Permalink format adjustments Apr20 '07

I may start making adjustments to the format of "permalink" entries on my site.

Here is an example permalink:

http://www.matthom.com/archive/2007/03/29/google-notebook-enhancements

This format has been in place since July 2005, when I made further enhancements.

There's a couple of things that bother me about this format:

The needless use of the word "archive."
The "post slug," (ie: google-notebook-enhancements) becomes too long for some titles that are a bit more "wordy."

Here's what I intend to do:

Remove the word "archive" from the URL.
Shorten the "post slug" to only a few words, even if the title is much longer than that. There are certain "catch words," such as "and," "if," "the," etc - that don't need to be in the URL.

My question is how does Google handle this change? It think my entire database of entries will have to be re-indexed to point to the new URI. Will I suffer a drop in search engine rankings?

Categories: URI , Web Development

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I used to have the superfluous "/blog/" as part of my permalink. When you set up permanent redirects, Google's re-indexing will be seamless ... Read more.

Thanks Matt. That .htaccess rule should work great. It get much more complicated if you're thinking about editi ... Read more.

It looks to me like that rule above would redirect everything to the homepage. wouldn't that totally screw you on any existing incoming links. No ... Read more.

Thanks Tim. I'll try that .htaccess rule as well. ... Read more.

Tim~ It may seem like my rule above would redirect everything to the homepage, but it doesn't. In fact, I'm employing a similar rule on my site rig ... Read more.

matthom is published and produced by Matt Thommes - an independent publishing enthusiast, mobile blogger, content creator, informative writer, web developer from Chicago. Never one to conform, Matt intends to promote the effect the web has on our lives, in an effort to intensify, instruct, and clarify all that is happening around us.