Making sure your blog posts are saved as permalinks can really help to boost your SEO efforts – but only if you do it the right way. If you’re using a blogging platform like Word Press, you’ll find this a little easier to do.
What is a Permalink?
A permalink is the website address (or URL) that points to one of your blog entries even after it’s moved off the front pages and down into the archives. In other words, it’s the link that points to that individual post, instead of pointing to your blog in general.
If you’re blogging and you don’t make use of permalinks, you’re only linking back to the front page of your blog. When new visitors arrive to see what you’ve written, they get to see the newest entries only. However, if you want those visitors to read a specific blog post you wrote, you’ll need to refer them to that permalink so they can find that internal page more easily.
Here’s an example:
Your Blog’s URL:
HYPERLINK “http://www.yourblog.com”
http://www.yourblog.com
Permalink to an Individual Post:
HYPERLINK “http://www.yourblog.com/2010/11/SEO-friendly-permalinks/”
http://www.yourblog.com/2010/11/SEO-friendly-permalinks/
Hopefully, you gave your blog post a title that contains your chosen keywords, as the title will be placed within the link generated once you save your post.
Setting Up an SEO Permalink Structure
Of course, there are ways to boost your SEO efforts by using your permalinks the right way. If you look at the example URL above, you’ll see that your own domain name is followed by the posting date and then the article title. When you saved your post, you probably would have allocated it to a specific category that also contained your keyword or keywords. But the category doesn’t show in the standard URL you generated, so that’s a keyword that isn’t being used to its best capacity.
Luckily, Word Press does offer a way to save not only your post title to the URL but also the tag category. This could help give your keywords a little extra push where you need it most. Word Press allows you to alter the permalink structure inside the Options tab. Go into your Admin panel and select Options. You’ll see and option for Permalinks there.
At this point, you’ll be customizing the default code, so you will need to manually add a little bit of code into the section right after it says “Custom Structure”. Then add the following bit of code: /%category%/%postname%/
To save your changes, press the ‘update permalink structure’ button and your future posts will contain the category as well as your keyword-laden title. The best part is, your previous posts will be amended to show this format as well.
Permalinks as Backlinks
If another blog owner decides to link to one of your posts and they use your permalink, this could add a little extra weight to your back linking efforts.
This also gives you an added boost your SEO efforts. Search engines will pick up on those backlinks pointing to your site and view them as relevant as they will be keyword-loaded for maximum effect.
