What's a permalink structure...?

[Michelle Carvill]

Hi there
A canadian chap I follow on Twitter must have had a look at my blog http://www.carvillonmarketing.com and sent me an email stating the following:

BTW a different permalink structure like /%postname%/ for your blog might be better for SEO.

Now then, I'm a marketer - not a web coder - and whilst i understand the merits of SEO haven't got a clue how to change stuff. But open to learning... so can anyone offer any advice...?
Many thanks
Michelle

 

[fisicx]

He's talking twaddle. Whilst the domain name may have a small effect on your ranking the URL doesn't. There may be a small clickthrough advantage to using your post name in the URL but this only really matters for organic searches.

 

[clickthrough_seo]

Actually, I'm not sure I agree on this reply.

Keywords in your URL _does_ have an effect. In fact, two effects.

The first is that if your URL and page title and the header of your blog posts all include your keywords, the search engines will include these in their algorithms. Matt Cutts recently posted a video on precisely this topic. I am not yet allowed to post URLs but if you google "cutts keywords URL" you will see a searchengineland link that will lead you to the video and commentary.

As you can see from that link, having keywords in the URL is a done thing by some of the top guys in the search engine industry! It also clearly illustrates another reason why it is a good idea. From a user point of view, you know exactly what that link is leading to. There's no guesswork involved at all, so if you take away the SEO aspect and focus on your site visitors, they will know immediately what your blog post is about when they see a link to it.

Your blog has p=xyz as the URL for each post. Once this is bookmarked on a user's computer (or on a social bookmark site), it will not be clear when returning to it what that article was about nor does it include any hint! Nor does it figure under any keywords in the search engines. Actually, your post number 539 is a prime example. You are actually talking about search terms of 8 words or more being on the increase but then there isn't a single keyword in your URL to lead people to an interesting post on the subject!!

Permalinks however are a totally different thing from keyword optimisation in URLs. A permalink for each blog post ensures that as the post drops off the first page of your blog (into your archive for instance), it does not suffer from link rot. What this means is that whilst on the front page of your blog, the search engines may well index that article/post, and the link to it may well be that of your first page. However, as the article moves, if it does not have its own URL, the link to the article becomes outdated as actually the article has moved. Therefore, anyone who follows the link to your article from when it was on the first page will find it is not there.

With no indication how long ago it may have been indexed, most users will not bother trawling through your archive on the offchance they may find it. If you have no search facility and/or have not tagged the article with keywords that your users may search upon to find it (hence why tag clouds are such a good idea to help them know what tags you are using), the likelihood is that the visitor will just click and find someone else's blog post to read.

HTH

 

[F1SEO]

Hi Michelle,

Your blog is currently running the old id number system, which is great for compatibility but not so nice for SEO.

Whether or not it's advantageous can be argued forever. I tend to lean towards that it is advantageous. Any advantages you can get, no matter how small, can make a difference.

What you need to do is make sure you are on a Linux server, enable write permissions on your .htaccess file, then in the back of WordPress, under Setttings there's something called Permalinks. Set it to a custom structure and paste the guy's bit of code in. Then save changes. Don't forget to change the .htaccess back down to read only (for security reasons)

If your hosting is windows then I'm afraid it'd not easily possible. So check before you commit to making changes at this level.

Any probs and post back and I will try to help.

 

[fisicx]

I stand corrected. You are of course correct. I would say however that Google also states that there is no significant advantage (although the comment was made in respect of dynamic v static URLs:

While static URLs might have a slight advantage in terms of clickthrough rates because users can easily read the urls, the decision to use database-driven websites does not imply a significant disadvantage in terms of indexing and ranking.

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/09/dynamic-urls-vs-static-urls.html

In other words you can use keywords in your URL but don't expect to see much change in your ranking.

 

[JustOneUK]

Some 'wordpressy' permalink stuff here

James.

 

[Michelle Carvill]

Some 'wordpressy' permalink stuff here

James.

James - life saver - great article - very useful. I managed to do it! thanks

 

[Michelle Carvill]

Hi Michelle,

Your blog is currently running the old id number system, which is great for compatibility but not so nice for SEO.

Whether or not it's advantageous can be argued forever. I tend to lean towards that it is advantageous. Any advantages you can get, no matter how small, can make a difference.

What you need to do is make sure you are on a Linux server, enable write permissions on your .htaccess file, then in the back of WordPress, under Setttings there's something called Permalinks. Set it to a custom structure and paste the guy's bit of code in. Then save changes. Don't forget to change the .htaccess back down to read only (for security reasons)

If your hosting is windows then I'm afraid it'd not easily possible. So check before you commit to making changes at this level.

Any probs and post back and I will try to help.

Thank you - I managed to do it. Great stuff. I now have pretty urls for the posts - and regardless of seo, they look better.

 

[JustOneUK]

No problem.

You have one url of note that looks a bit pear-shaped

carvillonmarketing.com/marketing/usability-testing-%e2%80%93-no-lab-just-good-old-fashioned-eyes-and-ears/ :|

The others look great.

 

[Michelle Carvill]

No problem.

You have one url of note that looks a bit pear-shaped

carvillonmarketing.com/marketing/usability-testing-%e2%80%93-no-lab-just-good-old-fashioned-eyes-and-ears/ :|

The others look great.

Hmm weird - if you browse in Chrome it's fine. With IE it's a mess? I'm not a coder so don't want to mess - so will live with it for now. I suspect it's something to do with , or - I've inserted...