Every page on the Internet has a specific address, or URL. That specific address is called the “permalink,” or permanent link to that particular page.

Just like if you enter a specific address, like 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500, into your GPS and follow the directions, you will end up there, so if you enter a specific web address into your browser, you will be directed to that particular webpage.

On some larger websites, like Amazon.com, for example, the URL of any give page is extremely long and confusing — not at all user friendly. But on our websites, we want the pages to have names that are (1) user friendly and (2) search engine friendly.

By default, when WordPress is installed, the naming convention for pages and posts is not friendly. It looks something like this: https://www.kimaverycoaching.com/?p=5979. The last part is what we can configure, and we want it to reflect the exact name of the page. So instead, we want https://www.kimaverycoaching.com/what-is-a-permalink.

The way you change that is to go to Settings >> Permalinks, and choose the option for “Post Name.” And then save your changes.

Where it gets tricky is with the Blog. This post, for example will show up two different places on this website. It will show up on it’s own page, and that will have the URL  https://www.kimaverycoaching.com/what-is-a-permalink, but it will also show up on the main blog page, and the URL of that page is https://www.kimaverycoaching.com/ChristianCoachesBlog.

Sometimes you want to share the URL of a blog post – maybe on Facebook or Twitter, or in a comment somewhere, or on a page like Bless-a-Blogger – and when you do, you want to make sure it is the Permalink for the post and not the main blog page.

Why?

Well, let’s say that last month you wrote a roundup post identifying five important resources for your niche market, and since then you have written four other posts on different areas of interest to you target group. Today you are reading a post on someone else’s blog asking about resources, and you decide to comment and leave a link to your roundup post.

If you put in the main blog page link, anyone who follows the link will be disappointed because they won’t see your roundup post — though they may find it if they are willing to hunt for it. The reason they won’t find it is because every time you publish a new blog post, it goes at the top of your main blog page, and the earlier posts are pushed down.

But if you put in the URL specific to that post, the Permalink, they will go directly to the page that only has that post on it, and they will get your helpful information right away.

Permalinks are your friends. Make good use of them!