>> WP plugin to remove '/category/' crap from the category URLs

[Matyko]

Heya,

I hope this does no harm to the SEO of the blogs [i seriously doubt it can cause harm, but experts plz confirm!]

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/...category-base/

-=- Have Fun -=-

[CurrentlySober]

i like 'crap'...

[fris]

Originally Posted by Matyko

Heya,

I hope this does no harm to the SEO of the blogs [i seriously doubt it can cause harm, but experts plz confirm!]

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/...category-base/

-=- Have Fun -=-

no seo issues. but performance issues

[barons]

If you add this function when blog is already getting SE visitors, it might affect seo only a little or not at all, because old permalinks will redirect to new ones in 301 redirect way which is SEO-friendly and passes 90-100% link juice. Firstly, just try on only few blogs.

[fris]

For performance reasons, it is not a good idea to start your permalink structure with the category, tag, author, or postname fields. The reason is that these are text fields, and using them at the beginning of your permalink structure it takes more time for WordPress to distinguish your Post URLs from Page URLs (which always use the text "page slug" as the URL), and to compensate, WordPress stores a lot of extra information in its database (so much that sites with lots of Pages have experienced difficulties).

http://ottopress.com/2010/category-i...dered-harmful/

[Matyko]

Originally Posted by fris

no seo issues. but performance issues

Fris, could you please explain?

Originally Posted by barons

If you add this function when blog is already getting SE visitors, it might affect seo only a little or not at all, because old permalinks will redirect to new ones in 301 redirect way which is SEO-friendly and passes 90-100% link juice. Firstly, just try on only few blogs.

Thanks for the heads up!!
Will do as you suggested

[babydred]

I use a custom permalink structure...

/%postname%.html

...cleaner links plus you won't need the plugin.

[babydred]

Originally Posted by Wordpress Permalink Settings

Optional

If you like, you may enter custom structures for your category and tag URLs. For example, using topics as your category base would make your category links like http://example.org/topics/uncategorized/.

Originally Posted by Wordpress Rockers

if you already have a running blog and you are changing the permalink, then the old URL will end at your 404 page. So here is the solution.

Install and activate WordPress Redirection plugin. Now access Redirection options using Tools > Redirection and use Add new redirection. Now type “category” in the Source URL without the quotation marks, leave all the other options unchanged, even leave the Target URL blank and hit ‘Add Redirection’ button.

That’s it. You are successfully removed the slug and redirected all the permalinks with ‘category’ to new permalinks without any slug.

Wordpress Rockers snippet from: http://wprockers.com/how-to-remove-c...malink-76.html

[fris]

Originally Posted by babydred

I use a custom permalink structure...

/%postname%.html

...cleaner links plus you won't need the plugin.

thats even worse for a site if it has high traffic.

[Klen]

Originally Posted by Matyko

Fris, could you please explain?

It means every click to post is redirected and if it's high traffic blog it can cause unnecessary load.

[babydred]

Well Fris, that /%postname%/ and /%category%/%postname%/ performance issue has been fixed for Wordpress 3.3, it looks like Wordpress has finally decided to fix it and postname is now a suggested permalink option.

Permalink and Performance Issue

So you have seen sites all across the web referencing to SEO Friendly URL structure in WordPress. Mostly those articles either refer to simple %postname% or /%category%/%postname%/. The fact is that up until 3.2.1, these permalink rules could cause serious performance issues if your site has A LOT of pages. Heck this forced @chriscoyier to change his site?s entire permalink structure. Andrew Nacin (@nacin) brought up the point that a lot of users are using these permalink structure, so we should figure out the issue and fix it for good. And lo? and behold this is FIXED! In WordPress 3.3, the core team decided to add Post name as one of the suggested permalink option.

[fris]

ya but 3.3 isnt out yet.

[Jel]

Originally Posted by fris

thats even worse for a site if it has high traffic.

Can you expand on why you say that please mate?

[Klen]

Originally Posted by Jel

Can you expand on why you say that please mate?

URL rewrites can cause heavy load if high traffic.

[nico-t]

i use the no category plugin on a couple of blogs and personally i think its great.

[cooldude7]

i use

/%category%/%postname%.html

i know according to fris it eats much cpu/ram resources., but imho in case of seo its good.

[Klen]

Also,while i am fanatic when it comes to seo friendly urls,things which i lately see in serps makes me wonder is that just another seo myth as many other claims.

[fris]

Originally Posted by Jel

Can you expand on why you say that please mate?

here is a quote from someone who has done it

Here?s the really short version: I used /%postname%/ as my permalink structure on CSS-Tricks for a long time. I have lots of Pages. My site went down. I changed my permalink structure to begin with a number. Now it?s fine.

And the long version:

All the sudden one evening the server that runs this site and one of my other sites, CSS-Tricks seemed to get very slow (I noticed while trying to save a draft of a post). I tried visiting the homepage and various other parts of the site and it either took a long time or just timed out completely. Always a heart-sinking time for me, as I know very little about servers and how to troubleshoot them.

When the server responded at all, serving up just the base document was by far the slowest thing

and the problem with it

Turns out it was the permalink structure set up in WordPress for CSS-Tricks that was the problem. From day one, about four years now, it?s been /%postname%/. I really like how short and readable the URL?s are in that structure. A URL like http://css-tricks.com/css-sprites/ is very clear about what that page is about, as well as great SEO for the search term ?CSS Sprites?. But alas, having your post structure set up like that has serious performance implications.

went from 2500 queries on one page, down to 40 when the change was made.

then from the wordpress codex

For performance reasons, it is not a good idea to start your permalink structure with the category, tag, author, or postname fields. The reason is that these are text fields, and using them at the beginning of your permalink structure it takes more time for WordPress to distinguish your Post URLs from Page URLs (which always use the text ?page slug? as the URL), and to compensate, WordPress stores a lot of extra information in its database (so much that sites with lots of Pages have experienced difficulties). So, it is best to have at least two path segments in your post?s permalink structure such as /%year%/%postname%/ or even /posts/%postname%/.

url http://digwp.com/2011/06/dont-use-postname/

[Jel]

Ah ok with you now. /%postname%/ is different from /%postname%.html (php, whatever) and it's (partly) because of the issues you state that I make sure of an html or php extension.

blogname.com/postname.html will cause no issues 'clashing' with pages such as blogname.com/post-name/, at least as far as I'm aware, and the seo-friendly url remains.

[Jel]

oh and for OP: get a plugin to noindex categories, forget about using that plugin - it does work just fine, but duplicate on-site content in categories/archives/tags, doesn't

[jimmycooper]

I've been using WP No Cat Base all year and haven't had any problems.

I also just added this one which I also really like.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/...-post-or-page/

Anyone know if there's a similar one for tags?

[acctman]

Permalinks are fine on any decent server no matter how much traffic

[Profits of Doom]

I've literally bashed my head against the wall reading all the various opinions on what is the best permalink structure for Wordpress for SEO and performance. Fris, what do you personally use?