permalink

A Permalinkis the URL that points to your individual blog post.

Permalinks are constructed by creating a template URL where dynamic elements are represented by colon-prefixed keywords. For example, the default date permalink is defined according to the format /:categories/:year/:month/:day/:title.html

Permalinks are what people enter into their browser address bar to view one of your pages. The URL to each post should be permanent, and never change — hence permalink. They are also what search engines and other websites use to link to your website. Due to this, they are very important.

Permalinks frequently consist of a string of characters which represent the date and time of posting, and an identifier which denotes the author who initially authored the item or its subject.

Crucially, if an item is changed, renamed, or moved within the internal database, its permalink remains unaltered, as it functions as a magic cookie which references an internal database identifier. If an item is deleted altogether, its permalink can frequently not be reused.

You can change the structure of your permalinks at any time, however doing this changes the URL of your pages.

From an SEO and performance point of view, there does not seem to be any major benefits to choosing one permalink structure over another. Therefore, it really comes down to your own preference.