August
4th
Change Your Wordpress Permalink Structure
If your serious about S.E.O. and gaining higher rankings on the search engines, you need to change your ‘default’ Wordpress permalink structure into something that includes your keywords. Before we get started, lets find out what a permalink is:
- In simple terms, A permalink is the actual URL of an article or blog post. The previous post “Best Posts Of July” has a permalink of: http://bradblogging.com/asides/best-posts-of-july-2008/
- Wordpress comes pre-installed with a structure that has a permalink structure something like this: http://bradblogging.com/p=103 which is critically diminishing your blog’s S.E.O. factor.
How To Change Your Wordpress Permalink Structure:
Well, It’s actually really easy to do.
- Simply login to your Wordpress Administration area (wp-admin for short).
- Download “Dean’s Wordpress Permalink Migration” plugin and configure it.
- Go to “Settings” and look for the tab “Permalinks” and click it.
- You will now see something like this:
- You can now choose what to change your linking structure to. Personally, I think that having the Category Name / Post Name is ultimately the best combination, though some may disagree. The following tags are available to use:
- %year%
- The year of the post, four digits, for example 2004
- %monthnum%
- Month of the year, for example 05
- %day%
- Day of the month, for example 28
- %hour%
- Hour of the day, for example 15
- %minute%
- Minute of the hour, for example 43
- %second%
- Second of the minute, for example 33
- %postname%
- A sanitized version of the title of the post (post slug field on Edit Post/Page panel). So “This Is A Great Post!” becomes this-is-a-great-post in the URI (see Using only %postname%)
- %post_id%
- The unique ID # of the post, for example 423
- %category%
- A sanitized version of the category name (category slug field on New/Edit Category panel). Nested sub-categories appear as nested directories in the URI.
- %author%
- A sanitized version of the author name.
- When you think you have a combination that works for you, click on the Save Changes - *NOTE* - Please make sure you have access to your .htaccess file in order to make the changes. There is a text box below the save changes that will generate code for you to add to your .htaccess file in order for the new linking structure to work. You will have to manually add this to your file in order for any of the links on your blog to work. I would personally recommend the next option which is easier to do.
- Another way to save the changes is to simply make your .htaccess file writable (Mod: 666) so Wordpress can do it automatically. See Changing File Permissions for more help.
- Your Done! Enjoy better S.E.O. rankings and traffic as a result of the change.
Disclaimer: Brad Blogging is not responsible for, and expressly disclaims all liability for, damages of any kind arising out of use, reference to, or reliance on any information contained within the site. While the information contained within the site is periodically updated, no guarantee is given that the information provided on this website is correct, complete, and up-to-date.
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12:21 pm on August 5th, 2008
Hey Brad,That’s an excellent tip. One thing I heard as well is that the closer to the root your blog post, the higher Google will rank it. In this case, you would remove the %category% entry and leave just %postname%. Currently I use %category% as well, though I am considering dropping this (once I overhaul my whole blog). However, I do notice that my blog posts are showing up in Google. Not sure of how much an improvement dropping the category sub-folder will improve things, but I think it might be worth trying — and mentioning here.~Graham
Graham Strong’s last blog post..One Dime Is All It Cost: How to Keep Your Content Current (And Why You Should…)
12:32 pm on August 5th, 2008
Hey Graham,
I’ve never heard of that rumour ;). Sounds interesting though, I’ll Google it as I’m curious.
The only reason why I use category is so my permalinks have better S.E.O. records. EG - term “How To Change Your Permalink Structure”, I have a How-to/change-your.. so I thought that it would result in more visitors.
Thanks for the heads up though.
12:47 pm on August 5th, 2008
I use /%category%/%postname%/, can’t imagine why someone would think anything else would be better.
Peter Answers’s last blog post..Ask Jud Google Search
6:46 pm on August 6th, 2008
I appreciate you dropping a comment on my blog and pointing out that I put myself in front of you. Ha Ha. I hope the train keeps moving and I love your topics here. You have a great layout. Hit me up from time to time if u like funny t shirts at http://www.wizeguyztees.com/blogDutch Schultz
6:48 am on August 18th, 2008
Same as Peter, /%category%/%postname%/But I actually sometimes modify and customize the postname thing, while leaving the title slightly different. It is maybe bad, not sure. For example if my title is very long, I make the permalink shorter.
Nathalie’s last blog post..Mortgage defaults - Next wave!
8:54 am on October 9th, 2008
My vote also goes for /?tegory%/%postname%/ and it is just that at times you need modifications in it. After all who doesnt want their URLs to look pretty and clean? This post has really helped me quickly solve my permalink structure change. Thanks a ton buddy! Keep it up!
TechPuree’s last blog post..Google Android Phone G1 May Hit India in Dec-January
6:51 am on October 11th, 2008
Human readable urls are important. Both for SEO and for usability. Category/post_title is fine I prefer year/month/post_title but I can see why people would like category (especially those focused on SEO). One thing I find amazing is how many huge site (with huge web budgets - huge news sites…) that fail to follow basic usability and SEO guidelines to use human readable urls.
John Hunter’s last blog post..Financial Market Meltdown
1:22 am on October 18th, 2008
brad, I use free domain .co.cc and free hosting on 000webhost.com ,
I install wordpress … and deans permalink plugins .. I don’t understand there’s error message on my blog co.cc … for your information http://www.00webhost.com use virtual directory …
is there a conflict of plugins or I don’t know … maybe you can help me …
brandon’s last blog post..Ramalan Satrio piningit