In an attempt to maximize SEO potential, many Wordpress site owners use /%postname%/ as their permalink. I do. Or least I did, until I read this blog post.
It turns out that setting up your permalinks this way can slow your server to a crawl. I had heard that this hurts efficiency, but man I had no idea how serious it is. I figured that changing this was like one of many tweaks that you can do to slightly speed up your site.
Well here are some numbers from this article. This is for displaying one page:
Database queries with /%postname%/ --- 2517
Database queries with /%year%/%postname%/ -- 43
BUT, that's not necessarily the best permalink structure to use. Best to read the article for all the details.
Also, check out the comments on this. It provides a fascinating look at what goes on behind the scenes in the development of Wordpress.
Turns out this problem will be solved with the next version of Wordpress in October. But depending on your site, it's very likely worth addressing now.
http://digwp.com/2011/06/dont-use-postname/
