Recover Lost Blog Traffic with Killer Plugin January 16, 2007
Posted by Andrew Wee in : blogging , trackbackRegular readers will know that I’ve switched from my old /post-ID/post-name/ permalink structure to the more SEO-friendly /category/post-name/ permalink structure a few weeks back. (Blog Permalink Structure Optimization and Bringing Hordes of Traffic Over)
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist (or a SEM) to figure out that www.WhoIsAndrewWee.com/blogging/wordpress-optimization is going to be a heck of a lot easier both for humans and search engines, compared to www.WhoIsAndrewWee.com/573/wordpress-optimization.
Besides the richer keyword dense URL, your blog visitors will have an idea what category your post falls into, especially if you have a (fairly) tightly-themed blog (I’m doing my best to focus on blogging/affiliate marketing/social traffic generation).
To counter the potential loss of 300+ indexed pages in the search engines, I’d spent quite a significant amount of time on a 301 Redirect page, manually keying in cryptic redirects like:
Redirect /101/exclusive-99-internet-marketing-giveway-including-robert-allen-book/ http://www.whoisandrewwee.com/internet-marketing/exclusive-99-internet-marketing-giveway-including-robert-allen-book/
(And repeating that another 299 times).
But then again, having gone on a roll in the last couple of months, the prospect of losing traffic wasn’t a pleasant prospect.
Providence wasn’t far, however.
I’d checked out regular reader Ade Lamidi’s OnlineGist blog post Permalinks Migration Plugin for wordpress.
He’d used a WordPress plugin developed by China-based Dean Lee, who’s Chief Technical Officer for a domain registrar.
Here’s the link: Permalinks Migration Plugin for wordpress
The plugin works like a dynamic 301 Redirect page generator and it works beautifully.
I’m already feel a zen-like calm as I feel the traffic returning (especially from the URL pointers from the blogging meme I’d launched and incoming links from Darren Rowse’s ProBlogger writing projects)
A note: Be sure configure Dean’s plugin configuration before you activate it. Else it’ll generate redirects based on the default permalink setting (rather than your old permalink setting) and you’ll look like a wanker complaining that the plugin doesn’t work in Dean’s comments section.
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sweet! thanks for sharing this
Very cool, you touched on this before and I’m glad to see more information on it!
Great!
Good luck on your permalink migration.
Do remember to do a backup before you install this because the wrong permalink configuration could render much of your blog inacessible.
If you enjoyed this plugin, send some link love, Dean and Ade’s way too.
Coincidentally, I found the same plugin while considering a permalink migration lately.
In fact, I’ve been using /category/post-name/.
However, lately I’ve found myself using multiple categories per post in certain cases, and using such a permalink causes problems. (multiple pages with same content, which category should be the main one etc)
wondering whether there’s a better permalink structure
Actually, if you think about it, from a usability standpoint, it helps if you have a single category for your post.
Most posts could fall into multiple categories for me too, although if you go to a library and a book could be found in multiple sections, sure it might sound very convenient, though I feel it defeats the purpose of having a category.
IMO trying to be everything, may end up meaning nothing.
Hi Andrew,
I’ve not checked your blog for a certain of time due to my other assignment and I’m really missing out now. (A lot of great posts to read!)
I’ve commented on the mitigation plugin on your post ‘Blog Permalink Structure Optimization and Bringing Hordes of Traffic Over’ but it seems that it has been filtered out. Anyway, it’s great that you have tested it and let’s the world knows about Dean Lee’s creation.
Keep up the good works and God bless.
Hi Fenton,
Thanks for the comment.
Your previous might’ve been caught by the blog spam filter.
thanks for the tips. I’m curious if my structure, using the date then post title is beneficial or worthless.
Hi Ariah,
I wouldn’t say that it’s “beneficial or useless”. the fact that you have the post title listed makes it easier for search engines to index your post.
However, the dates doesn’t make much of a difference, except for a longer URL.