Ok, I'll post back my .htaccess file once I get er done. I'm going to have to re read over some of the other stuff you said to do though. Didn't get it all.
Well, do what you want but /%postname%/ is the best. Even Google engineer Matt Cutts use that: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/ And me for the last years with not problems. But do what you want, I won't stop you.
When I put in /%postname%/ does that automatically alter my .htaccess file? I worry that if I add in the other changes you mentioned I'll accidently overwrite them, or should I just copy the stuff you had (replacing the stuff with my url of course) and just paste it at the top of the .htaccess file?
Ok, I finally got around to doing the .htaccess file: Options +Indexes Options +FollowSymLinks RewriteEngine on RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^chrisguthrie\.net RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.chrisguthrie.net/$1 [R=permanent,L] RewriteBase / RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(.*)/$ RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.chrisguthrie.net/$1/ [L,R=301] # BEGIN WordPress <IfModule mod_rewrite.c> RewriteEngine On RewriteBase / RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteRule . /index.php [L] </IfModule> # END WordPress PHP: The only problem is now the link to my first post looks like this: http://www.chrisguthrie.net/http:/www.chrisguthrie.net/hello-world/ I assume that perhaps it's because I have the rewrite engine on twice in the .htaccess file, as well as few other things that are repeated. What should I take out? (note my blog is not at all modified yet, I'm just trying to get this backend stuff working first) Also, On my other sites I had previously just used this (vBulletin forums): RewriteEngine on RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^(www\.|$) [NC] RewriteRule ^ http://www.%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301] PHP: Is it bad to not use the way you did it by typing in the specific url?
Would it be fixed if I just got rid of the second "Rewrite Engine On"? I just want to make sure everything's going to be preforming the way it's supposed to both for URL cannonization and SEO without messing up something (As I'm a pretty huge noob at .htaccess editing)
Jim, come to my rescue lol: Options +Indexes Options +FollowSymLinks RewriteEngine on RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^chrisguthrie\.net RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.chrisguthrie.net/$1 [R=permanent,L] RewriteBase / RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(.*)/$ RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.chrisguthrie.net/$1/ [L,R=301] # BEGIN WordPress <IfModule mod_rewrite.c> RewriteBase / RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d RewriteRule . /index.php [L] </IfModule> # END WordPress PHP: I tried removing the second RewriteEngine on in the #BEGIN WordPress but it didn't change anything. Any ideas on how to fix it? Because with that curent .htaccess file I'm still getting links like this: http://www.chrisguthrie.net/http:/www.chrisguthrie.net/hello-world/
This worked out well for me: <title> <?php wp_title(" "); ?> <?php if(wp_title(" ", false)) { echo " | "; } ?> Name of my site | Description of site </title> Code (markup): now my search results are MUCH more relevant because you get much more of the actual post title.
Edit: I figured it out. I'm a total noob. For permalinks I had my entire url and then /%postname%/ So I changed it to /%postname%/ and it's all good now.