I am using WP to build a simple static site and I was wondering which permalinks selection setting would be the best to use with regards to SEO. I know for a fact that having the page title on the URL is recommended for SEO purposes. So if i am keeping with the default option of using a permalink with just post id for all my pages - example: http://mydomain.com/?p=123 - how does this help with SEO for the site? There is no specific title on the URL. Is this recommended? Will not my users find it hard to get to a page or remember these numbers?
If not, which setting is recommended and why? Could someone please explain in detail?
Does the permalinks structure selection affect how pages are loaded on different browsers? Again which is the best option.

I plan to expand the site later into a full fledged ecommerce site with lots of pages, but at the moment, just the important pages with text and images have been created and it looks like any basic static site. There is no blog facility and I only plan to add appropriate plugins like gallery and such.

I am using WP version 3.4.1 and Atahualpa version 3.7.7

Incase I do change the permalink structure and I lose my pages, what can I do to get them back?

Thanks in advance for your answers.

Shalini

Here is an article to look at.

Thank you for the link. I did go through this document earlier. There are others which insist on putting a text first and no number. Check this link: http://www.weberz.com/blog/wordpress...ss-permalinks/

A little confusing. But I think having a text based URL for smaller static sites should be easier for users and visitors to remember.

That article was written a year and a half ago and things have changed in WordPress. See this post from the same person as the link I sent before.

SEO "rules" are frequently changing and for me bottom line is writing good content that people find valuable.

Thank you for the reply. Will go through this and get back. I think I have a fairly good idea of how it works now.