WordPress 3.0 – Shortlinks – Why You Should Use Them
So, I’ve been playing with RC of WP 3.0 for a while now and one of the new features that I’ve started to really like is shortlinks.
Shortlinks is basically an internal WordPress link shortener.
Here’s how you use it
Say you have your permalinks set to category/post name in Settings/Permalink and you want to tweet about your new post on “Changing the WordPress Theme” that is in the “WordPress Themes” category. This means that the url to the post would look something like this:
www. wpqueen.com/wordpress-themes/changing-the-wordpress-theme
Now, that’s quite a lot of characters we would be using up if we are tweeting about this post.
So, we could shorten it by using a url shortening service like bit.ly or changing the post slug in WordPress or in WP 3.0 we can shorten it in one click.
All we need to do is click “Get Shortlink” and our url is automagically shortened.
Here’s why shortlinks are important
Shortlinks, in theory, should not change. A permalink can change if you alter the post for example by changing the title or post slug. If you use shortlinks then the permanent link will always remain the same and your custom permalink structure will still be doing its seo magic in the background.
If you can’t wait for WP 3.0 to be released for this feature and you are not feeling brave enough to install the beta release you can install a shortlink plugin.
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Have fun with WP :)
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My name is Leanne King and I'm an Australian internet marketer and WordPress fanatic. I share my knowledge of WordPress here on my blog, through my products, private coaching and in private forums. In my spare time I like to develop products for WordPress users that are easy to use.
Readers' Comments
Like what you’re saying Leanne but there’s a couple of issues that keep ringing about in my head…
1. Permalinks won’t change in WordPress (unless you manually change it) – even if you go back and edit the title after it’s been published, the permalink won’t change unless you manually edit the permaling.
2. I know this is a bit wrong, but there are still a lot of elements of the SEO community that firmly believe that keywords in a URL are of a higher significance than we think. Even SEO guru Dave Naylor edits his permalinks manually to do some subtle keyword cramming…!
Recruitment SEO on June 11th, 2010 at 9:28
You don’t change your permalink structure for example category/postname or whatever you may be using. You just grab a shortlink from wp rather than using a service like bit.ly if you are tweeting your post or sending out your post to others to make it shorter and easier to remember.
admin on June 15th, 2010 at 0:49