How do I change WordPress URL structure without screwing it up.

Discussion in 'WordPress' started by Lord Brar, Jul 10, 2006.

  1. #1
    Here's the thing -- I started this blog of mine (StreetLessons.com) in december last year. I grew more virally (like most blogs) and has some SE rankings for some pages.

    My Initial page structure was streetlessons.com/post-id/post-title/. Do you think that a page structure like streetlessons.com/post-id-post-title.html would be better than the original structure?

    This site is now about 6-7 months old.. Do you think I can actually switch the structure without screwing it up? If yes, what kind of re-direct should I make it?
     
    Lord Brar, Jul 10, 2006 IP
  2. sizzler_chetan

    sizzler_chetan Prominent Member

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    #2
    Just change to

    streetlessons.com/%year%/%postname%.html

    It helps very well. Nothing will be screwed up i hope.
    I changed it in my 2 months old blog with many posts and all were well changed without any problems.
     
    sizzler_chetan, Jul 10, 2006 IP
  3. Lord Brar

    Lord Brar Peon

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    #3
    Isn't file in root more quickly indexed than a file in sub-folder? :)
     
    Lord Brar, Jul 10, 2006 IP
  4. Bogo

    Bogo Guest

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    #4
    I think his question is more as to whether it will screw up the rankings. And the answer is yes, very probably. If you do decide to change, you'd want to put up 301's to redirect, but google (as well as other search engines) are notoriously bad at dealing with 301's.
    So unless you want to take a nice hit (and code a ton of 301 pages by hand), I'd say don't bother. There's really no reason to change the structure anyway.
     
    Bogo, Jul 10, 2006 IP
  5. sizzler_chetan

    sizzler_chetan Prominent Member

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    #5
    May be you are true.

    There is no need to change now :)
     
    sizzler_chetan, Jul 10, 2006 IP
  6. Lord Brar

    Lord Brar Peon

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    #6
    Spot on bro! Just what I wanted to ask. I guess I can live with /id/post-title. BTW another question... going to /id/ shows the same content as /id/post-title. However, nowhere it is linked to without the /post-title/ part. Can it still create duplicate content?
     
    Lord Brar, Jul 10, 2006 IP
  7. nikao

    nikao Peon

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    #7
    I don't think Google will treat same content on one site as duplicate content:

    There will be more ways to access the same content via different urls
    (think of tag-pages)
     
    nikao, Jul 11, 2006 IP
  8. Bogo

    Bogo Guest

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    #8
    Even if /id/ does that, I assume there aren't links to /id/ so google will never see those pages. If there are links to /id/ instead of /id/post-title then change those links to /id/post-title. Either way, you're in the clear. Happy webbing!
     
    Bogo, Jul 11, 2006 IP
  9. nikao

    nikao Peon

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    #9
    and to be sure, you could implement 301 redirects from /id/ to /id/post-title/ ..
     
    nikao, Jul 11, 2006 IP
  10. Lord Brar

    Lord Brar Peon

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    #10
    Appreciate the help fellas. :)
     
    Lord Brar, Jul 11, 2006 IP
  11. Manish Pandey

    Manish Pandey Well-Known Member

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    #11
    How can you say that 301 redirect is bad for search engines. Well this the only redirect that is treated good. It not only passes traffic but also passes Page Rank too...

    Well on to the next question if you really want to change them just do that... if you rank for them now... then you will rank for them in few days too... no problem with that...

    Take care

    Manish
     
    Manish Pandey, Jul 11, 2006 IP
  12. Bogo

    Bogo Guest

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    #12
    Manish, I've heard horror stories of people trying to change their site structure with 301's and it taking months to get properly reindexed, sometimes not even then (especially if the tradeover was happening over bigdaddy). Better not to risk it if there's no real gain.
     
    Bogo, Jul 11, 2006 IP