Permalink Structure Question

[MaggieB]

Right now I have my site's permalink structure set at /%category%/%postname%

If you change it to read just /%postname% will this screw up the existing posts or will it just apply to future posts and leave the already published posts alone? Do not want to mess with it if I am flirting with 404 errors.

Since I am very conscience of including my keyword phrase in my article titles I find that most times the category is redundant.

Thanks!
~MaggieB

[andyc]

I don't know the answer to your question Maggie, but I am interested in this topic as I thought that by having the category in the link structure would give a little seo boost. Does anyone know if it makes a difference? This may affect your decision to take out the category from the link.

[MaggieB]

Hi Andy,

I thought the same thing, but in my case, since I normally (99%) of the time have at least one of my main keyword phrases in my article title (post name)
I find that its normally redundant and makes for an (I think) unnecessarily long URL.

[dallas]

There is a WP plugin called redirection which helps deal with these issues.
http://yoast.com/articles/wordpress-seo/
This guy Yoast is awesome, lots of great SEO articles and a plugin too.
There are pros and cons about the two permalink structures you mention, they can be good for SEO but for larger sites they will be slower as WP is much quicker at finding permalinks with numbers as first permalink characters, thus date/postname or year/postname is faster.
Also, if you are targetting the keyword in the domain, category and post name the permalink will be unnecessarily keyword-stuffed.
Also, if your posts are in multiple categories WP will choose a default for the permalink which might not be the one you'd choose.
I've gone with date/postname and making sure I use my keyword in the title (there are plugins like Yoast SEO which will rewrite this for you to eg. Sitename-title or DefaultKeyword-title automatically) as my sites are pretty big and speed is an issue

[DeanRichards]

'Tis truly a wonder, this Wordpress thingy. It's smarter than teacher's pet.

Nowadays Wordpress handles changes in permalinks without even batting an eye. Test it and see (you can always change it right back again). Copy down one of your existing permalink urls and save it. Then change your Wordpress permalinks settings to whatever you want and save that and then try using that "old" permalink you saved. Wordpress should handle the redirect automatically.

[MaggieB]

Thanks Dean!
I thought WP could do that, but was afraid to try!
I always put my keyword phrase in the title so the category ends up redundant, just lengthening the url.

So I could eliminate the category part of the permalink and not worry?
I will test it first, like you suggest, but that sets my mind at ease... I was afraid of screwing all my posts up!
NO one likes to encounter a 404 after all!

Thanks a heap!
Guess what I'll be doing today?
~MaggieB

[MaggieB]

OOPS! Didn't work!

Did what you said Dean, I copied an older page with a really long url because it has a category AND subcategory...
then I actually copied the old permalink structure so I could put it back EXACTLY like it was,
then I changed it to read /%postname% in the Custom Structure box instead of /%category%/%postname%

When I pasted the old (long) url in it returns a BIG 404 error.
I put it back to /%category%/%postname% and it works perfectly.
Any thoughts?
~MaggieB

[MaggieB]

Dean,
Maybe your WP template is equipped with a redirect plugin?
I think one of my other sites (from 2009 30DC) has a plugin for changes?
I obviously would rather have long url's than wrong ones.
I did find a plugin that limits the number of characters in the url (title) to 30 characters
by automatically taking out garbage words, like the, and, etc. but I would still like to
get rid of the category part, I never dreamt when I set it like that that they would get so LONG!

Are you familiar with what Dallas suggested?
I haven't had time to investigate further.
~MaggieB

[MaggieB]

Okay, took the time to read the article that Dallas recommended, installed the Redirection plugin and followed the instructions:
To include the category, you change it to /%category%/%postname%/. (I want to eliminate the category... but figured it would work either way.)
Once you've done that, you'll want to install the Redirection plugin, and make sure that under Manage -> Redirection -> Options, making sure both URL Monitoring select boxes are set to "Modified posts". Now you can change those permalinks to perfectly SEO'd permalinks without having to do anything else, or worry about the search engine consequences.

I found one, not two (both) URL monitoring select boxes to set to "Modified posts" and check marked to monitor new posts.
Saved Changes and tried again.
Didn't work... just the same as before.
I just know when I figure it out its going to be simple, right now just simply frustrated... heh heh... oh well, such is life on a Saturday afternoon.
~MaggieB