BTI Site Update: 11/27/06 6:10PM
BTI Site Update: 11/27/06 6:10PM
I am doing quite a few updates to the site this evening. One I have modified the permalink structure. I am aware that this will cause a ton of back links to no longer function. There isn’t much I can do about that, other than post a special message on our 404 page that explains about this update. Some might think that updating the permalink structure isn’t a good idea. I am really sorry to do this. BTI has been online for a little over one year, and about fours months ago, I realized that the permalink structure can be customized for better optimization. I am been thinking about doing this update for awhile, and finally feel that in the long run, updating the permalink structure is better for you as well as BTI.
Formally, the article url structure was as follows:
- blogtheinternet.com/2006/07/14/story-name/
This structure broke down as follows: domain name/year of story/ month of story/ day of story/story name/
The new url structure is as follows:
- blogtheinternet.com/category/story-name.php
This structure breaks down a lot better: domain name/computers/computer-story.php
Instanly, I see a tremendous difference in my Google Adsense advertisements. They are by far the most relevant I have ever seen! Results in Google will look amazing, and should prove to be better optimized with better results!
I know that in the short term, this is a minor set back, because of all the existing back links from other sites. I tried to do the best I could and at least explain this situation on our 404 page. The 404 page provides a very accessible search bar where a viewer can enter the name of the article they were looking for and read it in its new location. I hope that you understand that I am here for the long haul. I want to see BTI grow by leaps and bounds. I understand that it would have been better to have customized the permalink structure a year ago, but I wasn’t aware that I could.
I am doing quite a bit of work to the front page. But I will explain more about this in my next update. I am sure that you can see the changes that are being made, but I will go ahead and create a post later this evening that explains in detail what I have done.
Thank you for your continued interest in BTI, and in time, you will see how much this update pays off.
Garry Conn
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November 27th, 2006 at 6:46 pm
You dirty rat - all of the link-backs you’ve destroyed.
One of these days, POW, to the MOON!
:p
November 27th, 2006 at 7:13 pm
Just in case, viewers feel it is a “REAL STUPID” mistake, I can change it all back within minutes. I know how you feel… I feel the same way. But it’s been bugging me for a long time. This is a lot better, and if I knew I could have done this in the beginning, I would have. So, I have to look at this situation in this perspective… The site has been online for about a year. I plan on keeping the site up and running for a long time. Five years from now, this update will have little effect on things.
Honestly, I wish there was a way to maintain the permalink structure on the old posts. If this was a blogger.com site, I could have done it easily. But unfortunately, Wordpress doesn’t create real pages, so this can’t be done. Well, I am sure there is a way, but at my level of programming, I am not able to figure it out.
I know that BTI has a ton of link-backs, but if anything, maybe this shows people that I care more about the long term of the site instead of trying to get the most in traffic. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy traffic, and I am willing to sacrifice a bit of traffic in the short term to gain even more in the near future. I feel, that everyone has a wordpress blog. They are common. I really believe that providing a unique site, totally different from others, is what will get you noticed in the long run. It is very common to see people have the /year/month/day/post-name format, and not many have the custom permalink structure. I can’t help it, I just like to be different! LOL
November 27th, 2006 at 8:07 pm
What you’re tossing out is a year’s worth of link-backs and other assorted good-will that you’ve been drawing from other sites for MAYBE a ½ of 1 percent gain over the course of a year. All of those link-backs will probably stay there, resulting in search engines finding your site is a major source of bad and transient links, resulting in far more damage than that ½ of 1% gain gets you.
The math tells me that it is not a smart move.
November 27th, 2006 at 8:12 pm
I think I can create permanent pages for the archives. I will have to import into blogger.com and export static html pages using the old structure, and then that will create or write static pages. Once that is done, then I can do the new permalink structure. Before doing that, I wonder if there is a wordpress plugin that allows you to write static pages?
November 27th, 2006 at 8:21 pm
Yes… there are some static page creator plugins… A few to choose from as well! I will keep you posted. I really do want to preserve the archives, and I am going to give it a shot!
November 27th, 2006 at 9:53 pm
Well, that didn’t turn out well, the plugin I found allowed you to create a static page per individual post, and I am not going to sit there are edit every article written on the site.
I have put the existing permalink structure back in place. So there are no broken links. Everything is back the way it was. From here, I will be looking into finding a way to preserve existing permalinks structures so that eventually I can update to the new structure. Again, in the mean time, everything is back to normal.
November 27th, 2006 at 10:14 pm
Everytime you do something on a site, you must weigh the benefits against the costs. I just can’t see where the benefits here would outweigh the costs.
Now, if there was some kind of conversion that allows for automatic redirection, then…
November 27th, 2006 at 10:23 pm
I was looking for that too… couldn’t find it. I am sure it can be done, if you know php well. I don’t know php all that well at all. But I am still looking into this, because I really don’t like the traditional permalink structure at all. And after doing the change today, it looked so much better. Right now, I am trying to find a program that will download an entire website to hard drive on a personal computer… If I can get a dump of the entire site static on disk, then I can just upload it back to the server… Surely something like that exists?
November 27th, 2006 at 10:40 pm
Wow… That wasn’t complicated at all. I have downloaded the entire site to my hard drive in static pages and folders, now I am about to upload a static version of BTI and this will allow me to change the dynamic permalink structure of the site! Yeah!!! I think I figured it out. If it works, then I will create an article about it, since I couldn’t find one already written. Too cool, I hope it works.
November 27th, 2006 at 10:44 pm
Um, did this cause the naked women in the side bar? The site suddenly took on a seedy and undesirable look…
November 28th, 2006 at 8:09 am
As it turns out, I haven’t downloaded a copy of the entire site. I only had it partially downloaded. One, the program I used missed a lot of folders. And two, the folders that I did upload that maintained a static page of some posts had a big issue because of the use of the more tag. As much as I wanted to update the permalink structure, doing so and trying to maintain the old one is about near impossible.
After one year, I finally found what I would consider a disadvantage of using Wordpress and its dynamic page feature. If this site was on blogger.com or movable type, this update wouldn’t have been a problem, as both of those programs create static pages.
I guess I am going to give that a rest, and move on with the updates. The sidebar is my next project. The ‘naked women’ links to True. It’s an affiliate program through commission junction. I want to experiment with commission junction and see if this brings in some money for the site. As far as the amount of ads seen today on the site, that too was an experiment, mainly to see how many different ads I could fit and see what would happen when the ads required more space than the post on the left. The reason most is all from True, is because I wanted to fill the space quickly.
When I update the sidebar, I am going to be adding different ads in. I will still use True, but not as much. I ran out of gas last night and didn’t have a chance to move on to updating the sidebar. It takes a long time for me to make changes to the site for the fact that I usually update and save one line of code at a time. In my experience, it is better this way, because it makes it easier to see if any errors are created and finding a solution to fixing them. Naturally, I could write all the code I need in one pop, and save, but then if there are errors, I will have a lot of trouble finding the problem.
I have spent some time reviewing popular newspapers websites and have some ideas for BTI. Not much will be done this afternoon, but later this evening I will be continuing the work.
Ideally, it would have been nice to update the permalink structure, because my Google Adsense ads are the bomb! They were the most relevant I have ever seen. I was banking on that, and I was going to make some position changes with the Google Adsense ads based on that… but now that has changed.
November 28th, 2006 at 6:06 pm
Half of the ‘True’ ads are showing not scantily clad women - they are naked naked, as in stark stark.