About

The URL structure of a website is the backbone of its information architecture. A poorly chosen permalink structure can lead to 404 errors, database performance issues, and diminished search engine visibility. This tool allows architects and developers to simulate WordPress permalink configurations before deployment, ensuring SEO compliance and structural integrity.

Changing permalinks on a live site is a high-risk operation involving 301 Redirect mapping. This generator helps you calculate the optimal structure - balancing keyword density, user readability, and server processing logic - eliminating the guesswork often associated with the Settings → Permalinks screen. It validates against industry standards, flagging structures that create deeply nested directories or unnecessary date-stamping.

Formulas

The effectiveness of a URL structure is often approximated by the ratio of semantic value to character length. We aim to maximize the Signal-to-Noise Ratio.

Score ≈ count(keywords)ln(length) + depth

Where depth is the number of directory slashes /. WordPress rewrites rely on regex matching against the request URI:

Request → preg_match(RewriteRule) → index.php?p=ID

If %postname% is not unique or present, the database query time t increases non-linearly with table size N.

Reference Data

Tag	Description	Sample Output	SEO Impact
%postname%	The sanitized title of the post (slug).	sample-post	HIGH (Keywords)
%post_id%	The unique ID number of the post.	123	NEUTRAL (Short, unique)
%category%	The category slug. Nested categories appear as directories.	tech/news	VARIABLE (Siloing)
%year%	The year of publication (4 digits).	2023	LOW (Dates evergreen content)
%monthnum%	Month of the year (approx. 1-12).	08	LOW (Depth increase)
%day%	Day of the month.	24	LOW (Specific but deep)
%author%	Sanitized author name.	admin	LOW (Security risk)

Frequently Asked Questions

It provides the highest semantic value for users and search engines. It keeps URLs short and keyword-rich, directly describing the content.

Yes. It invalidates all existing inbound links. Without proper 301 redirects, your rankings will drop significantly due to broken link equity.

Historically, yes. In older WordPress versions, text-based starting tags caused complex regex matching issues. Modern WordPress (3.3+) handles this better, but it can still create duplicate content issues if one post belongs to multiple categories.

Only for news sites. For evergreen content (tutorials, products), dates make content look obsolete to users searching in future years.