I’ve been hearing this word permalink quite frequently around the blogosphere lately. From what I gather, here’s what I need to know, as a blogger, about permalink:
- A permalink is the URL of a specific blog post.
- Permalink that aligns with search terms people type into Google can make your blog more search engine-friendly.
- This is apparently a good thing.
- When I write a blog post, Blogger assigns my post an automatic permalink. This is usually the first few words of the blog post’s title.
- My titles are usually wacky and nothing even close to anything anyone searches for in Google. Therefore, nobody finds my blog posts via Google when the titles are wacky.
- This is apparently a bad thing.
- But there is hope: I can create custom permalink using Blogger with non-wacky words in it!
- Except…I don’t use Blogger to type my posts anymore. For a variety of reasons, including the ease of resizing pictures right in the post, I switched to Windows Live Writer about a year ago. And the kicker: Windows Live Writer doesn’t yet have a feature that allows me to create custom permalink. So all of my permalinks contain the fragments of my wacky titles…and nobody finds them when they search on Google.
- This is apparently a bad thing.
But fear not, fellow Blogger-Windows Live Writer users: there is actually an easy way to have both the wacky titles that I hold near and dear to my heart AND harder-working blog posts. (The number of people that use WLW and Blogger like I do is yet to be determined, but for now we’ll pretend that there is a giant herd of Blogger-WLW bloggers out there dying to make custom permalink for their blog.)
1. Create a new post in Blogger. Yes, in Blogger. Ignore the inferior custom perm-less WLW for the time being. Type in your title, and make it wacky. You know you want to.
2. Click on the “Permalink” tab on the right. Select “Custom Permalink” and type in the text that will be more search engine-friendly. Include dashes between each word. For this post, I typed in “how-to-create-custom-permalink-in-windows-live-writer-and-blogger.” Click “Save.”
3. Open Windows Live Writer and click the “Open” folder for all posts. Click on your blog’s name. These are the posts that you began writing in Blogger versus in Windows Live Writer. See the name of this post right there at the top of the pop-up window?
4. Open up the post for which you just created custom permalink. Proceed as usual with the writing of your post. You cannot change the permalink once the blog post has been published, which is why I changed it before I even began writing the post in the first place.
5. The end. Yes, that’s it. You know your mind is blown. I never even knew rocket science was my strength. Maybe I missed my calling…. ;)
Do you customize your permalink? Are you of the Wacky Title persuasion? Who was productive this weekend? I was not. I discovered the world of petite fashion blogs. Aaand that’s all we need to say about that.
Psstt…want to see some of the bizarre things people have searched for and subsequently found my blog? Visit here and here.
Another way to do it is to type your post in WLW, post it as a draft instead of publishing straight out of WLW (which I do anyway so I can recheck everything in blogger), change the permalink and then publish!
ReplyDeleteNow, not only are you a teacher in the classroom but now you have proved to be a teacher in blogosphere...thanks for a great explanation and a great tutorial.
ReplyDeleteI have the option to create better permalinks in wordpress, but I always forget! Thanks for the reminder!
ReplyDeleteThis is very complicated. I am doing a lot of things wrong... =( I didn't realize that the permalinks matter. I usually leave them as the title. Thanks for the help!
ReplyDeleteI used to use Windows Live Writer, but it kept giving me errors when I tried to transfer the post to wordpress so I gave up!
I think it's only wrong if you care about this stuff...which I don't really...but it seemed like an easy enough fix, and will make my blog posts work harder, so I went for it. :)
DeleteI use Wordpress but always wonder what the permalink is for. Thanks for sharing... I'll have to give custom permalinks a try.
ReplyDeleteLook at you knowing stuff! I never, ever think about this... perhaps I shall now..
ReplyDeleteI must admit I didn't know any of this. I just write my posts in Blogger and hit publish. I guess I'm behind the times! Thanks for the tips!!
ReplyDeleteWow. I was going to write something fairly intelligent, albeit wacky, of course, but all I really want to do now is go visit your King Solarman friend.
ReplyDeleteA-hem.
Don't you love "personal" comments? ;)
Oh, yes...and aren't you a smart, petite, cookie? :) (Please send me those fashion blogs. Wink, wink.)
Yes, King Solarman and I go way back. We once ate spam together. :P
DeleteDeleting his comment now. ;)
Darn search engine optimization. Once I learned about it, I tried to not care..but I did. Now I have a solution!!
ReplyDelete~Fellow Weird Title Lover
A little lightbulb just went off in my head. Aha, I thought, that's why those "big bloggers" always have such mundane titles - so that they can be googled more. Makes sense. I don't use the WLW as I can barely manage one step in Blogger, but I'm going to try using a more concise permalink for my posts. Thanks for the info, Erin.
ReplyDeleteLet me just say I had no clue and thank you ;]!
ReplyDeleteI do use a custom perma link sometimes....but I have Wordpress....it makes is so much easier!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great tutorial!
blessings,
karianne
Oh boy. I still have so much to learn in the world of blogging.
ReplyDeleteI love Windows Live Writer. I had even opening Blogger now because Live Writer is so much better! Why is it so difficult for Blogger to adjust picture size?!
ReplyDeleteYour blog is nifty.