Marketing Defined

WP Permalink Redirect PlugIns Usage

In line with this blog’s move to a new WP Stucture magazine theme I set about finding how to change my Wordpress permalink structure from the old:
/%month%/%year%/%postname%/ structure to the recommended SE friendly: /%category%/%postname%/ permalinks without breaking all the old links to my Blog.

This set me out on a search for 2 permalink redirection plug-ins that would work together in harmony, without conflict or error.

Why use 2 permalinks for this job?

Firstly…

My blog has over 4 years worth of posts that needed to be redirected from the old format to the corresponding new SE friendly permalink without breaking and generating those horrible 404 errors. [see Wordpress permalink plug-in no. 1 below].

Secondly…

Just as importantly to avoid any Google duplicate content penalties, I had to make sure that pages and entries are always accessed via the permalink… Otherwise a 301 link moved permanently redirect should be issued.  A 301 redirect tells the Search Engines that any links called from archives or other categories and pages had been moved permanently to the permalink. [see Wordpress permalink plug-in no. 2 below].

Here are the 2 permalinks that work like a charm in harmony for redirecting my Permalinks on a current Wordpress 2.6 installation.

1. Permalinks Deans PL Migration v1 [seems to be the only available version, but works fine] for moving all permalinks from the old structure to the new without causing user unfriendly errors 404 page not found , and
2. YLSY permalink Redirect for ensuring all pages and entries are always accessed only from the permalink, otherwise issuing a 301 link permanently moved redirect as necessary.

Some points worth noting, 4 years ago the Marketing Defined blog was installed in its own “blog” directory. There is an option available to get rid of the “blog” in my permalinks by sending a command to the MySQL database, but have decided against it.  All the other blogs I write are safely installed in the home directory, and because of the positive weight my 5 year old domain offers with the Search Engines, I should be safe.

Note:  Sadly I lost a lot of  the blog’s 4,000 feed subscribers together with my Google Page Rank 5, purely because I hadn’t noticed that all my old Blogger posts were broken, with nothing appearing after clicking on the Read More link. 

I am investigating why: Was it the manually created “more” link and related span “fullpost” tag used in the Blogger of old that broke the links? And did Google downgrade my page rank purely because of broken links, or was it the move to a new web hosting service in Sep 2007 [are there any questionable domains on the shared server]. After all links are fixed, I will write to Google Webmaster support asking them to reconsider the downgrade, and will update with their response at the blog.

Wordpress Permalink Redirect Plug-Ins - Correct Usage and Installation:

1. Download both permalink plug-ins above,  and upload via FTP to your WP plug-in directory.  Do not activate either one of them as yet.  This might be a good time to check that your .htaccess file is writable by selecting a permission setting of 666 insteada of 644.   [For SmartFTP users: right click on your .htaccess file, select properties.  Change the settings in the permission options by ticking the "write" fields under the Group and Others].
2. Go to your Wordpress Settings tab [top r.h. side] and select the Permalinks tab.
3. Select the Custom Structure radio tab and enter the old or current permalink structure you are using in this field.  It does not matter, if you are using the Default settings [/?p=123] or any of the other three date/archive type settings that appear above the Custom Structure button,  you must copy the existing permalink structure into your Custom Structure field.  Then select that radio tab and save changes.
4. If you already have your current permalink settings showing in the Custom Structure field, and that button is showing as selected, then you can ignore step 3 above.
5. Now go to your Plug Ins tab [top r.h. side] and activate only the first Deans Permalink plug in.
6. Return to the Settings tab [top r.h. side] and select the plug in called PermalinksMigration.  The format of your old permalink structure should now be reflected in the Old Permalink Structure field [for example: /%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%/].  If not simply insert your old permalink structure in the field and finish off by pressing the Update options tab… Either way, do not neglect to press the Update options tab, or your redirects will not work.
7. Go back to the Plug Ins tab [top r.h. side] and activate the second ylsy Permalink Redirect plug in.  There are no further steps required for this plug in.

VOILA! all done.  But do make sure to secure the  WP installation by changing .htaccess file permission settings back to 644.

To make sure that your Permalink redirects are working without conflict:

1. Simply click on one of your old permalinks and watch the magic as it moves to the new format effortlessly, and
2. Select a Post that you have saved under 2 or more categories.  Type the urls into a browser one at a time with the 2 different addresses [for example: yourblogname.com/seo/tutorial-on-permalinks/ OR yourblogname/wordpress/tutorial-on-permalink/ and they should both correctly redirect to the one same permalink.
3. How to identify what is the correct Permalink: When typing a new post in the Write/Post field of Wordpress… the permalink is the URL generated in the “Permalink” field  just under the “Title” box.

If you are with troublesome hosts like Yahoo who put all kinds of awkward restrictions on you, such as including the field “index.php” in a permalink, then in addition to the  .htaccess file. you will need to change the permission settings in your index.php file.

Both those files’ permission settings must be changed to 666 via FTP to make them writable.

If time permits - for Blogs that were installed in a separate “blog” directory and not the home directory -  will include the correct MySQL command mentioned above that permanently removes the name “blog” from the permalink .

Your experience with how to change WP permalinks and using redirects is valued.  Do you think that leaving the “category” out of a Permalink and only having the post in the title is a good idea, or do you just use the “number” of the post instead of the “category”?