You launched a WordPress site a couple of years ago. You set up categories, wrote your first posts, and now your URLs look all over the place: some have ?p=423, some include the date, some show the post title. The site grows, but search engines see a jumble instead of a clear structure. Plus a few pages are already indexed with old URLs, and touching them feels risky: what if traffic drops?

Changing permalinks in WordPress is not hard; doing it without hurting SEO is the challenge. WordPress provides all the tools out of the box: you can reconfigure the global structure, tweak the slug of a single post, category, or tag. But if you flip the switch without preparation, 404 errors and ranking drops are guaranteed.

Below is a step-by-step breakdown: what permalinks are, how to change them individually and globally, and most importantly, how to avoid losing traffic when restructuring.

💡 Quick overview:

• Edit a post slug in the WordPress editor using the "Edit" button below the title
• Adjust category and tag slugs via "Posts → Categories → Quick Edit"
• Choose a new structure in "Settings → Permalinks"; the best option is "Post name"
• Set up 301 redirects before changing the structure on a live site, or you will lose traffic
• Optimize each slug: 2-4 keywords separated by hyphens, no stop words or dates

What are permalinks and why change them

A permalink is the part of the URL after the domain that points to a specific post, page, category, or tag. For example, in site.com/kak-nastroit-permalinki/, the slug is kak-nastroit-permalinki. WordPress generates it automatically from the title when you publish: it takes the title, converts it to lowercase, and replaces spaces with hyphens.

The slug is the "tail" of the URL, unique to each piece of content. It directly affects ranking: Google uses words in the URL as a relevance factor. A short, readable slug with a keyword ranks better than ?p=423.

Reasons to change the structure vary. You may have bought an existing site where the previous owners used the "Plain" format (?p=N). Or the site started as a news outlet with dates in URLs, but now it is a showcase blog where dates only get in the way. Or you simply never touched the settings at launch and noticed a year later.

The main rule: if the site is already indexed and receiving traffic, do not change the structure just for aesthetics. Every switch without redirects equals lost rankings. But if the current format is objectively bad for SEO, change it, just carefully.

How to change the slug of a single post or page

The most common scenario: the post title is long, and WordPress copied it into the URL in full. You end up with site.com/kak-zarabotat-na-frilanse-v-2026-godu-polnoe-rukovodstvo, which is too long. Google will truncate such a URL in search results, and keyword weight gets diluted.

Open the post editor. Below the title you will see a line with the permalink:

Click "Edit" and the field becomes editable. Enter a new slug. What matters:

• Use only Latin letters, numbers, and hyphens. Cyrillic in URLs is allowed, but when copied it turns into a long escape sequence, which is inconvenient.
• Separate words with hyphens, not underscores: Google treats a hyphen as a word separator, while an underscore acts as a connector (word1_word2 = one word).
• Remove stop words: "and," "in," "on," "how," "what." Turn kak-nastroit-permalinki-v-wordpress into nastroika-permalinkov-wordpress.
• 2-4 keywords is the optimal length. Longer dilutes weight; shorter loses informativeness.

After you save the post, WordPress automatically updates the URL. If the post was already published and its URL changed, WordPress does not create a redirect from the old address on its own. You need a plugin for that (more in the section on safe structure changes).

How to change category and tag slugs

Categories and tags also have slugs, and they also appear in URLs if you use a structure with %category%. By default WordPress takes the category name and transliterates it: "Site News" → site-news. Not always ideal.

To fix this, go to "Posts → Categories." Find the category you need and click "Quick Edit":

The "Slug" field is the category slug. Edit it and click "Update." For tags the process is the same via "Posts → Tags."

Important nuance: if you change the slug of a category that already has dozens of indexed posts, all URLs for those posts will change (when using %category% in the structure). WordPress will not create redirects on its own; you need a redirect plugin or manual rules in .htaccess.

How to change the global permalink structure

The global setting changes in a single click, but the consequences can be significant. Go to "Settings → Permalinks." You will see a screen with options:

Available options:

The best option for SEO is "Post name." This is confirmed by the official WordPress documentation and Yoast. Minimal "noise" in the URL, maximum relevance.

Custom structure is for those who need a combination of tags. WordPress provides ten structure tags for building URLs: %year% (year), %monthnum% (month), %day% (day), %hour% (hour), %minute% (minute), %second% (second), %post_id% (post ID), %postname% (post name), %category% (category), %author% (author). Combine them in the "Custom" field, for example:

1
/%category%/%postname%/

This structure produces URLs like site.com/seo/nastroika-permalinkov/. Useful if you have a strict category hierarchy and do not plan to rename categories. But remember: if a post belongs to multiple categories, WordPress picks one (alphabetically), and the URL may be unexpected.

After selecting your option, click "Save Changes." WordPress instantly switches all site URLs to the new scheme.

How to safely change the structure on a live site

This is where things get critical. Simply clicking a radio button in settings means sending all indexed URLs off a cliff. Google visits the old link, gets a 404, and drops your ranking. The more pages you have, the bigger the drop.

Steps for changing structure on a live site:

• Create a backup. A full backup of files and the database. If something goes wrong, you can roll back in a minute.

• Set up 301 redirects. This is the most critical step. The Redirection plugin is free, has 2+ million active installs, and can automatically track URL changes and create redirects. An alternative is Rank Math SEO with a built-in redirect manager.

• Change the structure. Go to "Settings → Permalinks," choose the new format, and save.

• Verify the site. Visit key pages, open your sitemap (/sitemap.xml), and make sure URLs have updated. Check Google Search Console; any 404s will appear there.

For a more detailed walkthrough including redirect setup, see our guide "A simple guide to changing permalinks without breaking your WordPress site."

How URL structure affects SEO

A URL is not just a page address; it is a ranking signal. Google states directly: "URL structure helps Google understand what a page is about." Here is what specifically matters:

• Keywords in the URL. A slug with a relevant keyword (/nastroika-permalinkov/) ranks better than /p=423. But this is not a reason to stuff in 10 words; the moderation rule applies: 2-4 words that accurately reflect the topic.

• URL length. A Backlinko study (analyzing 11.8 million Google results) found that shorter URLs correlate with higher rankings. The optimal range is 50-60 characters after the domain.

• Readability. If a user sees the URL in search results (and Google shows it in the snippet) and understands what the page is about, CTR increases. Google does factor in behavioral signals.

• Dates in URLs. For a news site, dates make sense. For a showcase blog or commercial site they are harmful: content from 2023 with a date in the URL looks outdated even if you updated it.

• Nesting depth. /category/subcategory/post-name/ is fine if the hierarchy is logical. But /category/seo/wordpress/nastroika/permalinki/ is overkill. Google does not penalize for "depth," but it complicates structure and navigation.

If you are just launching a site, configure the structure BEFORE publishing your first post. For details on choosing the ideal format, see "A guide to WordPress permalink settings: the perfect URL structure."

If you want to include the category in the URL, read "How to add a category and subcategory to WordPress permalinks."

How not to hurt SEO when changing a single post slug

Sometimes you only need to fix the slug of one post. For example, you updated a 2023 article with new data and a new title, but the old slug remains. Here is the process:

• Edit the slug in the editor (as shown above).
• Immediately set up a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one; in the Redirection plugin this takes a couple of clicks.
• After 2-3 days check Google Search Console: the old URL should show a redirect, not a 404.

If the post is not yet indexed (new, in draft), you do not need a redirect and can change freely.

The video above provides a visual demonstration of the entire process, from changing the global structure to editing individual slugs with redirects.

⁉️🤔 Frequently asked questions

Will old URLs disappear after changing the structure?

Yes, old URLs stop working immediately after you save the new settings. WordPress does not create redirects automatically; you will get a 404 on every old address. That is why you must install a redirect plugin and configure forwarding rules before changing the structure.

What is better for SEO: "Post name" or a custom structure?

For most sites, "Post name." It is the shortest and cleanest format: site.com/keyword/. A custom structure (/%category%/%postname%/) makes sense if you have a rigid content hierarchy and categories never change. But if you ever rename a category, all URLs under it will break.

Can I use Cyrillic in slugs?

Technically, yes, WordPress allows it. Practically, you should not. When copied, a Cyrillic URL turns into a long escape sequence like %D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%BA, which is unreadable and takes up a lot of space. Always use Latin letters.

Should I include the date in the URL?

Only if your content is strictly tied to dates, such as a news site. For a blog, commercial site, or showcase, dates in URLs hurt: an article from 2023 with a date looks outdated even if you updated it in 2026. Users click less often on dated URLs; this is confirmed by numerous studies on search result behavior.

Is a trailing slash required at the end of URLs?

Yes. WordPress adds a trailing slash to all permalinks by default. If you manually remove the slash in settings, WordPress will still redirect to the version with a slash (via canonicalization). A double redirect harms SEO; do not create one yourself.

To change or not to change: the final verdict

Permalinks are not a setting to tweak for the sake of experimentation. If the site is working, traffic is flowing, and URLs look acceptable, leave them as they are.

But if you still have ?p=423 or URLs crammed with five-year-old dates, you need to change. Just do it with a cool head: backup → redirect plugin → new structure → verify in Google Search Console. Post and category slugs are even easier to fix through the standard editor, with no impact on the rest of the site.

Choose "Post name," use 2-4 keywords in the slug, remove stop words and dates, and your URLs will work for SEO, not against it.