I was upgrading one of my client?s WordPress blog today and although the upgrades went without a hitch, I did manage to discover a potential troublesome issue; WordPress is now dropping the trailing slash ( / ) from URLs.
Let me illustrate this:
Prior to WordPress version 2.2, the URL would look something like this:
http://www.youshouldknow.com/category/branding/
Now with WordPress version 2.2, the URL looks like this:
http://www.youshouldknow.com/category/branding
norvasc
pamelor
paxil
plavix
pravachol
premium diet patch
prevacid
prilosec
propecia
protonix
retin a
silagra
singulair
soma
super greens
synthroid
tadalis sx
tamiflu
tenormin
ultram
viagra
viagra soft tabs
virility patch rx
virility pills
vprx oil
yerba diet
zantac
zenegra
zero nicotine patch
zithromax
zocor
zyban
zyprexa
zyrtec
online pharmacy without prescriptionbuy silverbuy detoxbuy italian charmsdownload softwareonline pharmacy no prescriptioncanadian pharmacydownload moviesfarmacia en lineainternet drugstoremovie downloadmexican pharmacybuy gift basketsbuy levitrabuy hoodiaprescription drugsdownload moviebuy dvdcheap auto insurancebuy jewelrybuy jewelry onlinecheap online pharmacybuy alcohol testdownload filmdownload musicdownload mp3prescription drugsbuy notebook batterydownload moviesonline pharmacybuy charmsbuy piercingpiercingflash games onlinebuy propecia onlinesearchpiercingno prescription pharmacyonline pharmacyonline pharmacy no prescriptiondownload moviescanadian pharmacybuy soma onlinebuy carisoprodol onlineitalian charmsindian pharmacybuy viagra onlinegeneric viagra onlinebuy levitra onlinegeneric cialis onlineonline pharmacy without prescriptionno prescription online pharmacytransformers movieeuropean online pharmacyprivate porn moviesbuy phentrimine onlineonline pharmacy no prescriptionbuy jewelry onlinejewelry shopsilver shophealth articlespass a drug testbuy oem softwareeuropean pharmacydvd movies
As I researched this issue a little further, I discovered that for some reason WordPress developers have for some time treated /category/foobar/ and /category/foobar as the same thing. Additionally it looks like standard installations of WordPress will deliver the same content irrespective of which URL you call. If you are a seasoned webmaster or SEO, you will know that this makes you vulnerable to duplicate content penalties by search engines and potential inclusion to Google?s supplemental index.
I set out on a mission to resolve the following issues:
- I want to follow web standards and want my trailing slash at the end of my URLs if applicable.
- I want to eliminate any chance of being assign a duplicate content penalty and minimize inclusion into Google?s supplemental index.
I spent approximately 2 grueling days trying to find solutions to these problems. Finally I stumbled upon Agnivo Roy?s Blog. Amazingly enough Agnivo was experiencing the same identical issues I was and thankfully had come up with a solution which involved making a few simple edits to the /wp-includes/link-template.php file and installing the PermaLink Redirect Plugin. I encourage you to visit Agnivo?s entry called ?WordPress 2.2 Permalink Trailing Slash & Duplicate Pages Fix? for the detailed solution.
I?m a happy camper again!
Cheers Frank. First time you explained this “fix” to me I didn’t really see the need for it. But a required update I had to make to ver. Wordpress 2.2 this issue came up.
I followed your links and used them in combination and must say it just works like a charm. My permalinks are back to what they where before I updated.
Same time I combined it with the other fix ( http://www.clausheinrich.com/seo/change-or-remove-the-category-from-your-permalinks-on-a-wordpress-blog-34.html ) we used to remove the /category/ directory from the permalinks.
Thanks Claus! Yah the /category/ omission fix is really tempting me on some of my other blogs but have had problems with it in a particular installation.
I had this problem since 2.1. From what I know, I shouldn’t give you any problem from the Search Engine’s point of view. They will consider them the same.
I have never had the problem but I also use a cutom structure
Optoion > Permalinks > Common Options
I have selected Custom structure:
/tegory%/%postname%.html
Seems to work for me