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shyflower
08-02-2007, 01:44 PM
This is for those who, like me, didn't take the time to read through all the WP Documentation. I just found out that you can assign your posts to multiple categories and construct your permalink to read exactly as your little heart desires it to read.

Why assign your posts to multiple categories? The best way to explain is by example. For instance, I have a post called "More Time". Its based on a memory of when my children were young. So I first assigned it to memories and then Mark (thank you Golgotha!) posted a comment that made me wish I had put it in parenting... but it was a memory... What to do?

In WP you can assign it to both categories. So, although a reader may not be interested in sharing nostalgia with me, they may be interested in what I have to say about parenting. This doubles my chance of keeping their interest and maybe adding that post or an older post to a social bookmarking site.

Then I looked over to the category slug. This "slug" is what WP uses to make your permalink -- the SEO friendly link that appears at the end of the url in a browser. If you leave the slug blank, WP uses the title of your post but titles often don't provide the focus of the topic.

So instead of just "more-time" — a phrase that no one is ever going to use in a search (or if they do they are probably looking for watches) — the permalink on my post now ends with "parenting-more_time".

Jelena
08-02-2007, 03:39 PM
If my post belongs to more than one category, I just assign them to two or even more. Actually, it often happens to me that I need more than one.

Your example and explanation is very good Linda!

BigMooch
08-02-2007, 07:35 PM
Keep in mind the duplicate content penalty from Google and others. If a post is in more than one category it is accessible from more than one URL.

Submitting a sitemap to google will solve this and I'm pretty sure there is a plugin for this.

I'm no expert on the duplicate content penalty, but if you search for it there are a ton of results.

adalante
08-02-2007, 07:47 PM
Good one Linda, you should also take a look at the nifty All in One SEO Pack (http://wp.uberdose.com/2007/03/24/all-in-one-seo-pack/), it is just simply a great SEO plugin.

ses5909
08-02-2007, 08:00 PM
Wordpress duplicate content cure (http://www.seologs.com/wordpress-duplicate-content-cure/)

shyflower
08-02-2007, 09:52 PM
Keep in mind the duplicate content penalty from Google and others. If a post is in more than one category it is accessible from more than one URL.

Submitting a sitemap to google will solve this and I'm pretty sure there is a plugin for this.

I'm no expert on the duplicate content penalty, but if you search for it there are a ton of results.

All the content is accessible from more than one url. Single posts display their permalinks and content accessed through its category displays its category link. Besides, that duplicate content penalty isn't going to hurt your site in this respect since the penalty is to index only one of the urls that contain the information.

Thanks Sara... that is a nice plugin. What it actually does is let your decide which url to index rather than letting Google bot make its own arbitrary decision. :)

Good one Linda, you should also take a look at the nifty All in One SEO Pack (http://wp.uberdose.com/2007/03/24/all-in-one-seo-pack/), it is just simply a great SEO plugin.

A good idea in principle, but I don't let any automated program handle my SEO. I own both IBP and Web CEO. I look to them for suggestions, but I make my own decisions. Too often, automated programs are great for the SEs but not so hot for the users. The best optimization of pages is to think first of your visitors and then the SEs.

BigMooch
08-03-2007, 01:37 PM
]The best optimization of pages is to think first of your visitors and then the SEs.

Couldn't agree more!