WordPress And Custom Permalink Patterns

WordPress's permalink settings provide preset options plus a custom structure field. Custom structures let you build URL patterns that don't fit the presets.

The flexibility is useful for specific use cases. It also enables choices that produce long-term operational problems.

The structure tokens

%year%, %monthnum%, %day%: date components.

%postname%: the post slug.

%category%: the post's primary category slug.

%author%: the post's author slug.

%post_id%: the numerical post ID.

These tokens combine to form URL patterns.

The category-in-URL pattern

/%category%/%postname%/ produces URLs like /performance/wordpress-caching-guide/.

Advantages: URLs convey topic information; users can predict URL patterns.

Disadvantages: changing a post's category changes its URL. Redirects needed for every recategorization.

The dated URL pattern

/%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%/ produces URLs like /2026/09/wordpress-caching-guide/.

Advantages: chronological context in URL; appropriate for news sites.

Disadvantages: makes the article look dated as time passes. Less appropriate for evergreen content.

The post-name-only pattern

/%postname%/ produces URLs like /wordpress-caching-guide/.

Advantages: clean URLs; not coupled to categories or dates; survives reorganization.

Disadvantages: less context in URL; URLs must be unique across the entire site.

For most sites in 2026, this is the appropriate default.

The post-ID pattern

Some sites use /%post_id%/%postname%/ or /archives/%post_id%/. The numerical ID guarantees uniqueness.

Advantages: URLs work even when slug changes.

Disadvantages: less human-readable; URLs convey nothing about content.

Mostly used historically; modern WordPress doesn't need this.

The change cost

Changing permalink structure on a published site is expensive. Every URL changes; 301 redirects needed for all of them; SEO disruption during the transition.

The choice should be deliberate from the start. Changing later costs more than choosing well initially.

The honest framing

For new sites, /%postname%/ is the right default unless specific reasons argue otherwise. For news sites, dated patterns fit. For content sites, post-name fits.

The decision deserves consideration at site launch. Once committed, the structure tends to persist for the site's lifetime.