Quick question about ideal permalink structures

  • Ronnie55

    (@ronnie55)


    11 years, 5 months ago

    I’m currently using /%category%/%postname%/

    I’ve been reading a few articles and I’ve seen a few comments stating that this structure isn’t ideal if you have posts that go into multiple categories. Unfortunatley my site does fit that criteria- I have about 5 categories but posts quite often fit into 2 or more.

    Is the general consensus that the permalink structure will be confusing to visitors potentially? Is that the only downside?

    Example: Post “XYZ” is in category A and B. a visitor clicks to browse Category A, clicks through to post “XYZ”, then sees that it’s listed under category B in the URL slug and gets confused?? is that it?

    Any clarification is appreciated.

    If this is considered a significant issue I might switch to /%postname%/ ?

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • csloisel

    (@csloisel)

    11 years, 5 months ago

    You aren’t going to find a definitive answer on this. As far as SEO is concerned, both are good options. If you want my opinion, you shouldn’t be cross posting to multiple categories that frequently, you really should be using tags instead. But if you are going to continue to use categories like tags then yes I would probably remove the category from the permalink. But again, that is just my opinion.

    Thread Starter Ronnie55

    (@ronnie55)

    11 years, 5 months ago

    Thanks for the reply. I guess I’m just trying to find out the specific reason that people say I should not be cross posting to multiple categories.

    Everything you said makes sense. I like the suggestion of using tags. But with so many people saying not to use multiple categories for one post, I just was trying to understand why. Performance? user experience? etc.

    csloisel

    (@csloisel)

    11 years, 5 months ago

    That’s a tough question to answer, but I can tell you it has little to do with performance. It is more of a common practice thing related to user experience. Categories are typically used as a high level division of subject matter, and a post usually only fits under one or maybe two categories. And when it becomes common practice, people come to expect similar functionality and usage when on new sites.

    Thread Starter Ronnie55

    (@ronnie55)

    11 years, 5 months ago

    ^^ makes total sense, TY.

    I think I’ll keep my categories, make a conscious effort to only choose 1 whenever possible (can prolly hit 85% on this), and implement tags tonight (I love the tags suggestion for my type of site).

    TY again for taking the time to provide detailed info.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

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