Wordpress Tutorial: How to Make Your URLs SEO Friendly

I received a Twitter a few days ago, from a woman who needed help making her URLs SEO friendly. She was making a plea to those on her list to help her figure out how to do this. After giving her step by step instructions, I was able to help her figure out the process.

This woman was sent a few different websites with tutorials on how to change her URL, but none of them were complete, concise and comprehensive. None of them had full instructions on how to accomplish what she wanted. This is why I decided to make this tutorial.

First, I should probably explain why this tutorial is not only necessary, but why it is also important. When Search Engines crawl a website, they don’t just crawl for content. They also identify terms in the title, description, other meta tags and in the URL. When you first set up a Wordpress blog, each article/post you write is assigned a numerical value. This is to separate one post from another.

So, let’s say you have a post. The URL for that post might be: http://www.YourUrl.com/?p=12345

That URL isn’t going to help you when it comes to the Search Engines. If your article/post is on making money online, and someone uses the phrase ‘making money online’ in a search on Google or Yahoo, you might be noticed because your article title and meta tags include the term, making money online. However, the more examples you have of said term in your search entry, can help to determine where and/or how you rank on the search engines. You can slip the phrase into your listing once more by making it a part of your URL.

A Search Engine friendly version of:
http://www.YourUrl.com/?p=12345

would be:
http://www.YourUrl.com/making-money-online

You can’t just change your URL though. You have to set up your Wordpress blog to allow you to make the end of your article’s/post’s URL whatever you want. This is where this tutorial comes in. I’m going to explain step by step, how to make your URLs more SEO friendly.

Note: PLEASE click on the images to see it in an expanded form. This expanded form will literally highlight exactly what you do in this tutorial.

Step #1 - Log in to your Wordpress Blog Admin Area, also called your Wordpress Dashboard.

Look to the right side of your Wordpress Dashboard. Find the panel labeled Settings and click on it.

Step #2 - Look at the row of links on the Settings page and in the middle there should be a link that says Permalinks. Click on Permalinks.

Step #3 - Choose how you want the end of your URL to be structured. You can choose the default, which includes the number structure that is the default for the URL (you don’t want this - its the structure already in place). You can choose from Day and Name, Month and Name, Numeric or customize the how you want. I typically choose either Day and Name or Month and Name. Which you choose is up to you, but you must choose one of these two options.

*Note: Don’t look at you page just yet. It might appear broken until you complete this entire tutorial.

Step #4 - Once you choose which structure you want, select the bubble dot next to it, to fill it in/select it. Then scroll down near the bottom of this page and click the Save Changes button.

Step #5 - After saving the changes refreshes this page, scroll down this same page again, until you get beneath the Save Changes button (don’t press it this time). You will see a box filled with code. Use your Cut/Copy skills to copy the code within the box (the code should start with the line < IModule mod rewrite.c >).

Step #6 - Open up a notepad document. Paste the code you copied into the notepad document. Go up to the File tab in your notepad document. Click on it and then click Save As.

When the save box pops up, decide where you want to save the document. then name the document this (by typing it in the box where it says File Name):

.htaccess

That is DOT htaccess or PERIOD htaccess with no spaces.

In the box beneath the File Name box (it’s called Save as Type), use the drop down to save the file as All Files, not just as a txt file.

Step #7 - Using your favorite FTP program, upload your newly created .htaccess file to your main wordpress file. This is the place where you will upload files when you upgrade your Wordpress version.

Now you can go to your blog. You will be able to name your blog URLs in a box above the main text box where you write your article. Each article can have its own, individual name of your choosing.

Hopefully now, this process won’t be difficult and you too can take advantage of the benefits of using SEO friendly URLs for all your Wordpress articles.

Technorati Tags: SEO friendly, URLs, Permalinks, Settings, Wordpress Tutorial, How to, blog, Search Engine, htaccess

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Written by Dominick - Visit Website
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Don't hate me for wanting to be your own personal God!