WordPress Tip: Making Pretty links in WordPress
September 6, 2006 – 9:41 am
I’ve been playing around with WordPress over the past few months and one problem I’ve noticed is that the WordPress install defaults to using dynamic URLs like this….
By changing the structure of what is known as a Permalink you get a link that looks like this…
http://commercecubes.com/publication/2006/09/customer-loyalty-the-science-and-the-art/
It is pretty easy to setup in WordPress and you can do it by following these steps….
- Go to the admin section of your WordPress Blog
- Go to the “Options” tab at the top
- Go to the sub-menu that appears and click “Permalinks”
- In the “Permalinks” section you can choose the style you want and adjust it to whatever you need.
The Why – Now you may be asking “Why would I care to do this?” and the truth of it is more to do with SEO (Search Engine Optimization” then anything else. Because the link is static or constant (unchanging) search engines can link back to it easily. Also it looks much prettier! 
Possible problem – if your .htaccess file is not in the root of your site it is probably going to throw you some funny errors. Just check and make sure the .htaccess file is in the root and you should be good.
Trying to get people to your content is tough enough so use those Permalinks to get them there faster.
Luc
Permalink Specialist