The permalink structure plays an important part especially for websites or blogs using Wordpress as a Custom Management System or CMS. The permalink, short for permanent link is term used for the unique URL of a single post. In Wordpress for example, the default, permalink structure looks like this: Permanent link.http://lancecorner.com/?p=123Blogs and websites having a good permalink structure are better as search engine can easily read this kind of structure. Wordpress has an option customize the permalink structure to make blog more search engine-friendly.

Permalink Structure in WordpressIn creating a blog using Wordpress, you must set the Permalink Structure to:

/%postname%/

For bloggers have not yet customized their permalink structure right from the start of blogging and still continue using the default Wordpress permalink structure, there is a way to point search engines to the new URL. This process is known as Permanent Redirect. Your website or blog continues to receive traffic as though nothing had changed. Additionally, you won’t lose your page rank.

Hereunder are the simple steps:

1. Download Permalinks Migration plug in for Wordpress.
Download link: http://www.deanlee.cn/downloads/deans_permalinks_migration_v1.0.zip
2. Simply go to admin panel then > options > Permalinks Migration. Set the old permanlink structure of your blog.
3. After that, go to admin panel->options->Permalinks. Customize the permalink structure. I personally recommend to use /%postname%/. This can make your URL structure more search-engine friendly.
4. Lastly, set your .htaccess to 777 in your FTP.

According to Matt Cutts, a URL with no spaces is not good. Putting an underscore is better while dashes and hyphens are best. Also, avoid placing post date in your URL. Search engines can properly recognize your keywords through your permalink structure.