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Why Are There Numbers In My WP Site URL's Now? Mysite.com/innerpage Is Now Mysite.com/528/innerpage

by magentawave
11 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
    • |
Can anyone please tell me why after installing Jeff Johnsons SEO Traffic Getting plugin that ALL my urls have numbers in them?

My urls were like this:
mysite.com/innerpage

Myy urls now look like this (numbers vary by page of course):
mysite.com/528/innerpage

See the numbers? None of my urls were like that before I installed that plugin and I think I would like to revert back to urls with no numbers.

Does anyone know the reason and advanatages for why those numbers are there? Can you tell me how I can remove those? I deactivated the seo traffic getting plugin and the numbers are still in the urls. Could it be that it changed something on my All In One SEO Pack settings page?

And just so you know:
- If you type mysite.com/innerpage into your browser, it will redirect to the url with the numbers like this mysite.com/528/innerpage

Any info will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks
Steve
#mysitecom or innerpage #numbers #site #url
  • Profile picture of the author AlexR
    It appears that the plugin has added another level into your directory.

    From
    yoursite.com>
    inner page

    To
    yoursite.com>
    new directory(528)>
    inner page

    This would tend to indicate that there has been a recoding of the links to your pages via the plugin.

    You'd need to have a look at the structure of the site to see what has actually happened. It could be a case of removing the offending directory and changing the link on your entry page (index.html/php or default.html/php) to get back to the original structure.

    Start from your entry page and see where the links lead. You may need to do a bit of editing, removing anything that refers to the plugin and pointing to the correct page.

    Alex
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    • Profile picture of the author magentawave
      Originally Posted by AlexR View Post

      It appears that the plugin has added another level into your directory.

      From
      yoursite.com>
      inner page

      To
      yoursite.com>
      new directory(528)>
      inner page

      This would tend to indicate that there has been a recoding of the links to your pages via the plugin.

      You'd need to have a look at the structure of the site to see what has actually happened. It could be a case of removing the offending directory and changing the link on your entry page (index.html/php or default.html/php) to get back to the original structure.

      Start from your entry page and see where the links lead. You may need to do a bit of editing, removing anything that refers to the plugin and pointing to the correct page.

      Alex
      Is an "entry page the same as my home page? Where would I find the information you are talking about? I'm not a techie type. Would it be on the settings page for All In One SEO Pack?

      Thanks
      Steve
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      • Profile picture of the author m4rx
        Most likely that's where it would be at.
        Im not sure how that plugin works, but you can also check Settings->Permanlinks, and checking the structure there.

        That may be why you have those numbers. If the numbers never change, then your best bet is in the Permanlinks section.

        I understand your not a techie, and if you want, I can run through the code and see what the problem is.


        Just PM me :]
        -m4rx
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        • Profile picture of the author magentawave
          Originally Posted by m4rx View Post

          Most likely that's where it would be at.
          Im not sure how that plugin works, but you can also check Settings->Permanlinks, and checking the structure there.

          That may be why you have those numbers. If the numbers never change, then your best bet is in the Permanlinks section.

          I understand your not a techie, and if you want, I can run through the code and see what the problem is.


          Just PM me :]
          -m4rx
          Thanks man. Hmmm, I haven't noticed if the numbers change each time a page loads?? Perhaps its the way that plugin created the Customs Structure on my Permalinks settings page? I don't remember now what it should say in the Customs Structure box for urls that have the title of my posts (dumb that I didn't keep one site without this plugin so I could refer to it later!)?

          Below are screen captures of my Permalinks settings page and my All In One SEO Pack settings page.


          Thank you
          Steve
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          • Profile picture of the author Headfirst
            Below are screen captures of my Permalinks settings page and my All In One SEO Pack settings page.

            Steve
            Yeah, read my post above. Based on the attached screenshot you need to remove that /%Post_id%/ from the custom structure and just have /%postname%/ there.
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            • Profile picture of the author magentawave
              Thanks! I reeeeeally appreciate your input! Your contributions are what makes this forum so awesome.

              I replaced the existing /%post_id%/%postname%/ with %postname%/ (which is what it was before but I couldn't remember) and that did the trick! That has been bothering me for a while and the developer of that plugin wouldn't reply back when I asked how to remove those.

              Does anyone know why you would want numbers in your urls like that?

              Thanks again.
              Steve
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              • Profile picture of the author Headfirst
                Originally Posted by magentawave View Post

                Does anyone know why you would want numbers in your urls like that?
                Steve
                Everything you do in wordpress is stored in a database table, including your posts. To visualize this, think about a big excel spreadsheet with columns labeled post_id, author, published_date, category, title, slug, post, and so on.

                Each post then fills one row. By default wordpress stores all of your posts by the row number of that spreadsheet, which is the post_id.

                In a raw wordpress install, the first post you wrote would be found at foobar.com/index.php?p=1 the 15th post you wrote could be found at foobar.com/index.php?p=15 and so on.

                The custom permalink that you had in place of /%post_id%/%postname%/ pulls both the row number and the title and then displays them as
                foobar.com/1/first-post/ and foobar.com/15/fifteenth-post/

                Now that you've made those changes you can go to foobar.com/first-post/ and wordpress will go the database table and lookup which row contains the text 'first-post' in the slug column and then pull in that entire row to build the post.

                The reasons someone would use the number or slug or both are varied. Blogs that use the default ?p=1 scheme are usually newer bloggers or completely non-commercial bloggers that are keeping a diary or journal. Sites using the /1/ post_id lookup and optimized for speed. It is much faster for wordpress to get post #1 then it is to go through all of your post titles and match the text 'first-post'.

                Using both is a hybrid compromise /1/first-post/ has the title text in the URL for the search engines, but also includes to post_id that allows wordpress to quickly lookup and present the post.

                I hope that helps you with it. WP Permalink structures can be a little difficult to wrap your head around at first.
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                • Profile picture of the author magentawave
                  Originally Posted by Headfirst View Post

                  The custom permalink that you had in place of /%post_id%/%postname%/ pulls both the row number and the title and then displays them as
                  foobar.com/1/first-post/ and foobar.com/15/fifteenth-post/

                  The reasons someone would use the number or slug or both are varied. Blogs that use the default ?p=1 scheme are usually newer bloggers or completely non-commercial bloggers that are keeping a diary or journal. Sites using the /1/ post_id lookup and optimized for speed. It is much faster for wordpress to get post #1 then it is to go through all of your post titles and match the text 'first-post'.

                  Using both is a hybrid compromise /1/first-post/ has the title text in the URL for the search engines, but also includes to post_id that allows wordpress to quickly lookup and present the post.
                  Are you saying that posts/pages will load faster with the numbers in the url's than posts/pages without the numbers?

                  Thank you!
                  Steve
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                  • Profile picture of the author Headfirst
                    Originally Posted by magentawave View Post

                    Are you saying that posts/pages will load faster with the numbers in the url's than posts/pages without the numbers?
                    On a large blog yes.

                    Think about it. Is it faster for you to turn to page 58 in a book or look up a word in the dictionary?

                    Computers are fast, but pattern matching is still resource intensive. It all depends on how many posts you have, how many users are visiting the site and the speed of the underlying system.

                    Will it damage your SEO efforts to ahave /124/post-number-124/ as your title instead of just /post-number-124/? I don't know. I'm no longer the SEO expert I once was. That world just moves too fast. I don't see how that could damage your SEO, other than the fact that your previously indexed /%postname%/ titled permalinks won/t properly resolve, but that can be fixed.
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                    • Profile picture of the author magentawave
                      Originally Posted by Headfirst View Post

                      On a large blog yes.

                      Think about it. Is it faster for you to turn to page 58 in a book or look up a word in the dictionary?

                      Computers are fast, but pattern matching is still resource intensive. It all depends on how many posts you have, how many users are visiting the site and the speed of the underlying system.

                      Will it damage your SEO efforts to ahave /124/post-number-124/ as your title instead of just /post-number-124/? I don't know. I'm no longer the SEO expert I once was. That world just moves too fast. I don't see how that could damage your SEO, other than the fact that your previously indexed /%postname%/ titled permalinks won/t properly resolve, but that can be fixed.
                      Since mysite.com/548/innerpage will always go to the url without numbers like this mysite.com/innerpage is there any disadvantage in having the numbers in the urls? If not, then I think I will keep the numbers in there.

                      Thanks
                      Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author Headfirst
    Check your SETTINGS -> PERMALINKS page in the admin console.

    Based on what you have written above you should have the CUSTOM STRUCTURE radio button checked and it should say /%postname%/ in the box next to it. If it says anything else, change it so that it matches what I have above and it should solve your problems.
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