WordPress Permalink Structure

[Boris_yo]

Hi guys.
It's about PERMALINKS.

If you go to my http://www.curehalitosisbadbreath.com website and point to any post name,
you will see in lower address browser's bar its full path.

Let's say it shows: mysite.com/category/post-id/
I want to make it like this: mysite.com/category/post/

I want to make it so it shows the same but without id at the end.

The below example...
/%category%/%postname%-%post_id%/

Needs to be changed to this:
/%category%/%postname%/

The above structure is in PERMALINK plugin in WordPress.
Will it be better to have post without ID at the end for better results with SEO?
Or this will not impact on SEO?

[nasph]

Boris,

Typically it won't matter whether you have the id at the end of the permalink or not - it really doesn't matter if your URL hasn't got a keyword phraze in it either.

What does matter is that your posts are keyword targeted and any inlinks you have are keyword targeted as well.

Personally I like to have my permalinks with just /%postname%/ - makes it easier when you link to a specific post with another.

[Boris_yo]

I remember i created backlinks to posts from article directories. Then later i have changed post slug with it's location in category and started to think if this change in URL of a post will make my backlinks from article sites incorrect and visitors will come to error page.

I clicked the backlinks from article sites and surprisingly came to the right post.

Interesting if i will experience the same if i will remove id from post name?

Does WordPress redirect visitors to right page even that backlinks from article sites point to different url of a post?

And does this impact SEO or Page Rank?

[bjsmooths]

One thing to remember is that if you change your permalinks after creating content, the search engines may already have it link to your old permalink.

So if your permalinks were set to the default, it may be better to leave it be if the page is already indexed.

I would agree that this doesn't make a big deal in search engines, only because when you do a search, the first thing that you see on Google or any other search engine, is the Title of that particular page based on your keyword. Having the keywords in the first part of your post is also helpful.

When I initially install wordpress though, I make sure that my permalinks aren't set to the default but rather to %postname%

[Boris_yo]

Hello,

Today i tried to remove id's from postnames, but when tried to arrive to my blog through another post within my blog, the WordPress couldn't redirect to exact page.

I immediately changed back, returned ids and that corrected the problem.

What you say is correct bjsmooths
It is important to make appropriate changes to permalink structure at the beginning before posting anything.

[nasph]

Boris,

Bjsmooths is correct, but I did find a resource through google that showed you how todo this. Can't remember where it was, but sure if you type in to google changing your permalink structure then it will come up - the resource was a tutorial on how to do it.

I personally use a plugin redirector to redirect some of my old permalink posts.

[Marc]

I swear I posted an answer to this, but it isnt showing, might have written it and not posted it.

Everything said above is correct, a 301 re-direct will need to be done on all your old permalinks if you do change the structure.

However leaving them with the id on the end will make no difference.

Regards
Marc

[Boris_yo]

I think permalink redirect can be found in WordPress admin panel.