Hundreds and thousands of small to big businesses use WordPress to host their websites but even wondered why some of them flourish so fast while others take so much time and money?

The key to promoting and reaping the maximum benefits from your website is nothing but proper Search Engine Optimization of your content, URLs, permalinks, and even tags and categories.

What is SEO friendly WordPress URL?

A good SEO friendly URL for your WordPress website is short, sensible and keyword rich. The default structure of your website URL on WordPress is not SEO friendly which is a shame because the smarter your SEO plan is for the website, the higher are chances of it being ranked top amongst Google search.

How Do I Create a SEO friendly URL for my website?

One of the most significant solutions to creating SEO friendly URL for your website on WordPress is that you keep it not too long, include your target keywords, and not use any characters which aren’t either alphabet or numeric.

Another vital point is that you specifically categorize the URL of every page according to their content and category, so your reader can relate to what they are about to find/read on that specific page. You can do this by adding the category of your page as well as the post slug (the post name) which must contain the target keyword(s).

No matter what you do, make sure your page URL doesn’t look like http://www.john%$business.com/?p=12462

Instead, it should look like http://www.johnsbusiness.com/how-to-book-a-cab-online/

Do I Have to Individually Change the URL on Every Page?

Depending upon the version of WordPress you have installed, you may or may not need to modify every URL. WordPress 4.2 and above have included the feature of SEO friendly URLs but that doesn’t mean you totally avoid the URLs of your website.

Even if it’s all done automatically, check the URLs of every page and ensure that they are as per the SEO norms.

What are the different SEO setting on WordPress?

WordPress allows for 6 different URL name settings. These are:

  • Plain – strictly not to be used, not SEO friendly at all. Example – http://www.adc.com/?p=146
  • Day and Name – somewhat SEO friendly, URLs too long, not preferred unless you run a News website. Example – http://www.adc.com/2017/04/11/sample-post/
  • Month and Name – same as Day and Name, has the risk of being dated. Example – http://www.adc.com/2017/04/sample-post/
  • Numeric – not SEO friendly, can only be used for �Archives’. Example – http://www.adc.com/archives/23
  • Post Name – the most SEO friendly, short and simple. Example – http://www.adc.com/sample-post/
  • Custom Structure – best for larger publications with too many webpages, can be made SEO friendly by adding target keywords and special tags. Example – http://www.abc.com/%category%/%postname%/

You can also create Custom URLs for your webpages by using year, month, date, post name, post ID, category, or the name of the author.  Here is a video showing you how to makes these changes.

What are the precautions to keep in mind while changing the URLs?

There are only two things to keep in mind before changing the permalink structure of your website.

1. If the website is more than 6 months old and is established, changing the permalinks will risk your website to lose its existing rank and social media share count.

2. If the website is using plain URLs, you should change the URLs anyway. You will still lose the social media share counts but the chances of you ranking better are more pivotal than your social media share count.