(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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Week in Review
- Saturday Morning Surfing: Programming Is “Actionary” Blogging Is “Reactionary”. Programming and blogging seem to be hard to do at the same time. What’s your experience? Join the conversation.
- Atahualpa Theme – Pixel Perfection, No Inca Required. Get a feel for the Atahualpa theme, and what it’s like to use for WordPress blogging. Killer guest post from Dave Thackeray.
- DIY WordPress – World’s Shortest Plugin. If you need to know exactly how WordPress handles registering plugins, you need to read this very short, 3 point article. With screencast.
- Maintain Draft Queue with Practical WordPress Tips 1 – 12. These twelve tips will quickly speed you on your way to WordPress mastery. Pick and choose what’s most useful, each tip takes about 5 minutes.
- Carlos Velez Prewriting Throwdown: Blog posts by the pound. Carlos Velez Prewriting Challenge: can you write blog posts in advance? It’s not hard, but it takes commitment. Find out who’s in, and why.
The Week In Review Series
- Last WIAW Week in Review
- iPhone Blogging – Writing is so last millennium (& the Last Week in Review). Personal dictation is becoming a reality for everyone, talk right into your cell phone. But efficient dictation takes practice. Find out more…
- Stay tuned…
Next WIAW Week in Review
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.
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 =-.
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 =-.
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 =-.
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 =-.
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 =-.
I’ll definitely want your thoughts and experience on your transition.
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 =-.
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!
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 =-.
“Big breather” exactly what I’m afraid of. Calm before the storm!