wordpress: managing settings

It's important that your URLs are not just machine-readable, but human-readable as well. A URL like:

http://example.com/?p=2392

Does not tell the reader where in the site hierarchy they are, nor what date it was written on. And it doesn't give search engines any keywords to help in the indexing process. These URLs, however, are meaningful both to search engines and to humans:

http://example.com/about/products
http://example.com/2011/05/18/plasma-tvs-compared

But web servers need to give a hint called a Rewrite Rule to WordPress so it can translate those friendly URLs into database IDs, so the right content can be served up. For most purposes, we recommend the Day and Name URL structure.

You can also set a different URL base for category view, so that, for example, your photography category has the URL:

http://example.com/topics/photography

When you click the Save Changes button, WordPress will attempt to write to a special file called .htaccess on your server and you'll be all set. If WordPress doesn't have permission to write to the directory on the server, it will give you a block of code instead. You'll need to log into your server's file system and create a file called .htaccess, then paste this code into that block. See our FTP 101 tutorial if you need a hand.

And that's it! You've now got a better handle on the mechanics of running a WordPress site than your average bear. There's tons more to learn - see the Related Links section for an even deeper dive. And remember, there's no better teacher than experience - go build a site!