WordPress Permalinks Structure for SEO 1-2-3

Getting those pretty addresses for your posts and pages for WordPress is easy as 1-2-3.

Step 1: Set your permalinks structure through your Admin>Settings panel.

Under the Permalinks menu, change your default to a custom. Input %postname% for just the postname. It’s better to include a year or postid in your address if you have a lot of posts, to make it easier on the server. Shorter is ideal, but use what you prefer. Your full list of options is handy for you here.

Note: If you’re using an IIS server for your hosting, you’ll need to include index.php before your permalink (ie: index.php/%postname%). This is because IIS does not support mod_rewrite. Yahoo is one in particular that does not support mod_rewrite. Should you use index.php and your good to go, skip Step 2. More information on Permalink issues with “index.php” at the WordPress Forums.

Step 2: Add a .httaccess to the root directory of your website.

This takes maybe 2 minutes. Open notepad. Copy the following to it and change appropriately:
< IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]

Save this file as .httaccess (make sure you select All Files when saving to preserve the file type). Upload this file to the root directory of your WordPress installation.

Step 3: Update your linking throughout the website.

Make sure your site is reflecting the new links you’ve set up. Should you need to see the current structure, check the pageid of the page through your administration panel. When writing posts and pages, include the – between words. Search engines will recognize ‘orlando-campgrounds’ as ‘orlando campgrounds’ and _ will be just _.

Enjoy!