Step 2: Update the Permalink Structure
Permalinks are the permanent URLs to your individual posts. The default WordPress permalink structure looks like this:
http://www.yoursite.com/?p=123
Not very descriptive, is it? Luckily, it's easy to update your permalink structure to something much more useful for both people and search engines to read. Follow these steps:
- Go to Settings > Permalinks.
- Under "Common settings," choose from one of the existing permalink structures, or create your own custom structure. One custom format I like to use is /%year%/%postname%/ (see Figure 5). Click Save Changes to save your changes.
Figure 5 There are lots of different permalink structures. Here, I'm using one of my favorite custom structures.
Now your URLs will display using the structure you specified. If you used my custom structure, a post titled "WordCamp PDX" in the year 2011 would appear like this:
http://www.yoursite.com/2011/wordcamp-pdx