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Antti Kokkonen – When it has to be done right

by Dave Doolin on March 12, 2010 · 12 comments

(Reading time: 3 – 5 minutes)

You those people who always seem to get it right, the first time? I know a blogger like that, and his name is Antti Kokkonen.

I first ran across Antti when following up on some material on permalinks. The backstory is the SEO crowd gets better luck with permalinks one way (use keyword-friendly categories), but the performance crowd insists the SEO way is stupid, because looking up named slugs in WordPress takes too many queries (that means it’s slower).


The discussion in the WordPress community seems to hinge around an implementation issue, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to be addressed any time soon.

In any case, Antti did something over the course of two articles which is too rare: he did research, got numbers, and published his data. In fact, he examined the permalink structure for the top 100 blogs. He found that there is no one best way to construct permalinks. Bummer!

In a second article he explains exactly how WordPress handles permalinks. While this second article is a bit more advanced, I recommend it to anyone serious about mastering permalinks. Antti also makes a definite recommendation for permalink structure, and I’ll be changing my permalink structure as a result.

Antti hasn’t posted in a couple of days. I’m getting worried. He’s working on an article on blog post SEO. My guess is it will be epic. Having written a series of articles on WordPress SEO myself, I’m very curious to see how my work compares.

You can follow Antti on twitter as zemalf.

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{ 11 comments }

Kelly Diels March 12, 2010 at 10:46 am

Antti’s work on permalinks is way useful and so timely for me.

(Antti: I had an hour consult with Dave – thanks Dave! – on Monday and I specifically asked what I should do about my permalinks.)

I’m so glad Antti’s working on it -and rocking it – and I just spent some serious time digging into it on his site.

Looking forward to more…and now I have this nagging idea that I should interview Antti for a ProBlogger piece. His series is seriously useful.

Thanks for the link, Dave.

Dave Doolin March 12, 2010 at 10:51 am

Kelly, IMO you should definitely interview Antti for ProBlogger! He’s meticulous and thorough in an arena which tends to reward – no matter how much everyone
“protests” it – quantity over quality, form over appearance.
Dave Doolin´s last blog ..Atahualpa Theme – Pixel Perfection, No Inca Required My ComLuv Profile

Antti Kokkonen March 14, 2010 at 3:31 am

Kelly, I’m honored that you just as consider me for an interview. These are the things that keep me going, getting feedback and the blogosphere love without asking and begging for it. Awesome.
Antti Kokkonen´s last blog ..How to get more blog comments and discussion My ComLuv Profile

Deacon March 12, 2010 at 11:29 am

That post by Antti is the best thing I’ve seen about permalinks in a while. Good stuff to point to.

Now I gotta think about changing my permalink structure. WHat I’m doing now isn’t bad, but I might be able to do better.
Deacon´s last blog ..Ye Olde “What I’ve Been Doing” Update My ComLuv Profile

Dave Doolin March 12, 2010 at 11:40 am

I love writing articles like this, but they are very time consuming, and my current posting scedule (and other projects) is cramping my style a bit.

I’ve been toying with one of my own last few days… not sure if I want to take it on or not. Huge amount of work.
Dave Doolin´s last blog ..Technical Tuesday: Another Look at WordPress register_activation_hook My ComLuv Profile

Bert Padilla March 13, 2010 at 10:41 am

I can’t comment on Antti’s post, Disqus is still having a problem. Anyway, I’m amazed on how he did the job. It was a great initiative to do a thorough analysis on the best permalink structure. One thing I have in mind, WP wins over Blogger when it comes to permalink. I am actually concerned about the permalink of my individual post since I learned about that months ago.
Bert Padilla´s last blog ..Relieve Stress from Blogging through Massage My ComLuv Profile

Dave Doolin March 13, 2010 at 10:50 am

I’ll definitely want your thoughts and experience on your transition.

Cebu Tech Blogger March 13, 2010 at 11:08 am

Sure… I will… Bdw, I have been reading those articles on your sitemap; but I can’t find a tutorial in migrating to WP. Some of the articles I’ve read from different blogs have inconsistencies and un-updated. I’ll be glad if you have one.
Cebu Tech Blogger´s last blog ..Relieve Stress from Blogging through Massage My ComLuv Profile

Dave Doolin March 13, 2010 at 11:13 am

I don’t have such a tutorial.

Suggestion: set up a practice site, work out the procedure in detail. Use everything you can find, and correct it as you go to apply to your situation.

I do have related tutorials, but they won’t be any more helpful than what you can find already out there, unfortunately.

Remember to back everything up!

Antti Kokkonen March 14, 2010 at 3:33 am

Thank you for the kind words and giving me the “spotlight” – this was a pleasant surprise! As for me not posting anything for a couple of days, need not to worry, I’m just taking a big breather before I put it all out again :)
Antti Kokkonen´s last blog ..How to get more blog comments and discussion My ComLuv Profile

Dave Doolin March 14, 2010 at 9:48 am

“Big breather” exactly what I’m afraid of. Calm before the storm!

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