A permalink ("permanent link") is a static web address that readers of a blog or news source can use to reference a specific blog post or entry.

Why should you use permalinks? Blogs and dynamic news sources update their content regularly on a main page — called main.html, for example — that often displays only a few of the site's latest updates. If a reader bookmarks the main.html page in his browser, he'll be able to return again and again to the blog's main page, but chances are that the posts will have changed, replaced by newer content. To bookmark a specific entry, the reader must be able to reference a permalink, a static — permanent — link that refers specifically to the post that interested him.

Permalinks allow your readers to easily link to your posts, helping you drive and retain traffic to your site. Movable Type will create permalinks — or archive mapping — for your posts and archives automatically. If you'd like to configure the default permalink settings, you'll just need to visit your Movable Type control panel:

1. Sign in to your Web Hosting Control Panel.
2. Visit the Manage tab.
3. In the first module, click the "Blog Manager" link.
4. On the following page, locate the module that corresponds with the blog you'd like to manage.
5. Click the "View blog control panel" link. You'll be asked to sign in to your Movable Type control panel if you haven't already done so.
6. Near the middle of the page, under the "My Weblogs" headline, click the "Settings" link.
7. On the "General Settings" page, click the "Publishing" tab. (If you don't see this tab, click the "Switch to Detailed Settings" link in the upper-right corner of the page, just under the search box.)
8. At the bottom of the "Publishing Settings" page, you'll find a section called "Archive Mapping." Here you can modify your permalink structure and choose which types of archives should generate permalinks.

Please note that if you move or rename your Movable Type files after setting up permalinks, any permalinks already generated for your blog posts will no longer function properly. For this and other reasons, we strongly recommend that you do not move or rename your Movable Type files after activation. Learn more.

For assistance and more information about Movable Type anytime, please see the Movable Type support site.