WordPress by default is 60-70% Search Engine Optimized blogging platform and the rest should be customized to make it complete SEO friendly. Permalinks were the first most things which should be customized and also it is the most essential and very important thing to make the blog SEO friendly. Customizing permalinks helps in driving good organic traffic to the blog and the plugins like All in SEO or themes like Thesis helps in making things much better.
What is Permalink?
Permalink is nothing but the URL of the website page. The default URL structure for wordpress blog is “http://www.techcats.net/p=102” and if you check the URL of my blog it will be like “http://www.techcats.net/name-of-the-post.html”. A custom permalink structure lets you define which variables you want to see in your permalinks.
Here are the default custom structures you can choose from:
%year% displays 4-digit year (e.g. 2009)
%monthnum% displays month in 2 digit number format (e.g. 03 for March)
%day% displays day in 2 digit number format (e.g. 17)
%hour% displays 2 digit time in 24 hour (e.g. 18 for 6 p.m.)
%minute% displays minutes in 2 digit format (e.g. 07 for 7 minutes)
%second% displays seconds in 2 digit format (e.g. 08 for 8 seconds)
%postname% displays the name of the post separated by hyphens (e.g. for a post with title “this is my first post” it displays “this-is-my-first-post”)
%category% It displays the name of the category (e.g. for a post under category “permalink” it displays “permalink”)
%author% It displays the name of the post author (e.g. for a posted by me (Rajesh Kanuri) it displays like “rajesh-kanuri”)
For example if you want your permalink to show the category, and post name, you have to select the Custom Structure in the Customize Permalink Structure page and type the following tags in the text box and save the changes.
/%category%/%postname%/
Then a post named “How to install Google Chrome OS” Under the category Google, will display like this: “http://www.techcats.net/google/how-to-install-google-chrome-os/”
Note: Make sure that you include the slashes before, between and at the end of the tags,to ensure that wordpress creates correct and working permalinks.
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Happy New Year! Best wish for you and your family!
I’m from VietNam. Your blog very interesting!!Glad to make friend with Rajesh!
Wish u the same..
Well explained bro! Couple of days back I too shared the same.
Ankit´s last blog ..It’s time to move on: We’ll be back soon!
We can also change the url structure in free wordpress ….That’s a good thing in free wordpress.
Thanks
TC
yeah that is the good option which blogger doesn’t have..
As obvious as this might seem, I’m sure there are many out there who misses out on this area due to sheer carelessness. Great post to remind them about it.
TechChunks´s last blog ..Best “Technology” posts in Year 2009
Thanks for your appreciation …
I usually use month and year to avoid url duplication problem. I write monthly roundup post with same title. It might create some pblm if i use structure given by you. I hope it helps.
I have excluded the date and month in the URL where i will get a chance of editing the posts and update the old posts to make them upto date..
You are right, custom permalink will help you makr your URL more friendly with Google and many other SE. But I found out the way that many other big site are applying like Mashable is to shorten permalink and keep only main keywords that can boost our SEO. What do you think man?
Tinh´s last blog ..One Theme V2.0 Giveaway Contest Ended With Great Success!
even this is a great way and I saw many blogs which were using similar strategy..
You have written it in a good way explaining the purpose of each and every tag.
To avoid keyword stuffing, blogger.com has set 34 character limit. They should improve the search engine and increase the limit.
IMO Blogger is better for personal kind of blogs.. i suggest one and all to have a wordpress blog if they are serious abt blogging..