[wp-hackers] Permalink Structure - Performance vs. SEO

Mo Braga Mo.Braga at LBi.com
Tue Jun 14 14:32:36 UTC 2011 

I second that.

-----Original Message-----
From: wp-hackers-bounces at lists.automattic.com [mailto:wp-hackers-bounces at lists.automattic.com] On Behalf Of Travis Northcutt
Sent: 14 June 2011 15:29
To: wp-hackers at lists.automattic.com
Subject: Re: [wp-hackers] Permalink Structure - Performance vs. SEO

<rant>

Chip is talking about the date in the URL being useful to *users*. Not
search engines, but actual *humans*. If I read a tutorial on how to do
something with WordPress, and I can see from the URL that it was posted a
week ago, I'm much more likely to trust that it's using up to date methods
than if it was posted two years ago.

Do what is best for your users (humans), first. If you have two choices to
make and they're equally good for users (humans), by all means choose the
one that is best for search engines (computers). Don't make the mistake of
reversing those steps, though.

I'd be willing to be a lot of money that search engines (computers) place
more value on content being linked to many times than they do on not having
the date of a piece of content in its URL. And the way to get your content
linked to is to produce the best content you can, presented in the best way
possible for users (humans). Good links come from humans, not computers, so
optimize for humans.

</rant>
--
Travis Northcutt


On Mon, Jun 13, 2011 at 4:18 PM, Leo Baiano <ljunior2005 at gmail.com> wrote:

> I agree with you Chip that the date of publication is important to improve
> the
> relevance ofsearch results, but I believe search engines do not use the URL
> string to determine the date of publication of the post, there are other
> less manipulable for it.
>
> SEO specialists to the list. It is possible to know what's more weight to a
> URL, when organizing the search results in order of relevance?
>
> I imagine it would be something like below, but it's just my imagination
> have
> noreference to prove this:
>
> 1 - keywords;
> 2 - Order of keywords in relation to the search term;
> 3 - size of the url.
>
> 2011/6/13 Chip Bennett <chip at chipbennett.net>
>
> > And speaking tangentially, I wish more people cared about *user*
> > optimization more than *search engine* optimization. This whole movement
> to
> > obscure the post date (including not using year/month in the permalink,
> > etc.) just to gain some SEO advantage comes at the expense of users, who
> > would otherwise benefit from having such contextual information. (And
> > knowing the date of, e.g. a WordPress tutorial is invaluable for
> > determining
> > its relevance/obsolescence.)
> >
> > /tangential soapbox
> >
> > Chip
> >
> > On Mon, Jun 13, 2011 at 4:01 PM, Leo Baiano <ljunior2005 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > > In the project I have many static pages.
> > >
> > > A URL with id / name of the post SEO interfere so much in so far as to
> > > revealperformance problems, even if they are small?
> > >
> > > 2011/6/13 David Law <wp-hackers at google-adsense-templates.co.uk>
> > >
> > > > On Mon, 13 Jun 2011 11:39:56 -0300, you wrote:
> > > >
> > > > >Thanks guys, I am convinced that the best way, at least while the WP
> > > does
> > > > >not updatethis part is to use the structure id / post as it should
> not
> > > > >affect that much in terms ofSEO but it can bring an improvement in
> > > > >performance.
> > > > >
> > > > >DAvid, when I talk pages are pages created in WP, but not
> necessarily
> > > > state
> > > > >that havefewer updates.
> > > >
> > > > The performance issue with using a permalink structure of just the
> > > > post title as I understand it is related to the post permalinks can
> > > > match Static Page permalinks (static pages are like your about page
> > > > that are not part of the archives, so not a post).
> > > >
> > > > If you have a site with a lot of static pages (so not posts) it can
> > > > cause a performance issue.
> > > >
> > > > I'm far, far from an expert in this area, so repeating information
> > > > posted by those who do understand database performance issues.
> > > >
> > > > In my expereince if you have a site with few static pages and use the
> > > > permalink structure
> > > >
> > > > /title-of-post
> > > >
> > > > which is
> > > >
> > > > /%postname%
> > > >
> > > > the permormance hit is minimal. This is the best SEO permalink
> > > > setting.
> > > >
> > > > If you have a lot of static pages and are concerned at performance
> > > > (maybe a cheap hosting account so worried about resources) use
> > > >
> > > > /id-title-of-post
> > > >
> > > > which is
> > > >
> > > > /%post_id%-%postname%
> > > >
> > > > or similar.
> > > >
> > > > David
> > > > --
> > > > http://www.stallion-theme.com/ Stallion WordPress SEO Theme
> > > > http://www.stallion-theme.com/stallion-wordpress-seo-plugin Stallion
> > > > WordPress SEO Plugin
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > >2011/6/13 David Law <wp-hackers at google-adsense-templates.co.uk>
> > > > >
> > > > >> I've worked as an SEO consultant for almost a decade, have been
> > > > >> working with WordPress for over half that time, built the best
> > > > >> WordPress SEO theme around (by a mile) and can tell you your SEO
> > > > >> analyst is wrong UNLESS every post in every category is also
> > targeting
> > > > >> the keywords within the category?
> > > > >>
> > > > >> That's not many sites that have that sort of SEO setup. If for
> > example
> > > > >> you have a site about dogs having a category dogs and having all
> > posts
> > > > >> within it would help with dogs relevant SERPs. But then if all
> your
> > > > >> posts are about dogs you would use dogs in the post titles, so you
> > > > >> would repeat dogs twice.
> > > > >>
> > > > >> Basically if it's an important keyword to a post you should use it
> > as
> > > > >> part of the post title.
> > > > >>
> > > > >> Ignoring the domain name the best folder/filename structure for
> all
> > > > >> sites (not just WordPress) is
> > > > >>
> > > > >> keyword-phrase
> > > > >>
> > > > >> and if you name your posts with SEO in mind that should be covered
> > by
> > > > >> the posts title, therefore the best SEO permalink structure for
> most
> > > > >> sites is
> > > > >>
> > > > >> /post-title
> > > > >>
> > > > >> Best SEO permalink structure taking into account performace is or
> a
> > > > >> derivative of
> > > > >>
> > > > >> /id-post-title
> > > > >> /id/post-title
> > > > >>
> > > > >> You can add a / to the end or .html or .php, I tend towards
> leaving
> > > > >> that out now (used to use html years ago).
> > > > >>
> > > > >> When you mention Pages I assume you mean a lot of Static Pages
> > rather
> > > > >> than a lot of pages in total (a lot of posts) on the site? If so
> you
> > > > >> should go with the performance example above, the SEO hit on the
> > > > >> perfect structure is minimal having a number (the ID) added to all
> > > > >> URLs.
> > > > >>
> > > > >> David
> > > > >> --
> > > > >> http://www.stallion-theme.com/ Stallion WordPress SEO Theme
> > > > >>
> http://www.stallion-theme.com/stallion-wordpress-seo-pluginStallion
> > > > >> WordPress SEO Plugin
> > > > >>
> > > > >> On Sat, 11 Jun 2011 22:01:38 -0300, you wrote:
> > > > >>
> > > > >> >I have a question ... Working in a large project site and will
> have
> > > > many
> > > > >> >pages, so I opted for the permalink structure that shows the year
> > > > before
> > > > >> the
> > > > >> >name of the post, did it to improve the performance of WP.
> > > > >> >
> > > > >> >The problem is that the analyst SEO project asked me to use the
> > > > category
> > > > >> >structure / name of the post, I explained that this causes
> > WordPress
> > > to
> > > > >> >create several lines of rules to be more than normal and can
> > severely
> > > > >> damage
> > > > >> >the site in terms of performance, since whenever a URL is
> requested
> > > the
> > > > WP
> > > > >> >need to read a lot of rules to find how to handle the URL, but he
> > > > claimed
> > > > >> >that putting the loss of performance and loss of points in the
> > > > >> optimization
> > > > >> >SEO SEO ending balance weighing more.
> > > > >> >
> > > > >> >Ask references about the interference of the URL in the site
> > > > optimization
> > > > >> >but he has not handed me anything, so I come to exchange
> experience
> > > > with
> > > > >> you
> > > > >> >on the subject, have done so? Actually the structure category /
> > name
> > > of
> > > > >> the
> > > > >> >post instead of year / name of the post will greatly influence
> the
> > > > >> >positioning of pages in search engines?
> > > > >> _______________________________________________
> > > > >> wp-hackers mailing list
> > > > >> wp-hackers at lists.automattic.com
> > > > >> http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers
> > > > >>
> > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > wp-hackers mailing list
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> > > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Amplexos,
> > >
> > > Leo Baiano
> > > http://www.leobaiano.com
> > > http://www.blog.ljunior.com
> > > http://www.mcelebridades.com
> > > http://www.twitter.com/leobaiano
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > wp-hackers mailing list
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> > >
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> >
>
>
>
> --
> Amplexos,
>
> Leo Baiano
> http://www.leobaiano.com
> http://www.blog.ljunior.com
> http://www.mcelebridades.com
> http://www.twitter.com/leobaiano
> _______________________________________________
> wp-hackers mailing list
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> http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers
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