I've started a new website which gets around 1k hits a day which started back in July.
I wanted a short permalink url like feh.xxx/stuph/2203 but I found out that search engines like longer urls with words in them. What should I do? I've got around 400 news articles up under the short permalink structure. I'm using Wordpress btw.

Thanks for the help!

change it and use permalink redirect plugin

Do those long keyword urls get better serp juice or link love? I'm curious.

This url should help you - http://www.deanlee.cn/wordpress/perm...ration-plugin/

Change the permalink structure then redirect old urls via .htaccess file.

the long keyword URLs are considered on-site SEO. they have nothing to do with your links, instead they help google establish your relevance to a particular topic. the same way your title tags do.

For the record: search engines DO like short URLs...but they should be keyword-filled URLs instead of URLs containing numbers or querystring parameters