username
- %year% / %monthnum% / %day% – post publish date
- %post_id% – unique ID of the post
At WPBeginner, we use the custom permalink structure /%category%/%postname%/. This includes both the category and post title in the URL, which works well for us since we have thousands of tutorials across multiple categories. Here‘s an example:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-install-wordpress/
An eCommerce store with a deep hierarchy of product categories may want to include multiple category levels in URLs:
/%product_cat%/%product_cat%/%postname%/
There‘s no one "perfect" permalink structure. Think about what makes the most sense for your site architecture and content. In general, aim for your URLs to be as short and descriptive as possible, while still being easy to read for humans.
Once you‘ve entered your custom permalink structure, click "Save Changes" at the bottom of the screen. WordPress will automatically update your .htaccess file to enable the new URL structure (make sure you have a recent backup before making changes).
Other WordPress URL Best Practices for SEO
Here are a few other tips to make sure your WordPress URLs are optimized:
Use Hyphens to Separate Words
While the post name permalink structure removes most "unsafe" characters from URLs, if you manually create slugs or use the custom structure option, stick to hyphens only. Google advises against using underscores, spaces, or other characters to separate words.
Set Up Redirects When Changing URL Slugs
If you change the URL slug of an existing page or post in WordPress, the old URL will no longer work. To avoid 404 errors, set up a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one. You can do this with a free WordPress redirect plugin.
Be Careful With Dates in URLs
As mentioned above, having the date in your URL structure can make your content appear outdated. Unless you have a news site or content that needs a timestamp, avoid using dates in permalinks.
Canonicalize WWW vs Non-WWW
If your site is accessible at both the www and non-www versions (i.e. http://example.com and http://www.example.com), this can cause duplicate content issues. In WordPress under Settings > General, set your preferred domain and stick to it consistently. You may also need to set up a canonical redirect in your .htaccess file.
Use SSL and HTTPS URLs
Google has stated that HTTPS is a lightweight ranking signal. Plus, having a secure certificate and HTTPS URLs builds trust with website visitors. Make sure your WordPress hosting has an SSL certificate and that HTTPS is forced across your entire site.
Keep URL Slugs Short But Descriptive
Your page and post URL slugs should contain your primary keyword but avoid being excessively long. Aim for 3-5 words at most. You want people to be able to read them at a glance in search results.
The Yoast SEO Plugin Can Help
Yoast SEO is one of the most popular WordPress plugins with over 5 million active installations. It has a comprehensive set of tools to optimize your site‘s technical SEO, including URL settings.
Under the Yoast dashboard, go to SEO > Search Appearance. Under the "Taxonomies" tab you can set the permalink structure for posts, pages, categories, tags, and custom post types. You can also strip out category base names and customize how your homepage URL appears in search results.
For individual posts and pages, Yoast lets you manually set the focus keyword and URL slug. It will give you an SEO score and tips to optimize the page‘s on-page SEO elements, including having the keyword in the URL.
Conclusion
SEO-friendly URLs are an important on-page optimization factor that help search engines and users understand what your webpages are about. Luckily WordPress makes it easy to create SEO-optimized URLs by customizing your permalink structure.
For most sites, sticking to the default "post name" permalink setting will be best. Larger sites can use a custom URL structure, but be careful about changing the URL structure on an existing site as it can have negative SEO consequences.
Use the tips in this guide to ensure your WordPress URLs are optimized, and consider installing a plugin like Yoast SEO to take your technical optimization even further. With SEO-friendly URLs and quality content, your WordPress site will be in great shape to rank in 2024 and beyond!
