Title: Permalinks – Quick Question Last modified: August 19, 2016 --- # Permalinks – Quick Question * [rsutton1223](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rsutton1223/) * (@rsutton1223) * [17 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-quick-question/) * I want to change my permalink settings so that it is url/post (it is currently url/post/cat) * If I change it this late in the game…will it change all of my posts or just the posts from this point forward? * If it changes all of the posts…how will it affect search engines and links? Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total) * Thread Starter [rsutton1223](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rsutton1223/) * (@rsutton1223) * [17 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-quick-question/#post-829562) * Anyone? * [iridiax](https://wordpress.org/support/users/iridiax/) * (@iridiax) * [17 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-quick-question/#post-829563) * Using only /%postname%/ as your permalink structure is not recommended because it can cause a variety of errors. Changing your URLs will affect all posts and it will both break links and hurt your search engine rankings. Using a 301 redirect can help with this though. * [moshu](https://wordpress.org/support/users/moshu/) * (@moshu) * [17 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-quick-question/#post-829566) * According to the gurus the “canonical redirect” rules take care of that and will redirect the requests for the old permalinks to the new ones… * I didn’t check it out but I have seen happy posts about it. (nevertheless, the only post-name might not be the wisest choice, indeed) * Thread Starter [rsutton1223](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rsutton1223/) * (@rsutton1223) * [17 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-quick-question/#post-829586) * Thank you for the responses… * Any certain reason why that might not be a good idea? * [brinkzone](https://wordpress.org/support/users/brinkzone/) * (@brinkzone) * [17 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-quick-question/#post-829587) * I would also like to know the answer to this one as I have gone for just postname, what is the benefit of having the date etc in the URL ? * [Roy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gangleri/) * (@gangleri) * [17 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-quick-question/#post-829588) * That’s all in the [Codex](http://codex.wordpress.org/Permalinks#Using_only_.25postname.25): * > Using only %postname% > If you use postname as the only element in your permalinks > to create a structure such as example.com/post-title, the rewrite rules may > make it impossible to access pages such as your stylesheet (which has a similar > format) or the /wp-admin/ folder [is this true in WordPress 2.0+ versions?]. > It’s best to include some numeric data (e.g. the post ID or date) in the permalink > to prevent this from happening. Additionally, WordPress v1.2.x requires the > use of a date structure in order for some features, such as the calendar, to > function properly. /%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%/ is always a good start. * And I can tell you from experience: not funny! It was a few versions back, but I’m not going to try anymore. id/postname works just fine. * [brinkzone](https://wordpress.org/support/users/brinkzone/) * (@brinkzone) * [17 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-quick-question/#post-829591) * I see, I think, all a bit over my head but when you say post ID, is that what they have done here: * [http://blog.mindvalleylabs.com/](http://blog.mindvalleylabs.com/) * When you click on a post it goes to say : * [http://blog.mindvalleylabs.com/how-to-get-published-on-authority-sites/573/](http://blog.mindvalleylabs.com/how-to-get-published-on-authority-sites/573/) * So is the /573 the Post ID ? * What’s the “code” for post ID %codeid% ? * I am runnning 2.6 * [Roy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gangleri/) * (@gangleri) * [17 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-quick-question/#post-829596) * I use /%post_id%/%postname% Did you read the [structure tags](http://codex.wordpress.org/Permalinks#Structure_Tags)? You can use something else, like month, date, or something. The advice is to use at least one value in the permalink other than the postname (category/postname works too). * [brinkzone](https://wordpress.org/support/users/brinkzone/) * (@brinkzone) * [17 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-quick-question/#post-829599) * Hi * Thanks, I will use post id I think, from an seo perspective I’m guessing adding date time, month etc will only clutter the URL, I can live with post id. * Thanks Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total) The topic ‘Permalinks – Quick Question’ is closed to new replies. ## Tags * [permalinks](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/permalinks/) * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/) * 9 replies * 5 participants * Last reply from: [brinkzone](https://wordpress.org/support/users/brinkzone/) * Last activity: [17 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/permalinks-quick-question/#post-829599) * Status: not resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics