Blogging: Permalink Structure
I’ve been fighting with myself for the past month over whether to stick to my existing link structure (which does not include any date) or switching to move my URLs to the year/month structure.
Why is this important?
A Digital Perspective, like many blogs, is an ongoing account of the world around me. Like all records, time plays a significant factor in each perception. My ideas, thoughts and beliefs evolve — and fundamentally, that’s what I’d like to share with you.
It’s very easy to date each post as you can see, but it’s not always prominent enough for the reader. Perhaps that’s an information architecture issue, perhaps not. I’m just trying to make it as easy as possible for my readers to know exactly when I’m talking about something.
The main barriers to me doing this earlier were these:
- SEO: Is this going to affect my SEO? At last look I’m beating all official Movember 2008 sites and enjoying my presence in the top of organic Google results
- Existing links: Will people previously linking to me be met with gastly 404 errors? Ah, fear not! I found a wonderful Permalinks “Migration” Plugin for wordpress.
However, perhaps the most important factor I had to take into account was the fact that sometimes dates can be against you: perhaps if someone came across a post and noticed instantly that it was from 2007 or a few months ago, they would feel that their comment would not be significant.
What about you? What is your link structure?
Note: If you do find any 404 errors on my site, please forward them to my email (xxxjye [at] gmail [dot] com)
Also of interest:
About Jye
Jye Smith is currently the Digital Strategist for Weber Shandwick Australia. Ranked in B&Ts 30 Under 30, he's a regular keynote speaker and workshop facilitator who specialises in digital strategy, social media marketing, and change management.
