WordPress’s ‘Pretty Links’
(Permalinks? Short for permanent links, they’re the links that point to blog articles, even after they’ve moved off the main page – hence, permanent. They’re also the ones you should use when referring to another blogger’s articles).
Basically, links can be something like:
bigbizblog.com?my-article
or this (sometimes called ‘pretty links’)
bigbizblog.com/my-article
The difference is that, while Google is quite content to index the second version, the jury’s out as to whether it will handle the first format, with the question mark.
According to some, the question mark makes the path look like a search query (rather than an actual page), and Google tends to avoid those. Whether that’s true or not, as you start your blog, investigate the alternative format, and set it up if you feel it’s worth the while.
In WordPress, this involves the Options/Permalinks section. It’s rather detailed, and will require some fiddling with your server internals (and likely a tour through WordPress’s docs).
Is it worth it? I have no proof, but some of the posts on that forum are from people experiencing indexing issues with search style links (no Google indexing beyond the first page), so I’d hazard a cautious yes.
Unfortunately, this is yet another item well worth doing right away – otherwise you’ll break the links to all your current articles. So a little time spent early on is well worth it to prevent this.
