Google Webmaster tools show that I have several hundred duplicate meta descriptions and title tags. I'm hoping htaccess rules might sort out the issues below. The issue with meta descriptions is that the url is using either unicode or the literals. Example: /some-post-test%E2%80%99s/1738/ /some-post-test's/1738/ HTML: These are the unicodes being used in the WP db 'post-names' field that are either being converted/not converted to the literal's. %e2%80%99 = ' %e2%80%98 = " %e2%80%93 = - %e2%80%9d = †%e2%80%9 = “ Code (markup): Any way with htaccess to force the url returned to NOT use unicode? i.e. return /some_test's/1738/ HTML: The Title tags issue is one of permalink structure. Permalinks format is: /%postname%/%post_id%/ Code (markup): But dupe urls are showing as /my-great-post/ or /my-great-post/1234/ HTML: and both resolve. But I'd rather just return one url format, rather then two. Again, can this be done with htaccess?
I recommend a permalink /%postname%/ only. Don't mess up with your .htaccess as of now. It is widely recommended to not use .htaccess excessively as it will affect your site's performance and load speed.