What is a permalink and why do I need it?

November 24, 2008 By 82 Comments

Before I start my explanation of permalinks, I want to show you two examples so you can refer to them as necessary:

An example of a blog’s main URL (which shows all the posts for a given period of time:
http://www.bloggingbasics101.com

An example of a permalink:
http://www.bloggingbasics101.com/101/2008/11/what-is-a-permalink/

A permalink is the link to an individual blog post. These are important because if you ever need to link to an exact blog entry (e.g., as part of a carnival), you use the permalink as your link. It’s poor blog etiquette not to use the permalink.

If you don’t use the permalink, you’ll just be linking to your main blog page. The problem with that is that, as you post new blog entries, the newest entry appears at the top of your main blog page and the other entries are pushed down on the page. The entry your readers are looking for may be down at the bottom of the page or already in the archives; your reader has no idea where to find the entry! If they click over to your site expecting to see a specific post related to a carnival and they see a different post, they may not take the time to find the “real” post they’re looking for.

You can find the permalink link under any blog entry. However, not all blog hosts/designs handle permalinks the same way.

  • Typepad blogs: There’s a link that actually says Permalink under the entry.
  • Blogger: The link varies. It’s usually the time stamp of the post or the actual post title.
  • Other blogs have other links; many times the permalink is the title of a given post.

One way to figure out which link is the permalink of a post (if it’s not obvious) is to put your curser over each link under or above a post. As you hover over a link a little box should come up that says permalink. If it doesn’t, that link probably isn’t your permalink and you should move on to the next link.

Once you find the permalink, click on it and you’ll be taken to a page with just that blog entry on it. Snazzy, huh? Now, to link to that page you just need to copy the URL in the address bar and use it where ever you were inserting your link (e.g., a Mr. Linky or a blog contest).

This post has be updated. It was originally posted on June 20, 2007.

Filed Under: Blogging Basics Tagged With: , , 82 Comments

Comments

  1. ipsg007 says:
    March 6, 2009 at 2:56 am

    thanks for the information mate..
    i was searhing for what a permalink actually is and got a great answer from your website..
    thanks for guiding me towards the right path..

    Reply
    • Mike@ The Marketing View says:
      January 17, 2013 at 10:06 pm

      Was looking for a way to leave a comment and only found Reply to leave a comment…. Not overly interested in this subject, just wanted to point out how poorly Google presents current information, as per dated material…

      How often have you looked for something only to find out it is dated 3 and 4 years or more back… In the year 2012, I would prefer not to find material from 2008.

      Reply
  2. Tim Frisch says:
    October 13, 2009 at 8:21 am

    I have clients that are very new with blogging and this has been a big help, I’ll be forwarding this site to them.

    Reply
  3. Yoga Teacher Training Vancouver says:
    November 21, 2009 at 2:21 am

    Thanks for clearifying the buzz word in weblogs. I’ve been stuck to this word many a times. Now its clear now.

    Reply
  4. Globalsweb says:
    February 17, 2010 at 6:04 am

    Thanks for this nice article. I also used a CMS site and wanted to know more about permalinks.

    Thanks again

    Reply
  5. northwestchefs says:
    May 11, 2011 at 12:51 am

    I am so new to this link system. How many back links is considered good for your site. I have noticed that blogger doesn’t let you post back links in the href format.
    Also is having links posted to thousands similarblogs
    E.g. wordpress. is that considered negative?

    Reply
  6. Santana Mciver says:
    July 24, 2011 at 5:07 pm

    Whoa! I’m very digging the structure on this site http://www.bloggingbasics101.com/2008/11/what-is-a-permalink. It’s simple, but still efficient. Very often it can be very difficult to obtain that balance between usability and appearance. I must say you have done a fantastic job on this. Also, your blog website loads super fast for me at Firefox. Excellent Blog!

    Reply
  7. Royal says:
    July 25, 2011 at 5:22 am

    Thanks for the explanation about permalinks.

    Reply
  8. Best Penny Stock Picks says:
    September 22, 2011 at 1:58 am

    Thanks for the explanation on permalinks. Until now, I had never used them but from now will ALWAYS use them. Many thanks!

    Reply
  9. Best Penny Stock Picks says:
    September 22, 2011 at 1:58 am

    Thank you for the good discussion of permalinks!

    Reply
  10. Bill@Search Engine Optimization Pasadena says:
    October 9, 2011 at 1:17 am

    Thanks for the explanation. I was confused about this even though I seem to see permalinks all over the place. Thanks again.

    Reply
  11. Bill says:
    October 9, 2011 at 1:19 am

    Thanks for the explanation once again, just in case my other entry didn’t post.

    Reply
  12. Cottage By The Sea says:
    March 5, 2012 at 4:21 pm

    Great info, thanks. I am now going to (try) to put it to work as I learn to use pinterest to pin my own blog posts.

    Reply
  13. Ake Lindstrom says:
    April 3, 2012 at 2:51 am

    Thanks for this posting Melanie, very useful. Now, an additional point you may be able to help with is does writing “permalink” in a link make a difference to the search engines? I saw a blog posting once that actually mentioned “permalink:blogpostingpage.php”

    Thanks,
    ake

    Reply
  14. Melanie Nelson says:
    May 6, 2012 at 11:23 am

    Ake,

    Having the word “permalink” in your actual permalink will only help you if you’re trying to rank in search engine placement for that word. If that’s not your intent, then there’s no reason to include it. However, it IS important to have “pretty permalinks.” Pretty permalinks look like the one I mention in the article (e.g., http://bloggingbasics101.com/2008/11/what-is-a-permalink) and include the keywords you’re trying to rank for. Sometimes a blog platform (WordPress included) defaults to permalinks that look like this: http://bloggingbasics101.com/p?308 (or something similar). See the difference? The latter example doesn’t have anything for search engines to use to index your article as relevant to search terms. The former example that uses the article title as the permalink includes the keywords I used in the article title. Now when search spiders crawl my site, they can use my permalink to recognize that this article is relevant to searches about my included keywords.

    Hope that helps!
    Melanie

    Reply
  15. Sara says:
    May 19, 2012 at 4:31 pm

    Hello! I just found out that my website is hosted on a Windows Server and that they cannot have permalinks on a Windows server. I am trying to work on my SEO and I would like to know if it is crucual for me to change servers or if I can stay with my windows server and still succeed with SEO. Thanks

    Reply
  16. Reno Computer Repair and Website Development says:
    July 4, 2012 at 8:28 am

    Good information about permalinks, thanks for sharing.

    Reply
  17. Ezzie says:
    August 16, 2012 at 2:33 am

    Great explaination of permalinks, but doesn’t explain why on an entry I wrote on our WordPress blog site, the word ‘PERMALINK’..yup, in capitals, comes up as a header. It’s driving me mad – I have no idea how to get rid of it.

    Reply
  18. Eric Cheung says:
    September 11, 2012 at 2:01 am

    Thanks a lot for your wonderful post. Personally I’m writing an article about on page SEO and talk about the permalink topic. I will definitely introduce this post as well as your blog to my readers. Thanks again. :)
    Eric Cheung recently posted..Where Should I Host My Website?

    Reply
  19. Hose Pipes says:
    September 18, 2012 at 1:03 am

    I understand the power of blogging and always try to collect information how i can improve my blog quality. First time there i am listen about the permalink link it’s really great.
    Hose Pipes recently posted..Find Right Fit Hose For Your Garden

    Reply
  20. Fathom Savvy says:
    September 19, 2012 at 8:52 pm

    Thanks for posting. Learned something new today.

    Reply
  21. Technotag says:
    September 20, 2012 at 4:11 am

    Thanks so much its very useful about related issues.
    Technotag recently posted..Nokia Lumia 920

    Reply
  22. Technotag says:
    September 20, 2012 at 4:13 am

    Its very useful for the bloggers.
    Technotag recently posted..Nokia Lumia 920

    Reply
  23. Barbara says:
    November 24, 2012 at 10:31 pm

    Can a custom permalink on Blogger be made after the post is published? I tried to edit the one that was automatically created, but was unable to do it.
    Barbara recently posted..Can’t Stop! New Painting – "Basketball Player 2"

    Reply
  24. Barbara says:
    November 24, 2012 at 10:32 pm

    Can a custom permalink be made after the post is completed? I tried to edit the one that was automatically created, but was unable to do it.
    Barbara recently posted..Can’t Stop! New Painting – "Basketball Player 2"

    Reply
  25. apkany says:
    December 3, 2012 at 7:22 am

    thank you for giving information.. Now, an additional point you may be able to help with is does writing “permalink” in a link make a difference to the search engines?

    Reply
  26. Techoupdates.com says:
    December 15, 2012 at 10:56 am

    Thanx for this aweosome info

    Reply
  27. Susan Malter says:
    February 2, 2013 at 4:27 am

    I changed some dates to make some posts more visible. I do not remember the original dates or times and now I think I broke the links. Do you know how I can switch it back?

    Reply
  28. Business Refinery says:
    March 6, 2013 at 10:56 pm

    OMG, I can’t believe that I’ve never used this permalink before. Thanks for the enlightment, Melanie! Now I’m gonna start using that!

    Reply
  29. Junaid Raza says:
    March 7, 2013 at 7:56 am

    Its awesome post. Permalink is important for search engines optimization, readers also need permalinks sometimes to see what exactly they are going to read.
    Junaid Raza recently posted..Value of templates and themes in Blogging SEO what are Best Templates

    Reply
  30. THEMICHAELJSHOW says:
    May 19, 2013 at 8:40 am

    Thank you for this site. I Googled the word permalink and found multiple definitions and explanations of the word. More important I found this site. A lot of valuable information and tips to make my blog a better product for my readers. Thank you

    Reply

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