In this tutorial we will see how modify the structure of your permalinks so that they are "more appreciated" by search engines. As a reminder, the permalinks are theURL address Of your blog articles.

This address can take many forms that are not all ideal for a good optimization. Hence the importance of knowing the structure of permalinks that best promotes your visibility in the eyes of Google And other search engines.

To know the current structure of your permalinks, go to the administration area of ​​your WordPress blogAnd click Settings (the left column). A menu opens, click Permalinks.

Once inside, you'll see the different permalink structures you can use, and they are summarized as follows:

1- Default value: http://votre-nom-de-domaine/?p=123

2- Date and time: http://votre-nom-de-domaine/2013/02/15/exemple-article/

3- Month and title: http://votre-nom-de-domaine/2013/02/exemple-article/

4- Digital: http://votre-nom-de-domaine/archives/123

5- Item name: http://votre-nom-de-domaine/exemple-article/

6- Custom structure: http://votre-nom-de-domaine/……

When you install your WordPress blog for the first time, the default structure of your permalinks is this: « http://votre-nom-de-domaine/?p=123 Â».

I might as well tell you right away, this is not the ideal structure for your blog Why ?

Let's say you publish an article (for example titled: How to train your dog). When Google visits your article, the first thing it will scan is the URL of the article. And if it has as a permalink structure the default, and well Google would understand nothing. Because for him ? P = 123 does not represent anything!

You now understand better the importance of having the keywords of its article title in the URL address. In our example it would be: « http://votre-nom-de-domaine/comment-dresser-votre-chien/ Â». Admit it, this kind of title is cleaner and more attractive to the reader, than a vulgar figure which means nothing on the subject treated in the article.

That's it, you just have to choose the option « Item name : http://votre-nom-de-domaine/exemple-article/ Â», Then click on the button " Save Changes ".

Congratulations! You are now "friends" with Mr. Google. 😉

Now, you may have the message instead "Permalink structure saved", A message of the kind "You need to update your .htaccess file" Or in English "You should update your .htaccess now". In this case, follow the next steps:

NB: Le .htaccess file is a small text file located in the directory of your blog and which is necessary for its functioning. If this file is not created following the installation of WordPress, you will need to do it manually.

    1- Connect to your FTP account using Filezilla and go to where your blog is installed (root directory or subdirectory):

2- On the menu bar of the Filezilla software click " Server ", And then "Force the display of hidden files" to be sure that the file « .htaccess " Will be visible:

3- To create your file ".Htaccess", it is very simple. On your desktop, right click with your mouse, go to « New », Then on « Text document ". Once your file is created, rename it to ".Htaccess" :

4- Drag and drop your file to upload in your blog directory (where all the WordPress files are).

5- In the following step, we will modify the access rights of our file ".Htaccess". To do this in Filezilla do a right click on the file and go to "Access rights to file… " :

6- In " Numerical value ", Replace only the number 644 by 777 then click OK :

7- Now, go back to your WordPress administration area (permalinks page), choose the option "Article name: http://votre-nom-de-domaine/exemple-article/ Â», Then click on " Save Changes ". You should have a message informing you that your permalink structure has been registered.

8- Before finishing, do not forget to give the numerical value of your file ".Htaccess" on  644. That way, you will prevent any malicious access to your site.

To make sure the changes have been taken into account, refresh one of your blog posts. If you see that the keywords that make up the title appear in the URL of the article, then everything is fine!

From now on, all your published articles will have this form and you will be well regarded by Google. 😉