Not exactly, but there is a plugin that can help.
Thread Starter
gabier
(@gabier)
Hello jimisaacs,
Thank you for answer. I will consider this plugin, but I have seen in its description/FAQ that “The plugin works in a similar manner to how WordPress handles permalinks “, thus I am not sure it solves my problem.
My problem is not to make the redirections easier, but to be sure that WordPress handles the permalink change as the redirection of a changed URL so that Google and other robots know it is a changed URL and not a duplicate content.
More precisely, when receiving a request with an “old” URL, does WordPress send back the correct page because it has translated internally the “old” URL into the “new” one, or a 301 error with the alternate (“new”) URL ?
The later way is correct, and in this case there is no problem. The former way is bad because the user (which can be a robot) has no way to relate the old and the new url. Both work and thus it is labeled as “duplicate content”.
I would expect WordPress to behave the right way, but I could find nowhere a description of its action in this case.
🙂 Gabier
If your old URL was
example.com/?p=55
The new URL is
example.com/testing
When a request for ?p=55 is made it “should” redirect you to the correct page/post, it’s always worked that way in my experience.
Thread Starter
gabier
(@gabier)
Hello t31os_
Yes, of course it redirects me to “example.com/testing”, but my point is :
If the correct/new url is “example.com/testing” and my browser sends a request with “example.com/?p=55” (old url), does wordpress
1. sends back directly the page with the post #55 as if the correct url had been sent ?
2. sends to my browser a 301 error with the alternate URL “example.com/testing”, and then my browser automatically sends a new request with the correct URL.
The result for the user is the same, but for a robot it is not the same. Because in the case 1 the requests with old or new URL both work independantly, and then it is “duuplicate content”, a situation that robots do not like, I have been said.
Is that clear ? I have not found the answerin the codex or forums that is why I ask the question.
🙂 Gabier
You will not suffer from duplicate content penalties. Without writing a long post on the technicalities, it’s not an issue.
Honestly me, i’m not sure, i don’t know enough about robots or how WordPress handles the redirection to answer you definitively.
Gary seems confident there isn’t a duplicative content issue though, perhaps he knows something i don’t, which shouldn’t be too hard, i only know what i know (which is far from everything WordPress).
Thread Starter
gabier
(@gabier)
Thank you Gary Barrett
I will take you at your word.
Maybe you have a link to the “technicalities” somewhere ? Or just give me a hint ? I like to understand things if they are not too complicated.
🙂 Gabier
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/09/demystifying-duplicate-content-penalty.html
Matt Cutts recommends using 301 redirects and the rel=canonical tag to avoid the issue, you’re doing both automatically by using WordPress http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm9onOGTgeM
Thread Starter
gabier
(@gabier)
Thank you Gary Barrett, very interesting stuff.
I have found the rel=canonical tag in the posts’ pages of my blog! It seems to work as you said;
🙂 Gabier
