Say you have a couple hundred (or thousand) pages indexed in Google and you decide to change how the link structure of the site will be handled. How do you do this?

The best way is to 301 (permanent) redirect the old URLs to the new ones but this can get tricky. There are tutorials (Apache | IIS). But if you aren’t familiar with your web server and are not a programmer (like me) you may be in over your head (again, like me).

The 301 redirect is important because it lets the search engines know that the same page has been “moved” to a new location. This helps you avoid duplicate content penalties and keep the link juice, or PR, that you already accumulated for those pages. It also prevents viewers from clicking links to your website that turn into “404 - page not found” errors.

Put simply, a 301 redirect helps you keep the rankings you already earned.

It also keeps your pages in the index and lets the search engines transition to the new structure without dropping your whole site and re-indexing it from scratch.

At least, that’s the theory.

I’ve been working on a redesign for 14th Colony and part of the redesign is to make the site more search-engine friendly. I’ve learned a lot since this site was launched and want to put that knowledge into practice here like I already do on my client sites. One of the changes I want to implement is the link structure because having keyword in your URL (instead of a generic post number) helps with rankings. And on the advice of ex-Googler Vanessa Fox, I’ve decided to do the link structure update before I push the redesign.

But this site is a WordPress blog and WordPress offers something called “permalinks” that will automatically change your link structure for you. Permalinks are a type of URL designed to refer to a specific information item and to remain unchanged permanently, or at least for a lengthy period of time to prevent link rot.

At least that’s the definition I got from Google which pulled it from Wikipedia… and don’t get me started on Wikipedia again!

The way permalinks work in WordPress is you go into your admin panel, select Options > Permalinks and set the structure how you want. Easy, right?

Almost too easy.

I was getting ready to change the permalink structure when this little voice in the back of my head asked if permalinks 301 the “old” pages to the new. I asked around and didn’t get a clear answer. I did some research and saw a few posts about how long it would take Google to reindex a WordPress site that changed the permalink structure.

I sensed danger.

Sure enough WordPress will change the link structure but that does not include the very important 301 redirects needed to keep your link juice and prevent duplicate content penalties!

After more research (and trying to decide if there was enough value in what I’d learn by just flipping the switch to see what happens) I found a couple WordPress plug-ins that 301 redirect your site to the structure you want. The plug-in I decided to implement is by fucoder.com tittled Permalink Redirect WordPress Plugin.

I picked this particular plug-in because it was recently updated, easy to implement and also supports redirecting to FeedBurner which is an added bonus. It also had the best “total coverage” of what the 301 would do.

How easy is it to use?

Upload the file, activate it and if you use FeedBurner plug in your URL for that and you are done. This plug-in automates whatever the WordPress permalink setting is into a 301 - how cool is that?

It is important to note there will be a period of fluctuation while Google and the other search engines update their index to replace the URLs. Sometimes this process runs smoothly sometimes not. There is always risk when it comes to making major changes to your website but by using 301 redirects you can minimize that risk.

To speed the process along I suggest using this Google Sitemap Generator and then rebuild and resubmit the map after you change your permalink structure.

For the record, changing an existing site structure should really be avoided and if you can set the link structure up correctly to begin with you’ll avoid these headaches all together. The format I suggest is: http://www.domain.com/catagory/posttittle

If you are concerned that post titles may duplicate add a date function at the beginning like: http://www.domain.com/date/catagory/posttittle

Finally, another advantage of fucoder’s plug-in is that is makes sure a trailing slash gets removed and redirected. This is a small thing but I often see duplicate pages in my logs - one with the slash the other without, and this plug-in will clear that up. So even if you have an existing WordPress site with permalinks this plug-in can help you out.

Posted in SEOs, Website Designers, Reviews, SEO, Web Design

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Jim Cook at Design Refugee has assembled 50 Common Web Design Mistakes. Jim has been teaching web design for years and has an all-star line up of clients including the Catholic Church, Country singer Vince Gill, the St. Louis Sports Commission, the Ronald McDonald House and the NCAA.

My favorite points include:

1. Untitled documents
4. Duplicate meta information on all pages
8. “Under Construction” pages
9. Frames
11. Worthless content
16. “Alien” pages
23. Restyling text instead of using heading tags
25. Using images for text
33. “Ransom” note styling
36. Resizing images in the browser
39. Gratuitous Flash
46. Reliance on email links
48. Auto-play sounds

Jim’s original article explains all of these issues and they are all things I regularly encounter online and explain to my clients. If you are building a website, this is a great checklist of things to avoid.

And if you want to know more about Jim Cook, check out his interview.

Posted in Website Designers, Useability, SEO, Web Design

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A question was recently asked around hand coding an HTML “static” site or using WordPress as a content management system (CMS) of sorts.

As John pointed out in the original post there are several pros and cons to each solution but I thought I’d add some of my personal input. If the site is only going to have a handful of pages (less than 10) and you don’t need to worry about updates and the site functionality is limited then a static site is fine.

If you want advanced functionality and the ability for anyone to add, edit and remove pages then using WordPress as a CMS is the way to go.

WordPress is highly customizable. Not only can you have a custom home page that looks different then the rest of the site, you can also add custom templates and sub-templates for individual sections or pages.

Anyone familiar with Microsoft Word can quickly learn how to edit content in WordPress. In fact, WordPress includes keyboard shortcuts for highlighting text, adding links and other functions in addition to the simple graphic interface.

The WordPress site structure is another strong advantage especially to anyone interested in search engine optimization. By default, the link structure and page hierarchy is strong and there are several plugins to make your WordPress website even more enticing to the search engines.

WordPress automatically creates RSS feeds of your content giving you extra methods of promotion. People can subscribe to your feed via an RSS reader or by email.

There is a lot of support for WordPress bringing new functionality to the table every day. New themes, plug-ins and tools are being released regularly making upgrades simple.

If you ever want to redesign, upgrade or enhance your website having the content in a portable format like WordPress is a huge advantage. Every website has a shelf-life and then looks dated. Or perhaps you want to do a major overhaul to add functionality. WordPress stores your content in XML files making it portable to other CMS solutions and making future WordPress updates much easier to handle. One of the most time-consuming aspects of any website redesign is managing old content. The process of copying it and placing it in the new format along with formatting can take days.

WordPress is structured in PHP so there is some programming skill needed to get the most out of your WordPress site - at least for setup, but once that is done you’ll really enjoy how easy the site is to use and promote.

WordPress Links:

• WordPress.org - Home of WordPress.
• WordPress Pages - Information about what Pages are and how to manipulate them.
• Template Tags - WordPress has preset tags you can use to modify your template.
• WordPress Themes - Includes a long list of links for picking a theme that is right for you.
• Keyboard Shortcuts - List of common keyboard commands to save time while writing.
• Advanced Editor - WordPress has a “secret” editor for advanced formatting.
• WordPress Plugins - Add functionality to your website.

Posted in Website Designers, Business Owners, Web Design

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BigDoug brought some really great observations to SEO Refugee as the tenured webmaster of Branson Critic. Doug owns a few other sites as well and has a keen eye for promotion… if not website development! This post is an absolute don’t miss unless you want to learn Doug’s lesson’s the hard way.

Some key points:

• Revamping a website causes problems for both the search engines and users.
• DMOZ leaves a lot to be desired.
• Google and PayPal are the ones to watch.
• Money is getting to be more important online for promotion and to protect your civil liberties.

My favorite tip is Lesson fourteen: Do not drink while writing source code.

Posted in Industry News, SEO, Marketing, Web Design

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My wife had several women to the house the other night. Like any smart man I got the hell out of there. I went to the local Barns & Noble.

I looked through the magazines first. One that caught my eye was a 2006 wrap-up of advertising campaigns. I looked through the whole thing, inspecting and absorbing what everyone else is doing. I even took notes.

Then I lost myself among the books for a while. I noticed the barrage of colors and styles. My advertising receptors were at full power. And I paid attention to which books jumped out at me.

Next, I found myself in the business section. I found a great book by Tom Peters on design. What impressed me about the book is that it is about the importance of design. Design, argues Tom, is something everyone does (even if they don’t realize it) and is ultimately the defining factor in purchasing decisions.

Then I found myself in the Web Design section. I was looking at the new titles and noticed a lot of web design books are now about style and tricks.

By style I mean how-to-CSS books mostly but some reviews of what has been done and the aesthetic production of websites. I think just surfing around accomplishes the same thing… but is much less expensive.

By tricks I mean the latest Ruby on Rails, AJAX, Web2.0, delicious mash-ups and similar technologies. This is exciting stuff but I think every bit of code you can find in a book is also available online (free) and probably a bit cliché by now. How many new uses for tag clouds are there?

Then I found Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think!, which is a wonderful book on website usability. Krug talks extensively about the difference in what designers expect versus the reality of what viewers do. And then he points out some common usability errors. Again, most of this info is floating around online but having it all in one place created a few *Ah-Ha* moments for me. One particular moment came from a quote of Krug’s wife where she says that if something is hard to use, she’ll just use it less.

Krug also talked about people having only so much patience and once you’ve burned through it they are gone… with a negative image of your brand. I experienced this today with my new cell phone company. I got transferred so many times and asked the same information over and over again that I just got frustrated. I mean really, did I have to let them know I want English 4 times on the same call? Their operators were aware of the issue and kept apologizing in advance… If you know about the problem - fix it!

My cell phone company has an error in their customer communications. I ran out of patience and told them to cancel the service and that I’d be returning the phone. My view of that company is not favorable. It wasn’t any one thing that drove me to that point… it was a build-up of several small problems. When I caught myself saying “I don’t understand” for the tenth time (not exaggerating) I gave up. Their system is not designed well.

Back to Barns & Noble the other night. I realized something very important: people don’t buy products or services. They buy an expectation of an experience.

I’ve circled around this idea many times over the years but looking at thousands of books it really hit home for me. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular, just a book that was written for me. Whose personality would be like mine. Whose writing style I could digest easily. Whose cover was flashy but professional. That would look good in my collection. That would be within a price range and deliver a certain value - sure! - but it had to fit my style.

So the question I have for you is how much value do you place on that element that defines your market? That thing that shows off your personality and style? How much do you value design?

Bonus follow-up question: Does your current design reflect your values or your customers values? (Guess which one will make you more money?)

I’ve been involved in design for over half my life now. I always knew on an instinctual level that it was important but even I underestimated how powerful design is… and how far-reaching it can be.

Design is how you communicate from the clothes you wear to the colors on your website. Design is how you communicate with everyone in your life from loved ones to employees to customers. A tank is designed to get a very different response than a bouquet of flowers. Your business image is crafted the same way and with the same results.

Posted in Graphic Design, Useability, Marketing, Web Design

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