By default, WordPress will give you these great looking website URL links (Permalinks, Permanent Links) that you can share in your emails, ad campaigns, tv ads, etc.
They look something like this:
http://www.your-crazy-website.com/blog/?p=4
http://www.your-crazy-website.com/blog/?p=1201
Numbers are nice, but not user friendly, hence not quite search engine friendly.
This is your opportunity to help the search engines figure out 'What is this web page / blog post about?'.
Yes, yes ... they will look at your content, your descriptions, your images, but they will also look at the URL (Permalink) of the acutal page or post.
The Goods on Permalinks from Codex
Does making this Permalink change help with SEO?
You bet.
Again, you have the ability to place your target keywords in the permalink.
Here is a simple example.
Say I was searching for 'Harley Davidson Mailboxes', which link below would I most likely click on?
Not only can it help with the search engines, but also assists in guide visitors to your website via nice friendly human-readable links as well.
How to change the Permalink in WordPress
Click over to your settings within the dashboard where you can select from a number of options.
To keep it simple, you can simply enter a value in the custom structure area:
/%postname%/
done & have fun!
Read the rest of our posts in the WordPress Optimization Checklist for ways you can tweak and tune your blog for the search engines.
So I followed your advice and now all my pages says
“Not Found”
Not such a smart move
Ok, so here is the possible solution for others:
(this is for ubuntu 10.04)
1. make sure rewrite rules in .htaccess are read and respected
in /etc//etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default set
AllowOverride All
2. make sure .htaccess in your wordpress installation is writable by wordpress
3. make sure mod_rewrite is enabled:
sudo a2enmod rewrite
picked up here: http://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalink-does-not-work-apart-from-default