How to Create WordPress Pretty Permalink

How to Create WordPress Pretty Permalink in 3 steps

By default, permalink in self-hosted wordpress is ugly and more important, not SEO friendly. It looks like http://www.fatihsyuhud.com/?p=22. The pretty permalink will look like this: http://www.fatihsyuhud.com/post-name. To transform the ugly one into a pretty permalink you need a little work-out. Fortunately an easy one as follows:

For Wordpess version 2.8 and above

1. After login -> Settings -> Permalinks
2. Check Custom Structure -> enter this code at box -> /%postname%/
3. Click Save Changes. Done. Your post link will look like http://www.fatihsyuhud.com/postname

Other Permalink Options click here
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The following tutorial for self-hosted wordpress blog version 2.7 and below. For 2.7 and above see the tutorial above.
1. Create a notepad blank file. Name it 1.htaccess
2. Upload it into your main directory in the control panel usually in folder ../public_html/(upload file here). Using FTP is a lot better. If you still don’t have FTP, download Filezilla for free here.
3. Rename the file already uploaded into .htaccess. (If using FTP you just need to right click -> rename -> .htacess
4. Change the attribute of the file (again using FTP) by right-click -> File attributes -> make it 666 -> OK.
5. Now, login to your self-hosted wordpress admin.
6. Click Setting -> Permalinks -> Day and Name -> check it.
7. Save changes. Done.

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Other Permalink Options:

Actually there are some other options of permalink structure other than the pretty permalink above. Those are:

• Numeric: Example, http://www.fatihsyuhud.com/archives/123. Just check the numeric and Save Change.
• Custom, you can determine your own style here. But some SEO expert recommend to use a category based permalink such as http://www.fatihsyuhud.com/category/postname. For example, I wanted to put a category named “sexy-girl” or “dating” as my category based permalink, the whole structure will be like this: http://www.fatihsyuhud.com/sexy-girl/postname or http://www.fatihsyuhud.com/dating/postname . In order to make this kind of permalink structure, simply check the “Custom, specify below” and put this code in the blank box: /your-category/%postname% Don’t forget to save the change.

You should have a pretty permalinks of your choosing by now. Further reading.

Problem and Solution: Use Permalink Migration Plugin

In case you have used the ugly permalink for so long (have been indexed by google) and fearful that when you renew the parmalink you’ll lost your “mojo” (meaning, google juice), fear not.  The problem has been resolved by Permalink Migration Plugin:

But doing so [i.e. changing permalinks) will make all pages indexed by search engines become invalid,moreover, losing visitors from other sites or bookmarks that links to you.

There is a way to tell the search engines (and browsers) that the page has permenantly moved, and that the old address should be replaced by the new one . It’s called a “301 Redirect”, also known as a Permanent Redirect.When you do this, Search engines will update their indexes quickly and you won’t lose your pagerank.you will continue to receive traffic as though nothing had changed. This works for search engines, bookmarks, and links from other sites.

By now, you know how can you change your permalinks without losing the traffic you’re already getting. You can download this Permalink Migration Plugin to achieve this for you.

Download the permalink migration plugin for free here. Follow the installation tutorial here.