How to create cleaner urls in wordpress.

I thought i would share this topic today as its a simple one, however many do not follow it, especially those starting out and often to their detriment.  So many times when I have visited or have had to redesign a wordpress website for a client I  see the following common error in the search bar when I click on a link:

“http://blazewebstudio.co.za/marketing_guide/?p=293″ 

Eeekkk…….instead of what it should be showing…..

“http://blazewebstudio.co.za/marketing_guide/12-ways-to-market-your-brand-better/”

Option B is much more Google friendly  and much more descriptive when sharing. To fix this in your WordPress blog you need to do the following:

1. Login into your WordPress dashboard
2. Click on settings in the left hand menu bar near the bottom and then select Permalinks
3. You will several options here and you may have default selected. Click on the “Post Name” radio button.
4. Then click save settings and that’s it your’e all done

Amazing Tip @geoffrey-gordon, I would love to find a URL shortener for all  blog sites, where I do not need to use a generator. I know that there is many companies/ sites offering this option but does anyone know if there is a downloadable toolbar for this purpose? Another question: How do I replace a URL with words (when I click on the words it goes to the URL!) Just 2 minor things I need to work out so blogs dont look so sloppy! 

Thanks!!!! 

@helenazwarts yes you can do that on a single post, but why do it everytime, when you can just enable it always with the method mentioned above.