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NOTE: Although we use and have been recommending the obviously best for HUMANS URL format, be aware that Waqas (who shared no URL or Twitter accounts so I can’t link to him or her) pointed us to this:
WordPress recommends AGAINST
clean permanlinks saying:
Starting Permalinks with %postname%
is strongly not recommended
for performance reasons.For further information see the discussion in the comments of this post
and also this post and their answers in the comments at WpBeginner.
For reasons I don’t completely understand, the obvious best Permalink URL format is not a default in WordPress. Many blogs have dates in the URLs or other extraneous words that make your URLs too long and hard to remember.
A clean URL should have only your domain (and possibly /blog or a subdomain) and then a SHORTENED post name which ideally would be your target keyword phrase.
You can easily change a setting in WordPress so that you your future posts will automatically have cleaner URLs.
WARNING: Changing this setting is retroactive and will change the permalinks to all existing posts. We recommend you first install Platinum SEO and then make the change because that plugin will automatically redirect all your existing links. That alone makes it a great plugin to use as the default WordPress behavior that changes your permalink if you change your post title can introduce permanlink changes you may not have intended.
How to change the WordPress Permalink default:
- Log into your WordPress blog.
- At the very bottom of the left column find Settings and click on it.
- Click on Permalinks (under settings).
- Select the radio button for Custom Structure and paste /%postname%/ into the box.
- Click save changes.
Look for Permalink (just under your post title) when you write or edit posts or pages. WordPress will now automatically name your post YourDomain/the-name-of-the-post.
IMPORTANT: Click on Edit and shorten that name to your preferred page name, ideally your target keyword phrase and save it. You will end up with a post URL that looks like this: http://YourDomain.com/Your-Keyword-Phrase.
If you decide to change the title of the post WordPress will change your saved permalink and you will have to edit and save it again. Perhaps WordPress will give us an option to disable that behavior in the future (or maybe it already exists and someone will share it with me.
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WordPress does make changes all the time. Have you noticed that (starting with version 2.9?) you can now convert posts to pages and pages to posts? That is a great idea I wish was available when I was first learning to use WordPress.
It is also why I am publishing this now. When you do a conversion you may have to know how to make this change if you want to be able to edit the names of your posts when converting them from pages.
OPTIMIZING PAGE URLS:
- NiceBlogger SEO Blog (NiceBlogger) Optimizing URLS: Top 5 Problems and Base Techniques
- EMarketing Matador Local SEO Information (eMatador): Local SEO For Local Niche and Small Businesses
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Nothing worse than trying to make a change to improve your site’s usability only to serve up “Page not found” notices to everyone finding you by search, bookmark, or an existing link. Love Wordpress plugins like this that make it easy to build your site the right way.
Permalinks makes a blog easily get absorbed by the search engines as well as making a URL neat. Thank you for sharing this.
Twitter: techiesonik
October 5, 2011 at 7:09 pm
Twitter: @techiesonik
I remember those times when I first set up a blogsite in WordPress. It took me whole day to figure out how to come up with a very good and clean URLs in my pages and posts. It is very late that I realized I can search for it or even watch it in youtube for there are lots of tutorial in there as well as in Google – just like this posts.
Yeah, it was one of the first things I did when I installed wp.
It’s stupid that it’s not on this standard. But what is even more stupid that it’s not even in the list of defaults.
If you don’t know anything about these kind of things then you wont figure this out unless you happen to read a post like this.
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Well this option is not enabled because wordpress doesn’t support this approach. coz it slows down the retrieval of posts from database. On wordpress’s site it says such URL structure is strongly not recommended for performance reasons.
http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Permalinks#Structure_Tags
but no doubt it looks a lot cleaner
Getting a little more each blog. I’m following Wordpress info and taking into account what the materials have to offer. Just started a Twitter account along with a start up company that shows promise for traffic. Thanks, I ‘ll keep checking in.
I had a smilar problem with my permalinks when i firsted set up my wordpress site. it was driving me crazy…So I fixed it and now all my urls look cleaner…
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I’m not sure why people recommend using /%post_id%/%postname%. I like the cleaner look of just %postname% better the way you use it. I’d assume since it is closer to the root directory that it would also be better for SEO.
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This is my first time on this blog. But I don’t agree with anything you have written int his post.
If you have read the wordpress guidelines…they strongly oppose starting permalink with “%post%”. It not only increases your blog’s response time but as well as can effect wp-admin functions.
I myself had the same permalink structure as your site has with 800+ posts. Now my new permalink structure is “example.com/year/postname”.
Twitter: GrowMap
August 1, 2011 at 9:49 am
Twitter: @GrowMap
Hi Waqas,
The %post% does not appear in the URL. That is a placeholder that tells the blog to use the name you choose in the URL. For example, in this post that is ‘wordpress-permalinks’.
There are some who believe leaving the number in the post will speed up retrieval but others feel that having a clean URL with a name you select is best for SEO.
Your permalink structure is almost the same as mine except that you added the year. How do you feel that would make what you’re doing better?
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Thanks for your reply and explaining it to me.
I get your point and I was doing the same thing too. But then I came across this : http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Permalinks#Structure_Tags
It’s mentioned there : “Starting Permalinks with %postname% is strongly not recommended for performance reasons.”
you can further click on the link provided there to see how it effects the performance and can create problem under some cases. I will assume this is also the reason, blogs like mashable, techchurch also put date infront of “%post%”.
I have done a bit of research on it. I also have blog setup just like yours and it has more than 700 posts, so , for some while when I apply those changes. I’m gonna lose page rank but it will come back.
Waqas Lone would love you to read ..Western Australia Construction Activity Pushing Forward
Thanks for sharing these information regarding having a clean permalink. Now, I have an idea on how to build up such clean permalink so that users will remember it easily. Cool thing!
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I have been getting varied ideas, some sources say yes big effects, others say no effects, and some say yes but very small effects.
[Sorry, Nathan. You know why we can't leave that link, right?]
Does the length of the permalinks in your blog affect have any SEO effect on your blog’s SERP ranking? I have been getting varied ideas, some sources say yes big effects, others say no effects, and some say yes but very small effects. Anyone here have any input?
Twitter: GrowMap
March 1, 2011 at 12:22 am
Twitter: @GrowMap
Having your keywords in the URL helps with SEO; having extraneous stuff like dates and unrelated words, directories, etc. detracts. That is probably why you’re seeing different recommendations.
I prefer to target a 2-3 word phrase most of the time so that is what I use in my post URLs. Sometimes I use complete sentences but not often. I dislike URLs with extra junk in them which is the default for WP.
See my posts about using keywords and the building traffic post I’ll put in CommentLuv in this reply for more details.
I asked Ron Cripps – a close collaborator who is a really sharp growmap would love you to read ..Building Traffic Using Anchor Text
I am trying to make a blog using wordpress but I find it harder. That is why I keep on studying about wordpress. Because some of my friends told me that wordpress is good. Well, I want to try first if it is true.
Twitter: GrowMap
March 1, 2011 at 12:28 am
Twitter: @GrowMap
Hello,
WordPress IS good but it can be very complicated. It is best to get a mentor or collaborate with bloggers who have it figured out.
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Ugly permalinks are one of the main problems a lot of sites have with ranking well in Google and it’s amazing how many web designers out there don’t understand this. This is a great first step towards optimizing your blog or website for search engines.
Twitter: GrowMap
August 1, 2011 at 9:51 am
Twitter: @GrowMap
Hi Tony,
Have you considered a Twitter account? If you had one I could share your site with my almost 21,000 Twitter followers and recommend you from my Twitter accounts for @DallasMetro and @KaufmanTX.
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Great tip on installing platinum SEO before making the permalink switch. Nothing worse than trying to make a change to improve your site’s usability only to serve up “Page not found” notices to everyone finding you by search, bookmark, or an existing link. Love Wordpress plugins like this that make it easy to build your site the right way.
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Twitter: Great ideas
December 9, 2010 at 5:39 am
Twitter: @Great ideas
WordPress Page is fixed and it stays where you put it. It is usually available in a single click. I would like to thank you for giving great ideas about WordPress Permalink default.
Twitter: meeaou
November 13, 2010 at 2:40 am
Twitter: @meeaou
A WordPress Page is static. It stays where you put it, it is usually made accessible by a simple link on the home page, and it is not archived or categorized like a post.
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Does the length of the permalinks in your blog affect have any SEO effect on your blog’s SERP ranking? I have been getting varied ideas, some sources say yes big effects, others say no effects, and some say yes but very small effects. Anyone here have any input?
your site is really helpful, for people like me, who are looking for this kind of stuff thanks a lot.
I used wordpress but was finding difficulties of such type. Well thanks a lot for
sharing this imformation it will surely help me
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