Wordpress question regarding URLs, permalinks etc.

by 4 replies
5
Have a question ... by default in wordpress it makes permalinks something of this nature

id105.php or something close to that (not looking up right now)

I changed mine to date so it reads

mydomain.com/2010/12/21/hot-deal-yada-yada/

I want to change mine now to %postname%

Will it overwrite all existing posts to that? Or will it make posts going forward that?

Additionally, if it does change stuff to that ... will my indexed links in google forward to the correct ones or will it prompt error page?

I have over 1600 posts on this one site so dont really just want to test it out without some good knowledge and advice.
#programming #permalinks #question #urls #wordpress
  • It will overwrite everything, and won't redirect. If you have indexed pages, they will all be 404 unless you write redirects for each. I'm not sure if there is are any plugins out there to get around this, but you should check it out.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • In some cases (depending on the permissions on your .htaccess file), WordPress will handle the re-directs for you.

    If it can't, it will generate some code that you'll need to copy and paste into your .htaccess file.

    Safer, though, would be for you to install the Redirection plugin first. Make sure it's set up correctly and it will then automatically generate 301 re-directs whenever a permalink changes.

    In general you don't want to be changing your permalinks too often.

    Cheers,

    Martin.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Thanks for the advice guys, yeah this would be the LAST time I change them. I changed them to the date format like immediately 2 years ago when starting this site ... I want the post name only cause it looks cleaner and some say it helps more with SEO ... I dont know if it would help much more, but I do like the cleaner look.
  • The help with SEO is massive when you have %postname%
    I would be carefull changing over so many blog posts.
    Maybe if you try out the suggestions on a small blog of no significance first.
Join the discussion

Next Topics on Trending Feed