Title: What is a Permalink and What is its Purpose?
Author: Kriko
Published: Oct 2, 2023
Last modified: Jul 18, 2026

---

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# What is a Permalink and What is its Purpose?

 [ ⌊Uğur Eskici⌉ Uğur Eskici ](https://kriko.io/blog/author/ugureskici)  Oct 2, 
2023

  7 mins read

![What is a Permalink and What is its Purpose?](https://kriko.io/wp-content/uploads/
2026/07/permalink-nedir.jpg)

## ✍️ Contents

 1.  [  What Is a Permalink? ](https://kriko.io/blog/technical-seo/what-is-a-permalink-and-what-is-its-purpose?output_format=md#what-is-a-permalink)
 2.  [  How Is a Permalink Created? ](https://kriko.io/blog/technical-seo/what-is-a-permalink-and-what-is-its-purpose?output_format=md#how-is-a-permalink-created)
 3.  [  What Should an SEO-Friendly URL Look Like? ](https://kriko.io/blog/technical-seo/what-is-a-permalink-and-what-is-its-purpose?output_format=md#what-should-an-seo-friendly-url-look-like)
 4.  a.  [  1. Use Hyphens in Permalinks ](https://kriko.io/blog/technical-seo/what-is-a-permalink-and-what-is-its-purpose?output_format=md#1-use-hyphens-in-permalinks)
     b.  [  2. Do Not Use Turkish Characters in Permalinks ](https://kriko.io/blog/technical-seo/what-is-a-permalink-and-what-is-its-purpose?output_format=md#2-do-not-use-turkish-characters-in-permalinks)
     c.  [  3. Use Short and Understandable Permalinks ](https://kriko.io/blog/technical-seo/what-is-a-permalink-and-what-is-its-purpose?output_format=md#3-use-short-and-understandable-permalinks)
     d.  [  4. Include Keywords ](https://kriko.io/blog/technical-seo/what-is-a-permalink-and-what-is-its-purpose?output_format=md#4-include-keywords)
     e.  [  5. Do Not Use Stop Words ](https://kriko.io/blog/technical-seo/what-is-a-permalink-and-what-is-its-purpose?output_format=md#5-do-not-use-stop-words)
     f.  [  6. Create Custom Permalinks ](https://kriko.io/blog/technical-seo/what-is-a-permalink-and-what-is-its-purpose?output_format=md#6-create-custom-permalinks)
     g.  [  7. Use a Hierarchical Structure ](https://kriko.io/blog/technical-seo/what-is-a-permalink-and-what-is-its-purpose?output_format=md#7-use-a-hierarchical-structure)

Permalinks are links that allow specific content on a website to be accessed continuously
through a unique and permanent URL. While these links make navigation easier for
visitors, they are also highly important for search engines. Permalinks play a critical
role in website SEO, Search Engine Optimisation, strategies and improve the accessibility
of content. In this article, you will learn how permalinks are created, why they
are so important, and how you can use them effectively.

## What Is a Permalink?

A permalink is the unique and permanent URL, Uniform Resource Locator, address of
a web page or piece of content. This address is used to improve the accessibility
and shareability of the content. Permalinks are used in content management systems,
CMSs, or website-building platforms to assign a permanent web address to specific
content. For example, a permalink created for a blog post or article ensures that
the content always remains available at the same address.

If permalinks did not exist, these links would be presented to users through parameter-
based values or IP addresses, which would not provide a user-friendly experience.
Thanks to permalinks, which are user-friendly links, URLs can be created in a way
that clearly indicates the intent and purpose of the related content.

To give a simple example, a URL without a permalink may look like this:

    ```language-text
    www.siteadi.com/?sayfa=1&icerik_id=7
    ```

This structure creates a query that retrieves the seventh piece of content on the
first page from the database. It then displays the related data from the database
to the user.

By using a permalink, this link structure can be changed to:

    ```language-text
    www.siteadi.com/kalici-baglanti-permalink-nedir-ne-ise-yarar
    ```

or:

    ```language-text
    www.siteadi.com/10/10/2017/kalici-baglanti-permalink-nedir-ne-ise-yarar
    ```

Permalinks provide the following advantages:

**Accessibility and shareability:** Permalinks allow users to access content on 
your website easily and consistently. You can also share these links to help visitors
find your content more easily.

**Importance for SEO:** Search engines use permalinks to gain more information about
the subject of the content. This may help your content achieve better rankings. 
Using SEO-friendly permalinks is a practice preferred by search engines.

**Link clickability:** Short, descriptive, and understandable permalinks increase
the likelihood that users will click on the links. They may improve the page’s CTR
and contribute to generating more visits to the content.

**Updatability:** When you update or move content, permalinks allow you to preserve
the old link and ensure that visitors can still access the content.

**Brand awareness:** Permalinks provide distinctive and descriptive addresses that
can be used to promote your website’s brand and content.

**Memorability:** Because they create short and meaningful URLs, permalinks are 
easier to remember.

**Ease of analysis and tracking:** Web analytics tools can use permalinks to monitor
visitor behaviour and help you understand your content more effectively.

## How Is a Permalink Created?

If you use a website management system or blogging platform, a permalink can usually
be configured while creating or editing content. The basic steps for creating a 
permalink through a common content management system such as WordPress are as follows:

First, you need to choose the link structure that will be used across all pages.
To do this, select the structure you want under the “Permalinks” option in the Settings
section. You can also create your own structure under “Custom Structure”.

After completing these steps, you can update the permalinks within individual pieces
of content. The full process includes the following steps:

**Add a Title and Content:** Prepare your content by adding a title and body text.

**Access the Permalink Settings:** On the content creation screen, there is generally
an option such as “Permalink” or “URL” in the top-right corner or on the right-hand
side of the page. Find and click this option.

**Edit the Permalink Settings:** When you click the permalink settings, you will
see different configuration options. Platforms such as WordPress may offer options
including:

**Default:** This option automatically creates a permalink based on the page title.
It may not always be clear or SEO-friendly.

**Custom:** This option allows you to create your own permalink. Enter the custom
permalink in the relevant field. For example, you may create a permalink such as“
my-new-post”.

**Pretty URLs:** This option automatically creates an SEO-friendly permalink based
on the title. Permalinks created from titles generally contain relevant words and
keywords.

**Save the Changes:** After editing the permalink settings, click the save or update
button. This applies the new permalink to your content.

**Publish or Update:** You can now publish or update your content. The permalink
changes will be saved together with the content.

Remember that when you change a permalink, it is important to ensure that the old
link continues to work for users who previously clicked it. This can be achieved
by configuring redirects or automatically directing old URLs to the new ones. You
should also use short, descriptive permalinks containing relevant keywords to improve
SEO compatibility.

## What Should an SEO-Friendly URL Look Like?

Search engine bots use your website’s permalinks while crawling its pages. Properly
structured permalinks allow search engine bots to understand the hierarchy of the
website and crawl it more easily. For this reason, creating permalinks with the 
correct strategy is important both for the website architecture and for making the
crawling process easier for search engines. Let us take a closer look at this subject.

### 1. Use Hyphens in Permalinks

**Strategy:** Use standard hyphens instead of spaces, underscores, or similar characters
between words in your page URLs. If your website contains older content with different
permalink structures, update them according to current keywords and redirect the
old links to the new ones.

**Example:**
 Old permalink:

    ```language-text
    https://www.ornekblog.com/seotavsiyeleri
    ```

New permalink:

    ```language-text
    https://www.ornekblog.com/seo-tavsiyeleri
    ```

### 2. Do Not Use Turkish Characters in Permalinks

**Strategy:** Turkish characters may appear as meaningless expressions when they
are not encoded correctly in permalinks, which can create an undesirable result.

**Example:**
 Old permalink:

    ```language-text
    /kalıcı-bağlantıların-faydaları
    ```

New permalink:

    ```language-text
    /kalici-baglantilarin-faydalari
    ```

### 3. Use Short and Understandable Permalinks

**Strategy:** Keep your permalinks as short and understandable as possible so that
users and search engines can understand the content more easily. Search engines 
have display limits for URLs in SERPs. If your permalink exceeds this limit, the
full URL may not be displayed. For this reason, you can optimise this area by using
short permalinks and structured data.

**Example:**

    ```language-text
    /seo-kalici-baglanti-stratejileri
    ```

### 4. Include Keywords

**Strategy:** Include keywords in your permalinks to help your content rank more
effectively for relevant searches. Having the keyword in the URL, or permalink, 
is a ranking factor. For this reason, make sure that your keywords are included 
in the URL.

**Example:**

    ```language-text
    /en-iyi-anahtar-kelime-araclari
    ```

### 5. Do Not Use Stop Words

**Strategy:** Avoid unnecessary stop words such as “the”, “and”, and “in” in your
permalinks. In Turkish, this may include words such as “ve”, “acaba”, or “bana”.
These words make the URL unnecessarily long.

**Example:**

    ```language-text
    /seo-araclari
    ```

This example does not contain any stop words.

### 6. Create Custom Permalinks

**Strategy:** Create unique and descriptive permalinks for each piece of content
to present the subject more clearly.

**Example:**

    ```language-text
    /seo-tavsiyeleri
    ```

This is a unique and descriptive permalink.

### 7. Use a Hierarchical Structure

**Strategy:** Organise your content more effectively by using category and subcategory
permalinks. This will define your website’s hierarchy and provide useful signals
to search engines.

**Example:**

    ```language-text
    https://www.ornekblog.com/seo/rehber/anahtar-kelimeler
    ```

By applying these strategies, you can help your content achieve better rankings 
and make it easier for users to access. Remember that permalink strategies should
be reviewed regularly and updated when necessary because they can have a significant
impact on both SEO and user experience.

Do you know how buttons and links affect SEO?

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