A permalink is a full link to an individual post or page on your blog. It’s the URL you’ll either type in or land on from a Google search, in order to pull up a particular webpage. This makes it different from a hyperlink which embeds a link within a word or phrase through underlining and highlighting. Here is the difference; 

I am a hyperlink 

I am a permalink: https://wishu.io/ 

See the difference? 

The beauty of a permalink is that it is SEO friendly. In the example used, our link to the Wishu page doesn’t only link to use but the use of the word ‘Wishu’ is search engine friendly. This is particularly effective if you are promoting links to blogs that need increased traffic, for example, your permalink would include the word ‘how’ ‘i’ ‘become’ ‘a’ ‘graphic designer’ making it more likely to come up on Google when searched. 

For this reason, avoid changing the link to your permalink after publishing your blog post otherwise this decreases its likelihood of being found. 

If you do need to change your permalink, use a free WordPress plugin like Quick Page/Post Redirect to quickly set up a 301 redirect for a post or page you plan to move to a new URL. 

Another reason changing permalinks is ineffective is that it turns the old link into a broken link. Broken links are very bad for the SEO health of your website -because when someone clicks on a broken link somewhere out on the Internet or in search engine results, they’re essentially landing on a blank page that no longer exists. When this happens, it will lead to a high bounce rate because those visitors will immediately leave.

So, how do I create SEO friendly permalinks that will increase traffic to my site? 

Luckily, website and blog creators such as WordPress offer a few default out-of-the-box options for permalink structures that get automatically assigned to new posts and pages—as you begin drafting them. 

If you’ve learned how to write a blog post that begins with an SEO-friendly headline, then the default permalink that populates in a draft blog post will naturally include the important keyword phrase that’s represented in your headline.

However, it is best to delete words from the automated permalink such as ‘to’, ‘a’ and other generic connectives in order for your permalink to be more concentrated and thus more effective. Overall it’s important to include your target keyword phrase in the permalink for your post or page, and any other crucial operative words like “how” or “why” that clearly indicates the nature of what your content is talking about.