Optimize Wordpress Permalinks For Better Indexing

By Garrett Blanton posted on Sunday, May 31, 2009 - (How To's)

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So you have deployed and setup your new WordPress blog, but you want it to be indexed by Google and the other search engines as soon as possible. For spiders to easily find the content on your website it is best to use permalinks that contain the title of your post while not containing any characters such as: &, %, #, etc.

Using the title of the blog post as the permalink is best because it contains keywords that are related to your article. If you are hosting your WordPress blog on an Apache server then you will also have to modify your .htaccess file. Just follow these instructions step by step and your blog will be indexed properly and fast!

To access your permalink settings first log into your WordPress dashboard. Next click on "Settings", then click "Permalinks".

There are four basic types of WordPress permalinks that can be found in the Permalink Settings located under the general settings tab. By default the "Ugly" way is selected, so urls will be displayed this way. "http://www.sistasizing.com/?p=123"

To change the permalink structure to only include the title of the post first select Custom Structure. Next enter /%postname%/ into the blank box to the right.

Now that you have made those changes your blog will correctly use the title in the url of your post. If you are hosting your WordPress blog on an Apache server running linux you will have to edit the .htaccess file. To get the permalinks to function properly I added the following code to the .htaccess file. Just copy and paste the following code into your .htaccess file to get it to work properly. Just be sure to change the url so it matches your blog url.

The end result will make your URL look pretty like this...

Tags:

Wordpress, Permalinks, SEO

Comments (10)

By Internet Marketing IQ posted on Wednesday, June 3, 2009 @ 11:58 AM

Something to consider. And that is people linking to your posts. If you don't add an extension to your permalink structure how many people linking into you will remember to include the trailing slash?

By Kelly Brown posted on Friday, June 12, 2009 @ 11:11 AM

The best information i have found exactly here. Keep going Thank you

By Boris @ Arizona SEO Services posted on Sunday, June 21, 2009 @ 3:50 PM

This seems so simple and straight forward but there are a whole bunch a people that miss this opportunity. Optimizing Permalink can make a difference.

FYI: I am time visitor but I will be returning. Thanks for the great work!

By Raju posted on Thursday, June 25, 2009 @ 9:00 PM

Previously, many people including Matt Cutts had recommended Month/date format. I follow the same. But what you are telling also makes sense.

By Web Design posted on Saturday, August 22, 2009 @ 3:33 AM

Great information for all thoses keen bloggers out there, well done!!! The permalink structure tip is very important. I have been able to create more optimized posts which lead to more targeted visitors. It's a win-win!

By Ken posted on Saturday, September 12, 2009 @ 4:33 PM

My problem is that without realizing the need to change the permalinks I started the blog up with the ugly default. Now I have a pile of posts and pages with numerical links - yuck. Will the .htaccess work for the old posts that I already have in place with numerical structures?

thanks.

By Beckie posted on Monday, November 2, 2009 @ 6:30 PM

So is it better to have a perma link with the date/category/post or should it just be category/post?

By SEO Service posted on Wednesday, May 12, 2010 @ 3:16 AM

There you go, I have experienced the benefits of a good permalink myself.This is an important topic that many arising bloggers dismiss, so thanks for bringing it up!