A permalink is the permanent URL used to reach a WordPress post or page. Search engines and visitors understand descriptive URLs more easily than default query strings such as ?p=123. For most business and evergreen-content websites, a short post-name structure provides the clearest result.
Recommended structure
Use the post name when the site does not depend on dates as part of the publishing model. In WordPress, open Settings, choose Permalinks and select Post name or use /%postname%/ as the custom structure. Keep slugs concise and describe the subject of the page rather than repeating every keyword.
Date-based URLs can still suit news publications where the date is meaningful. For evergreen guides, dates may make useful content look old and add unnecessary path segments.
Changing an existing site
Do not change established permalinks without a redirect plan. Export the current URLs, map each old path to its new destination and implement permanent 301 redirects. Update internal links, canonical tags and sitemap entries, then monitor crawl errors and traffic after release.
A clean URL helps users predict the page topic, but ranking still depends on useful content, internal links, performance and the overall quality of the website.