I have seen all different kinds of permalink structures, but which one is the best for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) purposes? The default Permalink structure in WordPress is:

http://www.yourdomain.com/?p=123

Where p=123 is numerical value that stands for the post number. I have also seen quite a few blogs use this structure:

http://www.yourdomain.com/2012/02/sample-post/

This structure utilize the name of the post with the year and the month proceeding the post. However, the best permalink structure to use for your blog is a customized structure which utilizes the category name and post name. The reason that this structure is better is that it allows more keywords to be loaded into the URL of your post. For example, I write a post entitled “The Best Chicken Divan Recipe.” I choose the category food. When my post is published the URL will read:

http://www.yourdomain.com/food/the-best-chicken-divan-recipe/

Notice that my URL includes the keywords chicken and recipe and also the word food. While in the past, WordPress warned that this type of structure could cause performance issues, these issues have been resolved with WordPress 3.3 and above.

Of course, if your blog has been established for a while (over 6 months or with many backlinks), it is NOT recommended that you change your existing permalink structure. This is due to the face that there are probably other sites linking to you which drive traffic to your site. Changing your permalink structure can break those inbound links.