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Permalinks in Wordpress

by zzman
17 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I have a client with a wordpress site, but they did not optimize their permalinks. Now I was wondering, if I go change their permalink structure in the settings what happens to their old posts?

thanks
#permalinks #wordpress
  • Profile picture of the author Taruru
    well, why not back it up before changing the settings? that way, if you do lose any info, at least you could still recover it..
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  • Profile picture of the author Christian Little
    I don't remember the name of the plugin, but there use to be one that was built for this purpose. It would change all the permalinks, and then create permanent redirects for the search engines.

    Otherwise you have to do it manually, which can be a real nightmare if you have a lot of posts.
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  • Profile picture of the author Bradley J Anderson
    Yeah. I tried changing my permalinks 'after the fact' once, and it was a nightmare. 404's galore. lol. Haven't tried the plug-in, though.
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  • Profile picture of the author Christian Little
    Here's one plugin that claims to do it, but I haven't tested it and it was posted in 2009, so it may not work with WP 3.1: Permalinks Migration: Easily change Permalinks of wordpress blog
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  • Profile picture of the author jayshankard
    Earlier permalinks will remain as they were, new posts will be created with the new permalink structure.
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    • Profile picture of the author Jason Clay
      Use something like BackupBuddy first, then a full web host backup too. Then try to switch to a better permalink structure.
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    • Profile picture of the author Istvan Horvath
      Originally Posted by jayshankard View Post

      Earlier permalinks will remain as they were, new posts will be created with the new permalink structure.
      Nonsense...

      When you change it - it affects all the posts, Pages, category and archive pages... everything.

      Note. If by "not optimizing" the OP meant they used the default - then there is no problem. The default "ugly" permalinks ALWAYS work, no matter what is your setting!

      Changing from one custom to another custom type... it is supposed to be taken care of in the newer WP versions - although I am a bit skeptical. Check it and if they don't work - use a redirect/permalink plugin.

      Also, don't forget about the canonical permalinks.
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  • Profile picture of the author CheapTrafficDude
    Nah, nothing will change exept the way SE's and people read your links. Usually you have to manually change them. You can change those permalinks any time you want so instead of a link looking like this http://yoursite.com/p?=345 it would like like http://yoursite.com/my-post-about-whatever. To do this, just click on permalinks, click on custom structure and type in /%postname%/ I do mention a trailing slash, for some reason it makes loading faster although I fail to understand that... A wiseman once told me to do that and it worked

    In the case of permalinks, search engines read them like a human does. Many go and do something like this: http://www.keyword.com/keywordagain and yes, it does work
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    • Profile picture of the author raycowie
      Originally Posted by CheapTrafficDude View Post

      Nah, nothing will change exept the way SE's and people read your links. Usually you have to manually change them. You can change those permalinks any time you want so instead of a link looking like this http://yoursite.com/p?=345 it would like like http://yoursite.com/my-post-about-whatever. To do this, just click on permalinks, click on custom structure and type in /%postname%/ I do mention a trailing slash, for some reason it makes loading faster although I fail to understand that... A wiseman once told me to do that and it worked

      In the case of permalinks, search engines read them like a human does. Many go and do something like this: http://www.keyword.com/keywordagain and yes, it does work
      This is good advice that I implement with every blog I set up. Nice one...
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  • Profile picture of the author jazbo
    The old posts will be there with the new structure. You should 301 redirect the old URLs to the new. There are plugins that can do this automatically.
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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    Originally Posted by zzman View Post

    I have a client with a wordpress site, but they did not optimize their permalinks. Now I was wondering, if I go change their permalink structure in the settings what happens to their old posts?

    thanks
    I use the plugin called Dean's Permalink Migration. Does the trick to redirect old urls to the new permalink
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    • Profile picture of the author CatherineMay
      I've just this morning had to install a plug-in for redirecting my permalinks.

      What I don't know is how long it will take search engines to find the new permalinks. Do I just keep watch to see what URLs are showing in the results?

      And when I see the new URLs in the results, then deactivate the plug-in?

      I know these are simple questions, but I've been surprised more than once at how something to do with websites is a lot more complicated than I originally thought.
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  • Profile picture of the author Christian Little
    It could take days or weeks depending on a number of factors such as how old your site is, how many links you have, how much authority your site has, etc. A few weeks is probably a safe bet, and most plugins that let you change permalink structures will setup 301 redirects to point to the new location, so you should be fine.
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    • Profile picture of the author CatherineMay
      Originally Posted by Christian Little View Post

      It could take days or weeks depending on a number of factors such as how old your site is, how many links you have, how much authority your site has, etc. A few weeks is probably a safe bet, and most plugins that let you change permalink structures will setup 301 redirects to point to the new location, so you should be fine.
      I really don't mean to sound dense, but after these days or weeksand I see my new permalinks showing up in the results, then it's safe (and better) to deactivate the plug-in? Right?
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      • Profile picture of the author smorse1
        @CatherineMay
        No, don't disable - you want to continue to 301 the old url to the new one, in case you have backlinked to the old URL. The 301 passes link juice to the new url.
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  • Profile picture of the author Christian Little
    What smorse1 said is correct. Keep the 301 redirects up permanently. You never know when Google or MSN's bots will follow a link to the old pages and think they're new since they were deleted. The 301 tells the the bots that the page has permanently moved, so just keep them there, they don't do any harm.
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