Custom permalinks help make website visitors understand what a page is about just by looking at the URL. You can change them to make URLs shorter or more detailed and descriptive, depending on what works best for your site.
This can include simplifying URLs, removing unnecessary words, or adding specific custom fields. By making URLs more readable you can improve site navigation, contributing to better user experience and therefore positively impacting SEO performance.
WordPress does not offer advanced permalink customization options out of the box. You can add these features either by using a plugin or inserting a code snippet. Plugins are generally easier to use and offer more flexibility, especially if you prefer not to work with PHP code.
Permalink Manager, released in 2016, remains one of the most reliable and widely used plugins for this purpose. It requires no coding, works alongside other popular plugins, and supports custom post types and taxonomies.
How to Implement Custom Permalinks?
By default, WordPress assigns different URL structures to custom post types. For example, WooCommerce products use URLs with a /product/ prefix. This simple setup works good enough for websites that do not need advanced URL changes.
If your website needs more than standard WordPress permalinks can offer, you can set-up custom permalinks using a plugin like Permalink Manager.
Editing Custom Permalinks
Individual Changes
The built-in URL editor lets you change the permalink for any page, post, custom post type, category, or taxonomy. It works similarly to the default WordPress slug editor, but instead of editing only the last part of the URL, you can change the whole permalink.