Ask Carl: Permalinks, The Best and how to Redirect

Today, I’ll be launching a new feature of this blog. Thanks to Yvonne Russell of Grow Your Writing Business for suggesting it. She reviewed my blog 3 weeks ago on a different manner. It wasn’t that ordinary review that I get everyday, she gave some suggestions and criticisms. Believe it or not, I love hearing to those It’s just like a way of letting me know the things that you want me to improve.

But what I really like is her last suggestion about a new feature called “Ask Carl� where you can submit a question and I can answer it on a post. Even though I’m not that good and all, I’ll try my best to answer every question you ask me. We will be doing this post on a weekly basis about every Saturday (+8 Philippine time). I really loved the idea and for suggesting it, she gets the chance to ask the first question.

Here are her questions:

My current permalink format is “?p=193″. I know I should change this in the WP admin panel. I guess my question has 2 parts.

1. Which is the best format and why? - Just name or name/date or custom?
2. I was holding off as I read that the next WP upgrade promises a redirect on these. If I change now, will I lose all the links I have to these pages from outside sites? (because the URL link will be different)

Answer:

1. A blog’s permalink should also fit its purposes. Like for example, you have a personal blog. You wouldn’t mind if it’s SEO right? So a custom permalink or your current permalink (which is “?p=193″) would fit just right. But if you want your blog to be search engine optimized, a permalink with the post title in it should work the best.
2. No, you won’t. If you change all your permalinks now, the links will stay in your current permalink, which is “?p=193� (FYI your old permalink is still accessible even though you changed permalinks) In my opinion it will be considered as duplicate content so what you have to do is, redirect it, How? Don’t wait for the WP upgrade! There’s already a plugin for that! Check it out. I actually used that plugin when I first started this blog because I have the same permalink like yours before, hehehehe

So Yvonne, hope I answered your question. And oh yea, Thanks for suggesting this new feature again

So guyz (and gals) if you have a question, you can send it to me via e-mail, next week I’ll pick a lucky reader and he/she’s question will be answered in a post next week.

1 Comment →

Comment by Kyle

2007-10-08 13:23:19

Carl,

I’m just start a blog. Do you have any suggestions for me about how to make it more profitable? Thanks!

Reply to this comment