WordPress Wednesday Tip #5 – How to Edit Permalinks

Before we jump into this week’s WordPress Wednesday Tip #5 – How To Edit Permalinks let’s recap.  If you’ve been following along our series you should be able to…

• schedule posts
• add links in any post or page
• insert a picture into a post or page
• add featured images

That leads us to permalinks.  A permalink is the permanent link to your post or page. It’s the link others use to go to your post when shared to social media and other areas on the web.  Sometimes you will be right in the middle of a post and realize the direction the post has taken does not match the original title you set.  By changing the title does not mean the permalink will be updated.  Matching your post title to your permalink is important for managing you on-page SEO.  Here’s how to fix that:

WordPress Wednesday Tip #5 – How to Edit Permalinks

1. After logging into your WordPress dashboard, add a ‘New Post’ (or page)
2. Go ahead and fill in the title of your new post.
3. Notice directly underneath the post title the ‘Permalink’ is automatically generated from the title you entered. 
4. Simply click “Edit” to edit the permalink.  Keep in mind permalinks include all lowercase characters with hyphens between words NOT spaces. 
5. When you are finished editing the permalink click ‘Ok’ to save your new permalink.

What other times come to mind when it is necessary to edit a permalink?

*BONUS*

For Search Engine Optimization (SEO) purposes change your WordPress site’s default permalink to ‘Post Name’.  The main reason why setting your default to ‘Post Name’ is typically the best option is because the main keyword in posts are usually used in the title of the post.  Keyword consistency is VERY IMPORTANT when you want to ‘get found’ on Google and other search engines.

To change your default permalink, hover on ‘Settings’ (leftside menu) and then click on ‘Permalinks’.  Here scroll down if necessary and click on ‘Post Name’.  Click ‘Save Changes’ when done.

By the way, if you haven’t seen our previous #WordPressWednesday Tips click below:

#WordPressWednesday Tip #4 – How to Add Featured Images
#WordPressWednesday Tip #3: How to schedule posts
#WordPressWednesday Tip #2: How to add links in any post or page
#WordPressWednesday Tip #1: How to insert a picture into a post or page