Jun 11
24
Permalink
Setting up a custom permalink for a blog can be confusion because of the many choices you have and experts have an opinion about which custom link setup works best.
I like to setup permalinks using only /%postname%/ in the custom setup section for the purpose of getting a link that meets SEO standards. Experts believe this custom setup causes performance issues in WordPress.
Although this may be true, be cautious when making changes to permalinks. I took the advice of an expert and altered my custom setup and my website back links stopped working for about 12 hours.
If you 
are not familiar with PHP coding language you could disconnect the back links to your website and lose your page rank.
Thankfully, I caught the error and change my link structure back to its original setting. Unfortunately, my Alexa page rank was wiped clean.
There are plug-ins you can use to make a permalink transition with 301 re-direct but if you don’t know how to get a plug-in to give you the result you want, don’t try it.
If your website has already been setup using the /%postname%/ or whatever method you choose, leave it and set your next website up the way experts say. Don’t take a chance on disconnecting your hard earned page rank.
Once I put my custom permalink back to /%postname%/ the links on my site were restored. I’m still not sure if I fully lost my page rank while experimenting.
Whenever you set up any website, it should always be done with search engines in mind. Search engine robots evaluate permalinks in a blog to determine how to index the web pages based on the structure of the permalink. Each permanent becomes the permanent link for that web page.
With that in mind, WordPress gives you five options when choosing permanents links listed below.
Common settings
Default
http://createawebsiteplan.com/?p=123
This permalink structure doesn’t give you much of a chance in search engines because of the numbers at the end of the link structure. Cross this structure off the list unless you absolutely love it and don’t care about getting your pages indexed better because of the related at the end of each post.
Day and name
http://createawebsiteplan.com/2011/06/22/sample-post/
Day and name are not so impressive either due the year, Month and day of the month structure with the post sample at the end. Sample post is competing with the time of the year. You want the search engine to really see your keywords so your web page will be found based on people searching.
Month and name
http://createawebsiteplan.com/2011/06/sample-post/
Month and name sounds better than the other two listed above but still not the best structure to get the best search engine results. Remember, you want to get the best chance possible to get your website noticed and visited by as many people as possible.
People always type in specific keywords when searching for anything on the internet. Finding out what they truly search for can be found by using the Google Keyword research tool.
Numeric
http://createawebsiteplan.com/archives/123
Numeric is the next choice but is also competing with a structure that has a good keyword in it. This can also be antithetical to having your website pages found by surfers.
It’s your goal to always give your website the best change be found in a search.
Custom Structure
Last but not least, there is the custom structure; the best choice of them all in my opinion. By using the custom structure you get to make your link structure be perfect for search engines visitors to your web page can understand what the page is about quicker with glance of the words
This page is titled Permalink so the structure of the web page will look like this: http://createawebsiteplan.com/permalink
The structure of the link is perfect visually and ready to make the search engines happy.
The text code to use to get this permalink structure is: /%postname%/ which should be added in the custom section.
Optional
Leave this section alone. You don’t have to any further than setting the custom structures post name.
The last step is to make sure you update the changes you made. If you fail to update the page, your page will be give default settings.
The conclusion is to always do whatever it takes to give your website or blog the best chance of getting noticed by visitors and search engines. Good permalink structure is crucial to properly find favor with search engines and help your visitors remember your permanent links
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