[wp-hackers] Permalink Structure - Performance vs. SEO

[Claude Needham]

On Tue, Jun 14, 2011 at 7:28 AM, Travis Northcutt
<travis at travisnorthcutt.com> wrote:
> <rant>
>
> Chip is talking about the date in the URL being useful to *users*. Not
> search engines, but actual *humans*. If I read a tutorial on how to do
> something with WordPress, and I can see from the URL that it was posted a
> week ago, I'm much more likely to trust that it's using up to date methods
> than if it was posted two years ago.
>
> Do what is best for your users (humans), first. If you have two choices to
> make and they're equally good for users (humans), by all means choose the
> one that is best for search engines (computers). Don't make the mistake of
> reversing those steps, though.
>
> I'd be willing to be a lot of money that search engines (computers) place
> more value on content being linked to many times than they do on not having
> the date of a piece of content in its URL. And the way to get your content
> linked to is to produce the best content you can, presented in the best way
> possible for users (humans). Good links come from humans, not computers, so
> optimize for humans.
>
> </rant>
> --
> Travis Northcutt

Two things.

1) Please try to keep in mind (occasionally at least) that some of us
WP as a CMS for content that is not time sensitive. And , in fact the
inclusion of year/month is misleading or confusing. So date is not
*always* a good thing to make prominent. In these cases post id would
be a better fit.

The formula for what makes a good page is the same -- good content.

2)  "Good links come from humans, not computers" There is a minor flaw
in use of links for popularity. Don't know a solution. But links
should not be the "be all end all" of value. There are many extremely
valuable websites that I use on a daily basis that I have never
published a link to. I  might email the link. Or, PM the link. But I
don't put the link on a webpage or in a blog. As search engines have
gained popularity the need for posting mini-menus of links on a topic
has diminished. Every time you mention to someone to "google it"
rather than post a set of personal favorite links you are proving the
point that individuals creating links of favorite content is on the
wane. At the moment I suspect that if you actually measured the number
of links being created we'd find a large percentage being created by
computers in the form of text link spam bots or link-exchange
scheme-bots. My own rant. :)

Claude