A permalink, short for "permanent link", is the address of one specific page or post that is meant never to change. The idea comes from early blogs, where the front page constantly changed but each individual post needed a fixed address people could link to and find again years later.
How permalinks are generated
In a CMS, a permalink is usually built from a pattern you choose once for the whole site. WordPress, for example, offers settings such as "Plain" (/?p=123), "Day and name" (/2026/10/28/sample-post/) and "Post name" (/sample-post/), or a custom pattern. The system fills in the pattern for each new post, using its title to create the slug. Behind the scenes, the CMS maps that pretty address back to the right database record.
A permalink is still just a URL. What makes it a permalink is the promise: this address will keep pointing to this content.
Example: choosing a structure for a recipe blog
A home cook starts a blog and leaves the default date-based permalinks, so a post lives at /2026/03/14/sourdough-starter/. A year later, a popular evergreen guide looks dated in search results purely because of the URL. Had they picked a structure like /recipes/sourdough-starter/ at the start, the address would stay relevant and still be short. Changing it now is possible but means redirecting every old address.
Why permanence matters
Every time someone links to a post, shares it in a group chat or bookmarks it, they store the permalink. Search engines index it too. If the address later changes without a 301 redirect, all of those turn into dead ends and the page effectively starts over in search. For a small site, that can mean losing the handful of pages that brought most of its visitors.
If your site has no blog or frequently added content, you may never see the word "permalink" in your tools; the same advice simply applies to your page URLs.
Permalink mistakes to avoid
- Switching the site-wide pattern after launch without bulk redirects, which breaks every existing post link at once.
- Editing a post title and letting the slug follow it, silently changing the permalink.
- Using plain ID-based links that tell readers and search engines nothing.
- Stuffing categories into the path, then having to move posts between categories later.
Related terms
- Slug: the part of a permalink taken from the title.
- URL: the general term for any web address.
- 301 redirect: the fix when a permalink must change.
- CMS: the software that usually builds permalinks.