NOTE: Although we use and have been recommending the obviously best for HUMANS URL format, be aware that Waqas (who shared no URL or Twitter accounts so I can’t link to him or her) pointed us to this:
WordPress recommends AGAINST
clean permanlinks saying:
Starting Permalinks with %postname%is strongly not recommendedfor performance reasons.For further information see the discussion in the comments of this post
and also this post and their answers in the comments at WpBeginner.
For reasons I don’t completely understand, the obvious best Permalink URL format is not a default in WordPress. Many blogs have dates in the URLs or other extraneous words that make your URLs too long and hard to remember.
A clean URL should have only your domain (and possibly /blog or a subdomain) and then a SHORTENED post name which ideally would be your target keyword phrase.
You can easily change a setting in WordPress so that you your future posts will automatically have cleaner URLs.
WARNING: Changing this setting is retroactive and will change the permalinks to all existing posts. We recommend you first install Platinum SEO and then make the change because that plugin will automatically redirect all your existing links. That alone makes it a great plugin to use as the default WordPress behavior that changes your permalink if you change your post title can introduce permanlink changes you may not have intended.
How to change the WordPress Permalink default:
- Log into your WordPress blog.
- At the very bottom of the left column find Settings and click on it.
- Click on Permalinks (under settings).
- Select the radio button for Custom Structure and paste /%postname%/ into the box.
- Click save changes.
Look for Permalink (just under your post title) when you write or edit posts or pages. WordPress will now automatically name your post YourDomain/the-name-of-the-post.
IMPORTANT: Click on Edit and shorten that name to your preferred page name, ideally your target keyword phrase and save it. You will end up with a post URL that looks like this: http://YourDomain.com/Your-Keyword-Phrase.
If you decide to change the title of the post WordPress will change your saved permalink and you will have to edit and save it again. Perhaps WordPress will give us an option to disable that behavior in the future (or maybe it already exists and someone will share it with me.
When it comes to passing Cisco certification exams, there is no doubt that 642-359 dumps are your best bet. Download 642-373 dumps and 642-383 dumps to cover the complete syllabus in days.
WordPress does make changes all the time. Have you noticed that (starting with version 2.9?) you can now convert posts to pages and pages to posts? That is a great idea I wish was available when I was first learning to use WordPress.
It is also why I am publishing this now. When you do a conversion you may have to know how to make this change if you want to be able to edit the names of your posts when converting them from pages.
OPTIMIZING PAGE URLS:
- NiceBlogger SEO Blog (NiceBlogger) Optimizing URLS: Top 5 Problems and Base Techniques
- EMarketing Matador Local SEO Information (eMatador): Local SEO For Local Niche and Small Businesses
Gail Gardner
Latest posts by Gail Gardner (see all)
- Amazon: The Wal-Mart of the Internet - September 17, 2020
- 2020 Review: How to Use accessiBe To Make ADA Compliant Websites - September 13, 2020
- Career Choices: How to Find Work in the Remote Economy [Infographic] - August 28, 2020
Nothing worse than trying to make a change to improve your site’s usability only to serve up “Page not found” notices to everyone finding you by search, bookmark, or an existing link. Love WordPress plugins like this that make it easy to build your site the right way.
Yeah, it was one of the first things I did when I installed wp.
It’s stupid that it’s not on this standard. But what is even more stupid that it’s not even in the list of defaults.
If you don’t know anything about these kind of things then you wont figure this out unless you happen to read a post like this.
Danny would love you to read ..Remington RM1015P 10-Inch 8 Amp Electric Pole chain Saw
Well this option is not enabled because wordpress doesn’t support this approach. coz it slows down the retrieval of posts from database. On wordpress’s site it says such URL structure is strongly not recommended for performance reasons.
http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Permalinks#Structure_Tags
but no doubt it looks a lot cleaner 🙂
Getting a little more each blog. I’m following WordPress info and taking into account what the materials have to offer. Just started a Twitter account along with a start up company that shows promise for traffic. Thanks, I ‘ll keep checking in.
I’m not sure why people recommend using /%post_id%/%postname%. I like the cleaner look of just %postname% better the way you use it. I’d assume since it is closer to the root directory that it would also be better for SEO.
Anthony would love you to read ..Acne Diets-Let’s Get Real
This is my first time on this blog. But I don’t agree with anything you have written int his post.
If you have read the wordpress guidelines…they strongly oppose starting permalink with “%post%”. It not only increases your blog’s response time but as well as can effect wp-admin functions.
I myself had the same permalink structure as your site has with 800+ posts. Now my new permalink structure is “example.com/year/postname”.
Hi Waqas,
The %post% does not appear in the URL. That is a placeholder that tells the blog to use the name you choose in the URL. For example, in this post that is ‘wordpress-permalinks’.
There are some who believe leaving the number in the post will speed up retrieval but others feel that having a clean URL with a name you select is best for SEO.
Your permalink structure is almost the same as mine except that you added the year. How do you feel that would make what you’re doing better?
growmap would love you to read ..Do YOU Know and Follow These Special Bloggers? Why I Love #FollowFriday
Thanks for your reply and explaining it to me.
I get your point and I was doing the same thing too. But then I came across this : http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Permalinks#Structure_Tags
It’s mentioned there : “Starting Permalinks with %postname% is strongly not recommended for performance reasons.”
you can further click on the link provided there to see how it effects the performance and can create problem under some cases. I will assume this is also the reason, blogs like mashable, techchurch also put date infront of “%post%”.
I have done a bit of research on it. I also have blog setup just like yours and it has more than 700 posts, so , for some while when I apply those changes. I’m gonna lose page rank but it will come back.
Waqas Lone would love you to read ..Western Australia Construction Activity Pushing Forward
Thanks for sharing these information regarding having a clean permalink. Now, I have an idea on how to build up such clean permalink so that users will remember it easily. Cool thing!
I have been getting varied ideas, some sources say yes big effects, others say no effects, and some say yes but very small effects.
[Sorry, Nathan. You know why we can’t leave that link, right?]
Does the length of the permalinks in your blog affect have any SEO effect on your blog’s SERP ranking? I have been getting varied ideas, some sources say yes big effects, others say no effects, and some say yes but very small effects. Anyone here have any input?
Having your keywords in the URL helps with SEO; having extraneous stuff like dates and unrelated words, directories, etc. detracts. That is probably why you’re seeing different recommendations.
I prefer to target a 2-3 word phrase most of the time so that is what I use in my post URLs. Sometimes I use complete sentences but not often. I dislike URLs with extra junk in them which is the default for WP.
See my posts about using keywords and the building traffic post I’ll put in CommentLuv in this reply for more details.
I asked Ron Cripps – a close collaborator who is a really sharp Affiliate Marketing Expert – and he says he has never seen the length make much difference.
Remember that there is a ton of disinformation floating around about SEO because those who know don’t want competition so many of them they teach one thing and do another. Ron does NOT do that.
growmap would love you to read ..Building Traffic Using Anchor Text
I am trying to make a blog using wordpress but I find it harder. That is why I keep on studying about wordpress. Because some of my friends told me that wordpress is good. Well, I want to try first if it is true.
Hello,
WordPress IS good but it can be very complicated. It is best to get a mentor or collaborate with bloggers who have it figured out.
growmap would love you to read ..Why the Economy is In Decline and What We Can Do to Improve It
Ugly permalinks are one of the main problems a lot of sites have with ranking well in Google and it’s amazing how many web designers out there don’t understand this. This is a great first step towards optimizing your blog or website for search engines.
Hi Tony,
Have you considered a Twitter account? If you had one I could share your site with my almost 21,000 Twitter followers and recommend you from my Twitter accounts for @DallasMetro and @KaufmanTX.
growmap would love you to read ..Social Media and Increasing Website Traffic
Great tip on installing platinum SEO before making the permalink switch. Nothing worse than trying to make a change to improve your site’s usability only to serve up “Page not found” notices to everyone finding you by search, bookmark, or an existing link. Love WordPress plugins like this that make it easy to build your site the right way.
William would love you to read ..NACPB Bookkeeping Certification
Does the length of the permalinks in your blog affect have any SEO effect on your blog’s SERP ranking? I have been getting varied ideas, some sources say yes big effects, others say no effects, and some say yes but very small effects. Anyone here have any input?
your site is really helpful, for people like me, who are looking for this kind of stuff thanks a lot.
I used wordpress but was finding difficulties of such type. Well thanks a lot for
sharing this imformation it will surely help me
That does clean up the permalink URL a lot. Most of my sites are wordpress based and this is a nifty new tool.
Lily would love you to read ..Halloween Costume Coupon Code
Do you know if platinum seo automatically does 301 redirects without intervention, eg, manual mapping? NIce if it does!
Mark would love you to read ..OpenCart Review- Video Walkthrough
Hi Mark,
It is my understanding that is how it works.
I notice you do shopping cart reviews. One thing many ecommerce stores are unaware of is the frequency many common and very popular shopping cart solutions turn their buyers away for stupid reasons those solutions should handle: different ways of entering the same address for example.
I hope you test for that and include that in your reviews. The worst thing shopping carts do is refusing to let you check out and not giving you a good idea what the problem is. If they at least told you which specific field and ideally WHAT about what you’re putting in that field is the problem that would really help.
If you aren’t familiar with those issues I would be happy to discuss them with you. Reviews of shopping cart software are very important for increasing sales on ecommerce sites.
Back when I managed pay per click advertising accounts full time there were so many problems that I intentionally worked primarily with Yahoo! Stores and Volusion Stores (and often advised etailers to switch to one of those platforms). It is challenging enough to make money without turning willing buyers away.
growmap would love you to read ..Support Small Businesses
What about that plugin – platinum seo pack?
Should it be installed if i want to change permalinks and Googlebot has indexed under another form [such like in this example: http://www.mydomain.com/p=435, so i will change the permalinks to http://www.mydomain.com/the-smallest-thing. After this “update”, that plugin will redirect the readers who find me in Google SERPs from http://www.mydomain.com/p=435(the indexed form by Googlebot) to http://www.mydomain.com/the-smallest-thing ?! ], or all these are made by WP?
Hi John,
That is the reason that we were going to install it – because it is my understanding that it automatically redirects the old name to the new name as you rename them.
Before we started using it the WordPress theme we use (Thesis) added that functionality so I did not actually ever use Platinum SEO.
growmap would love you to read ..Local Search Directory Listings
WordPress really need to change their default domains, until then we have heroes like you warning us and telling us how to fix the problems with it, thanks.
.-= Frank@40th Birthday Banners´s featured blog ..Personalized Birthday Banner =-.
Luckily, I learned about this early on in my blogging. I didn’t know about that SEO plugin, though. Thanks for sharing.
.-= Amy@Free Family Advice´s featured blog ..First Challenge For Family Health and Fitness Challenge =-.
I use the Permalink Redirect plug-in by Scott Yang and it works beautifully well with few known conflicts with certain plug-ins. I’m using the permalink structure /%postname%/%post_id%/ cos I hear it helps reduce conflicts on wordpress blogs and also helps speed things up.
Please note that your permalinks cannot change when you modify you post titles UNLESS you modify them yourself. Try it and see for yourself 😉
.-= Udegbunam Chukwudi | StrictlyOnlineBiz´s last blog ..Start Your Make Money Online Biz With Just $10 NOW! =-.
I use the permalinks:
/%post_id%/%postname%/
And I use the Clean Slugs plugin from Yoast. It removes all unnecessary small words from your domain.
Andrew
.-= Andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..Blogging Guide: Increase Your Traffic and Google Crawl Rate =-.
Awesome thanks Andrew, I’ve been trying to remember that damn plugin forever. lol
.-= Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Do You Have 5 BURNING Questions? =-.
Dennis,
You do have to sign up for Yoast’s newsletter to get it though – but that is no bad thing!
Andrew
.-= Andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last blog ..Blogging Guide: Increase Your Traffic and Google Crawl Rate =-.
I’m on it; been on it; did I miss something?
.-= Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing´s last blog ..Theme Customization 4 – NEW Social Media Icons & RSS/Newsletter Subscription Box(s) Coming – You Need to Settle an Argument! =-.
Yeah, I don’t get it why WordPress doesn’t enable Permalink URL’s by default. Nowadays, it seems to be the standard with more and more content management systems.
I’m currently running a few WordPress blogs and I like the idea of the shortened postname. I’ll be sure to use it sometime in a future project. Thanks!
i think every word press plug in have some unique features. like keyword luv , comment luv and many more.
Much appreciated. I didn’t know something like this was possible.
Cheers brother. Been wondering how to do this for ages!
Thanks for the tip mate. i’ve needed to clean up my archive of messy looking url’s for quite some time. This will only help my SEO efforts.
Thanks! This is a handy little tip for us WordPress users. WordPress should already have this setting by default.
.-= Nate@Metal Water Bottles´s last blog ..Metal water bottle brands =-.
Yep , I do the same thing on all of my wordpress blogs.
Don’t forget to change the .htaccess too! Otherwise you’ll end up with a royally screwed over blog and might end up pulling out some hair trying to figure that one out (I have).
Dennis, Yes I understand about the default. Sorry I worded that incorrectly. Understand now. Thanks
.-= Paul & Scarecrow Motion Sprinkler´s last blog ..Do Follow, Comment Luv, Keyword Luv =-.
Not too long ago I heard about this trick with permalinks. It would be nice if we did not have to actually remember to customize it. A default setting would be nice for sure.
.-= Paul & Scarecrow Motion Sprinkler´s last blog ..Do Follow, Comment Luv, Keyword Luv =-.
There is a default setting which sucks for both SEO and readers, that’s why we customize it….perhaps I misunderstood your statement?
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Do You Know The REAL Difference Between Bloggers and Internet Marketers? =-.
This is a great tip for those who were not aware of it. It seems silly that it’s not like this by default, but I guess it’s probably because the general purpose of a blog has traditionally been as a weblog or online diary, in which case it makes sense to have the dates in the URL. Most people are not trying to rank for keywords in search engines or anything like that – they’re just making an online log of their thoughts and life events in order to share with friends and family, so there’s no need for search engine friendly URLs. Having said that, for purposes of making good, clean URLs I prefer to use %category%/%postname% so that the keyword-rich category names also get included.
.-= josh@new jersey movers´s last blog ..Somerset County Movers =-.
Good tips.Getting the WordPress permalinks right would definitely help with SEO.I will look into this.
.-= Tom – marketing tips´s last blog ..How To Sell Yourself On Internet Marketing Forums =-.
There is another great wordpress plugin that removes the stop words from the title so that your URL only contains the keywords. http://www.vretoolbar.com/news/2007/04/01/seo-slugs-wordpress-plugin/
This just takes your optimisation one step further.
.-= Lisa´s last blog ..Importance of Designing and Optimising Your Website at the Same Time =-.
Lisa – does it do it all automatically? Some (1-2) stop words are necessary if you still want it to make sense.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Blog Updates: New Category-Pages Done, Like It? =-.
thnx for the tips…a well customized URL that reflects the keywords emphasized in the post can go along way with SEO.
.-= Thomas´s last blog ..Choosing an eCommerce Shopping Cart =-.
I have been thinking about my blog urls for the last few weeks (started my external blog in Jan this year). So, am I right in thinking when I install this plug-in my older posts will not be affected – meaning they will still be visable as they are now? If this works i’ll be ‘over the moon’.
Also, where can I find a leave a comment form plug-in with the twitter ID box as you have here?- I’d like to add this to my blog also.
Many thanks.
Just a word of caution – sometimes you need to update your .htaccess file if it is write protected after you have updated the permalinks; WordPress will give you a warning that it needs to updated and will give the code that needs to be added to the .htaccess file.
.-= Howard@SEO Help´s last blog ..Google Search Engine Optimization Tips | Organic Search Engine Optimization =-.
Another word of caution regarding the .htaccess itself…..be very careful when messing with it.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Blog Updates: New Category-Pages Done, Like It? =-.
As long the plugin can redirect old hyperlinks to the new ones successfully, I think it’s worth a shot. I just hope that having post name instead of the date within the URL can be a default for all blogging platforms. Save us the heart-attacks from the shifting. ^^
@wchingya
Social/Blogging Tracker
Hi Gail,
The default settings in WordPress are a mystery to me too.
Clearly they aren’t trying to be as helpful as they could.
On the other hand I find your blog very helpful. This is my first visit and I like what I see.
You have keyword luv and even remind people to take advantage of it. I do the same thing once in a while although not as often as when I first installed it.
New people need a reminder as many may not know what keyword luv is and what it does.
I’ve never heard of the Platinum SEO plug in. I may look into it.
I use All in One SEO.
Vance
.-= Vance@Learn Internet Marketing´s last blog ..Alex Jeffreys Marketing With Alex Las Vegas Workshop 2010 =-.
I think Title Permalink URLs with “/%postname%/ “, is the best way to wordpress SEO.
.-= luanpa´s last blog ..Mercedes-Benz F-CELL concept drived by joystick =-.
BTW, this article brings up a REALLY funny rant I’ve had for sometime now….up to this point I’ve subscribed to I dunno how many “SEO expert” blogs to see what kinda chops they got.
I can’t tell ya how many I’ve unsubscribed from after the very first post and seeing the default permalink being used. LMAO!
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..UPDATED – Here We Go! Theme Construction Part 1 – Your Participation Is Wanted-Needed! =-.
Yeap, permalinks is the number one thing you have to change, when you start your blog. Though…
Though.. WordPress has built-in feature to redirect old slugs to the new ones using 301 redirects, which makes wordpress number 1… again.
.-= iWoodpecker@website traffic and promotion´s last blog ..Let This Girl Survive – A Lump of Ice Fell on Her Head Right From the Roof of Multi-Floored Building – on 5th February, 2010 =-.
Hi iWoodpecker,
I know that I’ve seen WordPress automatically redirect pages that I changed names on in the past but it does not appear that it does that any longer at least in this blog.
(I access more than half a dozen others besides this one so it can be a challenge to remember the differences between them.)
Do you know if there is a setting for redirects in WordPress itself? Perhaps upgrading to another version could have changed the default behavior if there is one? Anyone else know?
I really liked that WordPress used to handle redirects in this blog automatically and was surprised when I realized it had stopped.
As those reading this thread can see it is not easy to know how WordPress handles various actions because it can be modified by the Theme you use and the plugins you install.
WordPress, Themes, plugins and widgets are continually being updated so there are different versions and many can be configured and defaults can change.
.-= growmap´s last blog ..Search Engine Positions: Easy Free Ways to Track =-.
I’m sort of new to WordPress and I didn’t know this. Thanks.
Even people who are NOT new to WordPress don’t always know this. I wrote this post so others will know and also so I have it for reference when making recommendations on new blogs.
@Gail: Thanks for sharing the tips, I am sure they are useful for new users. I didn’t know that platinum SEO plug-in can save old permalinks as well. I have used another custom plug-in for this but much was left desired. I have only used all-in-on SEO plugin and when compared with Joomla’s sh404sef, it looks quite ‘lame’ 😉
I would like to mention that URL and title length should be controlled to get best CTRs in search engine.
Thanks you CJ & Gayle – I have it straight now! I appreciate your explanations.
.-= Moomettes @ WAHM Tips´s last blog ..How You Can Choose a Good PLR Service =-.
Well, now I’m totally clueless at what I should be doing. I don’t get it. First I thought I was doing it right, and then Dennis offered another point of view.
.-= Moomettes @ WAHM Tips´s last blog ..Guide to Walt Disney World With Preschoolers – Review and Giveaway =-.
@Cindi — you’re doing it correctly. Moomettes @ WAHM Tips translates to Moomettes from WAHM Tips, where WAHM Tips link back to your blog. What Dennis is saying (I think) is don’t just enter WAHM Tips in the name field. I use CJ or CJ@Online Technical Writing which link back to my creativeace site.
If a site doesn’t say that they use KeywordLuv then leaving Moomettes @WAHM Tips in the name field doesn’t link back to your site. Not sure if that is an issue or not, however in cases where I don’t see a Keyword statement, I’ll just leave CJ instead of CJ@page landing.
.-= CJ@Page Landing´s last blog ..Page Landing – Cleared for Landing Page Design =-.
Sorry about that. You’re doing it right; don’t look at what I said as another point, but the same point magnified.
All I’m saying is, use just Name or Name@keywords on EVERY blog regardless of whether the keyword love plugin is used or not. Many bloggers are fighting back against pure keywords.
Gail is saying name@keywords on a blog with no keywordluv plugin may not do you much good SEO wise…while that may be true, you’re still showing other readers what your blog is about, and not ticking off the blogs owner at the same time.
Tick him/her off and none of it matters if they just delete your comments.
I hope that’s a little clearer. 🙂
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Here We Go! Theme Construction Part 1 – Your Participation Is Wanted-Needed! =-.
Thanks Gayle for the extensive explanation! I’ll be tweaking my methods thanks to your help. I would imagine that the keywords in the name only apply to KeywordLuv enabled blogs only? Or does it matter?
Cindi
.-= Moomettes @ WAHM Tips´s last blog ..BlogHer10 Conference Pass Giveaway Coming Up! =-.
Hi Cindi,
This works best in KeywordLuv enabled blogs and is the reason that people who leave comments in other sites use keywords instead of names and why KeywordLuv exists and why bloggers complain about them and think they’re spammers (even when they aren’t).
If your comment links to Cindi WAHM Tips that doesn’t do your site much good if it does anything at all. Who will be searching for Cindi WAHM Tips? If it links to WAHM Tips you will eventually be easy to find by searching for that phrase.
While Gail is correct may I just add, no matter what plugins are being used it is best to name yourself name@keywords if you wish your keywords in there.
As mentioned, many bloggers including myself despise pure keywords in the name field. The whole purpose of commenting is to have conversations.
Imagine walking up to someone on the street; would you like to address them, “Hi best blog tips, how are you today?”
Not very natural is it. LOL
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Here We Go! Theme Construction Part 1 – Your Participation Is Wanted-Needed! =-.
If the blog has KeyWordLuv, I use that method. Otherwise, I’m “Gomez the windshield monkey.” It suits my sense of humor, at least. 😉
.-= Gomez@Windsheild´s last blog ..Creepy windshield stalkers are wreaking havoc on consumers from coast to coast! =-.
Thanks for the post. I did my research as I was setting up WP for my sites and found a few posts on what to do out of the box. One mentioned the post default so I immedately changed that. Now when I setup a new site for a client it’s one of the first things I do. I wish WP would default it to a more SEO friendly format, but it’s a small thing in the course of the other plugins and settings that you need to do when setting up a new site.
I was using All in One SEO, but I just converted it over to the Platinum SEO plugin. I agree with Cindi, it has a lot more features. Not sure where to start, but the fact that it has an option to migrate the All in One SEO settings is wonderful. I didn’t have to redo all the settings.
Not sure how you feel about the posts for SEO, but I use category and then post name, removing all the non-essential words like an, the, it, etc. Is adding category to the string good or bad? Just curious.
Thanks @Dennis for recommending the plugin.
.-= CJ@Online Technical Writing´s last blog ..Page Landing – Cleared for Landing Page Design =-.
I’m talking with Derek about migrating to Platinum SEO too. I’m not actually and SEO so I don’t know if using categories in your URLs is better or less effective; however, I would go with shorter URLs so I don’t put my categories in mine.
I edit my permalinks to be only the two to three word phrase each post is about and not the entire post title. I strongly recommend that as the best method for maximizing the chances of having your post found in the search engines.
.-= Gail @ Social Media Marketing´s last blog ..Search Engine Positions: Easy Free Ways to Track =-.
I like that idea about shortening the post name for better SEO. I’ll check around to see the though process about categories or no categories in the string.
.-= CJ@PAge Landing´s last blog ..A Blog is NOT A Website =-.
Having category in there IS considered a most excellent way to do it…HOWEVER, and this is a big however…IF you are the type to get antsy and switch around your categories on a regular, or even semi regular, basis…well lets just say DON’T. 😉
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Here We Go! Theme Construction Part 1 – Your Participation Is Wanted-Needed! =-.
Dennis – thanks. That just save me an hour tonight. I don’t tend to change the foundation once laid. I mean can you image trying to change the foundation of a house once built? No, you’d go build another house with the foundation of your choice.
I’ve done technical writing and web design for almot 15 years now and I can tell you there are certain things you don’t change. Add categories sure, but don’t change them. That’s like changing a permalink too. I wouldn’t do that either (redirects or no). If you have a following and someone links to it in a post or tweets it, I think the potential to come back with a broken link is high.
Thanks again. I’ll be leaving my categories in the string, but probably be changing the post name when it make sense.
.-= CJ@PAge Landing´s last blog ..Page Landing – Cleared for Landing Page Design =-.
Welcome! Anytime. 😉
Liked the analogy too, this is why I rent. 🙂
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Here We Go! Theme Construction Part 1 – Your Participation Is Wanted-Needed! =-.
OK Gayle, I’m trying to understand this & did a test. I installed Platinum. I changed my permalink structure. I went to one of my incoming links from another blog from my old structure. The link worked and redirected to my post, which is showing the new structure now. I didn’t lose the incoming link.
Is this what you’re talking about?
Also, on the Keyword Luv – should I be entering as Cindi @ Moomette’s Magnificents or should I be entering as Cindi @ WAHM Advice (tips, what-ever) as my Keywords? Thanks.
.-= Cindi @ Moomette’s Magnificents´s last blog ..Guide to Walt Disney World With Preschoolers – Review and Giveaway =-.
Hi Cindi,
It sounds like you tested the redirect function in the Platinum SEO plugin and proved that it does work. That is good to know. That is exactly what I meant. Thank you.
The keywords you use are the ones you believe someone looking for your site that does not already know who you are or what the name of your site is would type into a search engine. (We would hope that if they already know about Moomette’s Magnificents that they would be able to locate that. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a site that did not rank for its own name.)
Using a carefully chosen phrase also makes it more likely that people reading your comments will know what they’ll find on your site. I may not have any idea what a Moomette’s Magnificent is and never click on it but imagine how many might click if you used Cindi @ Product Giveaways or Cindi @ Disney Contest.
For maximum benefit you need to link directly to the most relevant post for each keyword phrase. That takes good timing when a blog also uses CommentLuv. This is how you do it:
First use the URL you registered at CommentLuv (note that it is probably case sensitive and it DOES matter whether you used the www and whether you have a trailing / on it) so make a note of what you use so you can put it back. If you enter it incorrectly CommentLuv will not find your last ten posts.
Then write your comment, enter the captcha or math solution if necessary, and just before you click submit paste the URL you want your keywords to point to into the regular Website URL field and immediately click submit.
That lets you point your preferred anchor text phrase to the best landing page for that phrase without losing your CommentLuv post. It sounds complicated but once you do it a time or two it will become easy.
I wrote up how to do this in the post Blog Traffic Up 54.87% which has always stayed in the Most Popular section to date.
Thanks Gayle for the recommendation on Platinum SEO plugin. I just converted from All In One SEO and like the options that are available. I’ve also made the changes to my permalink structure you suggested!
.-= Cindi @ Moomette’s Magnificents´s last blog ..BlogHer10 Conference Pass Giveaway Coming Up! =-.
Hi Cindi,
We have Dennis Edell to thank for the Platinum plugin and the advice on redirecting. Shorter URLs are easier to remember and are supposed to be better for SEO.
Thank you Gail. 😉
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Here We Go! Theme Construction Part 1 – Your Participation Is Wanted-Needed! =-.
If I were to go for a plugin, as I have, I recommend the Platinum SEO plugin. Takes care of redirects automatically, plus all the cool SEO features.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Welcome Aboard Part 2! All The Info You’ve Been Waiting For… =-.
Thank you for sharing that plugin Dennis. I have sent the information on to my WordPress Ninja Derek Semmler and tweeted to the owner of the best Search Engine Marketing service company I know.
.-= Gail @ Social Media Marketing´s last blog ..Twelve Generous FollowFriday Folks =-.
My default is post name and post ID (#) to ensure each is unique.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Here We Go! Theme Construction Part 1 – Your Participation Is Wanted-Needed! =-.
I’ve heard that changing your permalinks will cause all of your permalinks in your blog to change, even your past posts. Won’t that cause problems in search? If someone is looking to contact me for a product review in Google, then won’t they end up with a 404 error page since the links to my posts are all changed?
.-= ConnieFoggles´s last blog ..Fashion Playtes Review And Giveaway =-.
Above she’s actually giving two separate instructions regarding permalinks…changing the default structure will in fact change them all once, you can then do a redirect or just wait a bit until Google catches up on the next crawl.
The second which she starts with, “Look for Permalink (just under your post title)…” is regarding the permalink for each individual post as you write it. This is very useful as you can remove extra unneeded words from the post title…words the search engines won’t care about….and/if/or/the, things like that.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Here We Go! Theme Construction Part 1 – Your Participation Is Wanted-Needed! =-.
Hi Connie and thank you Dennis,
I just verified that changing this option DOES retroactively change your existing posts. While the search engines will pick up on the change the bad news is WordPress does NOT automatically redirect those links (as I had hoped it would) so any incoming links you had will no longer work.
Dennis, how do ordinary humans who have WordPress blogs do redirects? How about writing a guest post on that subject that I can publish here or publish it on your blog and I’ll write about and link to it.
Clean URLs are important so if we can redirect them I would still recommend doing this.
.-= Gail @ Social Media Marketing´s last blog ..MEME: BizLuv in Support of Small Businesses =-.
I am researching how to do redirects in a WordPress blog. I found a WordPress Redirect plugin that would be very useful.
I also found some instructions on manually redirecting WordPress pages.
.-= Gail @ Social Media Marketing´s last blog ..BizLuv MEME: How to Support Your Fav Businesses =-.
It is best to do the permalink right from the start, but you’re right, even mid-through it’s OK and should be done.
When I changed mine, I didn’t redirect. I waited for the search engines to just re-crawl…my links might have been screwy for a day two.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Here We Go! Theme Construction Part 1 – Your Participation Is Wanted-Needed! =-.
Thank you Connie. I have verified that you are correct and updated this post with details on how to make this change without affecting any existing incoming links or search engine placements you may already have.
If anyone made this change before seeing this update you could change your permalink structure back to your original option, install Platinum SEO, and then go back to this improved permalink format. I can assist anyone to figure out what setting they original had on request.
.-= Gail @ Social Media Marketing´s last blog ..Search Engine Positions: Easy Free Ways to Track =-.
I love this suggestion. What a simple yet effective trick! Yet again, you bring out the overlooked and underappreciated from all the tools we use every day. Thanks!
Thank you Daneka,
Whenever I need to do something and have to either research how to do it or figure it out I write it up here. That way it benefits others and I have it for reference when I need to do it again later.
I encourage you to take advantage of our KeywordLuv plugin to make it easier to find AdsMarket International Affiliate Network in the search engines.
All you have to do is add @ Your Keyword Phrase after your name like this: Daneka @ International Affiliate Network. That gives you the same link I manually added for you in this reply.
I hope you will take advantage of my new BizLuv MEME to benefit both your company and any others you recommend. If you (or anyone else reading this) would like one-on-one assistance with these concepts use my contact form to send me an email and I will get back with you to set up a direct way to collaborate.
.-= Gail @ Social Media Marketing´s last blog ..MEME: BizLuv in Support of Small Businesses =-.
convert posts to pages and pages to posts… Where is this function?
.-= Jayce´s last blog ..How to install Garmin Mobile XT for Windows Mobile Phone? =-.
It is in one of the latest versions of WordPress. I have it in another blog I manage but not in this one. If someone would tell me how to display the current version I could pinpoint when it became available or you could just upgrade to the latest version.
That function is REALLY obvious so if you don’t see it you don’t have it.
.-= Gail @ Social Media Marketing´s last blog ..Better Twitter Retweets From Favorite Twitter Apps =-.
I’m using 2.9.1 and have no idea where it is.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Here We Go! Theme Construction Part 1 – Your Participation Is Wanted-Needed! =-.
I thought it was WordPress but maybe it could be something that Thesis added. The blog I access that has that option is currently at WordPress 2.8.6 running Thesis 1.5.1.
For others who may be interested, I found the version level of WordPress on the Dashboard and the version of Thesis by clicking on the link to Thesis on the Dashboard under At a Glance.
@Dennis Under posts click on edit and look for a Convert to Page column to the right of the date column. If I click on edit under pages I have a Convert to Post column to the right of the date field.
Can you look at see if you see this there? I can send you a screen capture if you want to see where mine is.
Oh mystery solved, yes, but just to answer you, the edit link is the first place I checked.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Here We Go! Theme Construction Part 1 – Your Participation Is Wanted-Needed! =-.
Mystery solved. The blog that has that function has a plugin called P2P Converter installed.
Drat! Oh well….any other uses for that plugin? While that one is cool, it’s not enough for me to install it.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Here We Go! Theme Construction Part 1 – Your Participation Is Wanted-Needed! =-.
Not that I know of and I don’t know why it was in that blog. I assume the owner asked for it. When I first started using WordPress and did not have a clear idea of the difference between posts and pages I could really have used that plugin.
For those who don’t know, by default (unless your WP has been customized), posts automatically appear as they are published while pages only appear where you put them either by creating a tab such as my home, about and contact tabs (near my blog name in the header) or in a page section in your sidebar (what WordPress calls columns).
I’m not sure what you mean, As far as I’ve always been able to tell, pages auto appear also..it’s the theme itself that tells them where to go; either in the header or sidebar…afterward you can change the placement with a little coding.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Here We Go! Theme Construction Part 1 – Your Participation Is Wanted-Needed! =-.
This is a good post, I learned something new to tinker wordpress with. It is a wonder why it is not on default, yes.
Hi Michelle,
This is one of the very first things sharp WordPress Web designers change so it would be nice if there were an easier way for ordinary humans to select that option. 🙂
When you leave comments here you can turn them into valuable backlinks to your business. Instead of putting Michelle | Poster Printing in the name field use Michelle @ Poster Printing.
By doing that the KeywordLuv plugin we have installed will link only the words Poster Printing and make your site easier to find when someone searches on that phrase at Google or any other search engine. (We recommend DuckDuckGo as the Best Search Engine.)
Be sure to check out all the great free strategies we have shared for growing your business. You might target the wedding industry and start a new trend of using posters to decorate the wedding reception. Retro is big right now and photos from the couples lives would be too.
.-= Gail @ Social Media Marketing´s last blog ..Wedding Boom Predicted for Next 22 Years =-.