Came across this post on Weblog Tool Collection about permalinks. I cannot tell you how many WordPress blogs I come across that do not have a well thought out permalink structure.
This is not only really bad Findability and SEO, but it is just plain confusing to the people that read your blog and subscribe to your RSS feeds. Why is this bad you ask? If there is not an easy to read structure, then search engines will get confused and not have a set of key words ( well a 2nd set after the ones in the content), and when some one searches for your post on Google Analytic they will have a harder time finding yours. Isn’t this what we are trying to avoid?
When it comes to your readers, on the site or RSS, then you want to make a structure that will allow them to see at a glance what the post name is about and the date it was posted.
As the article above says, please be careful to remember that if you change the permalink structure on your blog in WordPress it will change all the links that you have already published, and that could screw you up if you or someone else has linked to them. I am sorry to say that there is no way to not have this problem. So you can remember to do this from the time you set up your blog, or you can bite the bullet and just change for the better and forget the past.
There can be a little bit of getting your hands dirty with code on all of this, and as I have said before, if you do not think you can do this then do not. Please get someone that can (I am available to help on this, It is my job).
So let me know. Are you using a well thought out structure for your permalinks? Did you do it from the beginning or add it after, and if so, what problem ( if any ) did you have? Drop me a comment and let me know.
Thanks for reading!
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Actually, if you change your permalink structure you can 301(permanent redirect) the old addresses to the new ones using your htaccess file.
Thanks for that information Dave I never thought of using a 301 redirect to fix the permalink process.
You should be sure that you’re moving to your final choice before you 301, because if you redirect the same resource multiple times (A>>B>>C) it can cause crawling errors.
A excellent point. As with all Findability / SEO you need to take time and think you move out before you do it. If you do not bad things could happen at the worst at the best you will have to do it all over again.
[...] my post on Permalinks I made the following statement: As the article above says, please be careful to remember that if [...]