How To Create Your Permalink Structure More User And SEO-friendly
Okay, this time it will be just a small tip, I see many people do not know about. I must say this tip is for WordPress blog users, I don’t know what kind of system is in other blogs.
So what am I talking about??
Every WordPress blog user should use and customize their permalink structure. What permalink means and stand for? Permalinks are the permanent URLs to Your individual blog posts, categories, archives and others. It is URL that follows after Your web site address for example I use (example.com as web site front page address) - example.com/follows-permalink-address. You see?
Advertismets
This is default address to blog posts after installing WordPress blog - http://example.com/?p=123, WordPress calls this “Ugly” link and I cannot agree more 
Whole reason I write this short article, because I see so many blogs using this default ugly link. Why people call this about ugly link? Actually it’s because this link is very unfriendly to the search engines - one of the most important criteria to the search engine spider is file name - do not to waste this SEO friendly factor. You see permalink address like ?p=123 do not say anything about Your post. Okay, now maybe You agree, You should use SEO friendly permalink so I will go ahead and answer to the next question - How to implement it?
Ugly permalink - http://example.com/?p=123
Pretty permalink - http://example.com/category/post-name/ or http://example.com/year/month/day/post-name
You can change permalink settings in Your admin panel Settings–>Permalinks. If Your settings are default I suggest and recommend to change it to - /%category%/%postname%/
Do this in every blog when You are starting out. Now Your address to post will be http://www.example/com/category/post-title - much better indeed?
Huh, but what You can do if You’re using default settings and have many posts already?
You have all these links in search engines, trackbacks, pingbacks and social bookmarking sites - permalink change would seriously crash and broke all links out there. If You are in this situation there is actually one thing to do, I’ll explain things later.
Take these steps then in following order:
1. Download and install Permalink Migration plugin
2. Unzip it, drop it in wp-content/plugins folder and activate it;
3. Now go to admin panel->options->PermalinksMigration
4. And then set the old, default permalink structure of your site in the form.
5. Now go to Your admin panel Settings–>Permalinks. Now change it to - /%category%/%postname%/
Permalink Migration plugin - “With this plugin, you can safely change your permalink structure without breaking the old links to your web site,and even doesn’t affect your search engine rankings.” It’s called 301 Redirect, also known as a permanent redirect. For alternative You can also check out this Redirection plugin with more options.
Now instead of hitting 404 error page, user will be automatically redirected to Your new structure URL in moments and search engine spiders also will find new links faster and change it! Nice one! Also You can use redirection plugin if You are migrating pages from other web site, or are changing the directory of your WordPress installation. I hope this will help - now You have much more SEO-friendly permalink structure!
If You have any tips, questions, feel free to ask, also consider to visit WordPress Codex - Using Permalinks, You’ll find more options how to change Your permalinks using different tags like - %year%, %monthnum%, %day%, %hour%, %minute%, %second% and much more detailed explanation.
T10
valery
Аркадий
replicabestwatches
tip
intatuixtup
david
azwinner
projectautomatika
No kidding! I literally just changed from date based permalinks to /category/postname/ structure this morning. With the Permalink Redirect and Permalink Migration plugin, it went off without a hitch!
My problem was I changed a few postname title url’s too which I needed to use the Redirection plugin to fix.
Great info here - I know a few people thinking of changing their permalink structure… I’ll be passing this link onto them!
Selene M. Bowlbys last blog post : Guest Post on Freelance Folder - 10 SEO Techniques All Top Web Sites Should Use
@Selene oh, You really cheered me up - this is one coincidence, and I am happy this article helped to You! I’ll be thankful if You pass this link further! Thanks for good words!
Criterions?
Brians last blog post : Gaming the tubes
@Brian oh, thanks - corrected spelling
my bad.
Nice article! I am thinking about doing exactly what Selene did, using categories/postname. Right now I have simply /postname..
This will come in handy when I get round to doing this! Thanks Dainis!
Brian Yerkess last blog post : Bayfront Bistro Logo Design Signage
Had no idea about this, well found and thanks for sharing!
Rickss last blog post : Man Eater
Hum. I built my own blogging engine and must admit that I defaulted to the /?b=xxx url scheme. Mainly because it’s simple to implement. I see a lot of the url schemes you’re advocating here and agree that they are prettier. But I’m just not convinced that it’s going to make a difference for SEO. You’re just saying it’s better. I’d like to understand why.
That said - I’m going to go into the code tonight and add in the prettier scheme - and do the redirecting as you suggested. Thanks for the nudge!
Chris Ritkes last blog post : Where’s the Gantt Chart?
Really nice article! For anyone considering using category/postname who also has a tendency to assign posts multiple categories, make sure you put something in place to counter wordpress’ tendency to create multiple addresses for the same post. I started out using category/postname and quickly switched to postname only.
Angie Bowens last blog post : The Twittering! A Closer Look at the Social Media Giant
I was aware of this tip already, but I know that a lot of people aren’t. It’s well worth doing.
Tom Rosss last blog post : Daily Image Inspiration #9
Thanks for great post. It’s very useful !
Danh ba web 2.0s last blog post : Top những mạng Social Media hàng đầu hiện nay
@Brian oh, do so, maybe it’ll help
@Ricks that’s great, if ou have any problems, just ask
@Chris if You don’t believe me just read Wordpress Codex link and search for SEO.
@Angie thanks for the tip!
@Tom yeah, I do it to hopefully help those people, who don’t know this tip..:)
The permalink migration plugin is what I should have installed over on my other blog prior to the change in the permalink structure! But that was a way good find which other WP users will find very useful!
Daniel Richards last blog post : 10 Things: Absolute Coolness That You Can Believe In To Make Your Blog Super Awesome!
Good one.
With permalinks, I use my category structure to always have good keywords in the URL. If you create subcategories, Wordpress converts them to URL directories, as in http://www.ronitbaras.com/index.php/2008/11/focus-on-the-family/parenting-family/teen-mocktail-party/, where you can see the hierarchy of categories and get a SEO bonus.
Gal
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Thanks! This is exactly what I needed. I knew there were some wordpress plugins to help with a permalink transition, but I really needed to find a good one and get psyched up to do a big change. My site’s still somewhat young, but not young enough to make bold changes without some thought and research!
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[...] Wie Sie eine Suchmaschinen freundliche Permalink Struktur erstellen. Jeder Wordpress Blogger sollte seine Linkstruktur anpassen. Permalinks sind die Links ihres Blogs [...]