This short article details the plugins I’ve used to go through the whole task of renovating my category and permalink structure. I thought it’ll be useful to share my experience of the process.

SEO-Friendly Permalinks for Wordpress

Before the permalink change, I was already running what Wordpress Codex calls pretty permalinks, or permalinks with descriptive text instead of just numbers and ids. Pretty permalinks allow you to have keywords in the URL and some have suggested that this could possibly improve your search engine rankings.

I was previously using /%category%/%postname%/ as my permalinks and redirected them to the shorter /%postname%/ format because I found that my old URLS were too long and unwieldy.

Another reason is the limitation caused by using categories in the permalink structure, which made my post ’stuck’ to the category I’ve initially assigned it.

Four Plugins you Need to Overhaul your Permalinks and Categories

Changing the permalink and category structure for your Wordpress blog is not a difficult process at all, due to the existence of some very resourceful plugins that will help you to do a lot of the dirty work.

Everything can be done through your dashboard or feed reader and you won’t even have to check your logs or access your .htaccess file at all.

Here are the four main plugins that I recommend using:

• Permalinks Migration Plugin. This nifty plugin allows you to change your permalink structure without breaking the old links to your website and allows you to maintain your search ranks as well. What this does is that it generates a 301 redirect whenever anyone assesses your site through the old permalinks, thereby sending them to the new permalink structure. This is very easy to implement and will only take a few minutes to set up.




• Batch Categories. This plugin should be used when you need to remove old categories and transfer many posts to the new categories you’ve set up. It allows you to assign or delete multiple posts to or from a category at one shot.
  You won’t be needing this plugin if you’re not originally using the category id in the permalink structure, although you can still use it to create new categories for your posts.




• Objection Redirection. This very cool plugin allows you to 301 redirect users and search engine bots from 404 error pages that result from old permalinks to existing webpages with the new permalinks. This is extremely easy to use and has saved me a lot of time because I didn’t have to manually enter the redirects within the .htaccess file. A real lifesaver if you are changing permalinks and need to fix those 404s.




• 404 Notifier. This plugin logs 404 error pages whenever they are accessed by a bot or a user and informs you via RSS or email. You can then do a redirect on the error page to the correct webpage using the Objection Redirection plugin above. What I do is that I’ll subscribe to my 404 notifications via RSS and then log into the Dashboard to redirect the old webpages.

I only took around an hour to do all the redirection/post shifting work and a few minutes everyday to double check for 404 pages I might have overlooked.

There are around 225 posts on Dosh Dosh and since the permalink overhaul a week ago, I have not seen any drop in search engine rankings or traffic at all. In fact, search traffic seems to have increased on the whole but there’s probably because I’ve been doing some volume blogging.

If you’ve ever wanted to change your permalinks but was afraid of losing your search traffic, perhaps you might want to consider doing so again. It’s perfectly safe and there’s nothing to worry about if you take the right precautions.

How to Survive a Category and Permalink Overhaul on your Wordpress Blog

The theme has already been downloaded over 1,000 times and requests for different color schemes was by far the most prevalent, hence the release now of both grey and blue versions of ProSense.

These two versions remains the same as the original but the rectangle Adsense code within the post is now aligned to the left for better ad spacing.

Here are some screenshots of the homepage for both color schemes:

And here’s a look at the single post page with the ad unit aligned to the left:

Some updates we have in mind for future versions of the theme:

• Customizable header which allows you to easily insert and change images.




• Addition of a centralized options file which allows fast Adsense code and color scheme switching. This enables you to change theme colors and remove or insert Adsense codes through a single theme file.




• Customized Google Adsense search may be integrated to replace the default WP search function

As I’ve mentioned before, ProSense is an ongoing project and we plan to make it the definitive Adsense Ready wordpress theme by constantly adding new theme features and layouts.

If you have any suggestions or requests, please feel free to leave them at the original ProSense theme page, which also offers a full listing of the current theme features.

You can download both new color versions of the theme below:

Download ProSense Blue | Download ProSense Grey

ProSense: Adsense Ready Wordpress Theme now available in Different Colors

This fast loading and easily customizable theme is built to accommodate heavy contextual ad monetization: Its very infrastructure is designed to direct maximum attention to Adsense ads while preserving as much focus as possible on your blog content.

Featuring built-in ad units with optimized placement and blending, ProSense’s broad design scheme makes it easily suitable for a wide variety of niche topics or content types.

A Guide to the Prosense Theme Features

Prosense was created with the aim of including several features which we knew most bloggers would find useful. One of these is the freedom to choose which type of ad units should be automatically displayed.

While designed to effortlessly incorporate a large amount of Adsense ads, ProSense allows you to have complete control over the amount of ads displayed and therefore is even suitable for bloggers who are not seeking to heavily monetize their blogs.

Here are some of the theme features, some of which are currently exclusive to ProSense:

• Separate and Distinct Ad Blocks. The use of distinct theme files for ad codes allows for easy editing and insertion of Adsense units. These ad blocks can also be used to insert other types of advertisements as well and are not solely limited to Adsense use.




• Multiple Ad Display Options. Unlike other Adsense Ready themes, ProSense allows you to choose between either banner or rectangle ads for the single post page, thus allowing you more flexibility when it comes to ad blending.




• Hassle-free convenience and ease of use. You’ll only have to insert your Adsense publisher ID in the default ad units and you’re done. It should only take a minute or two to set up ProSense perfectly.




• Integrated Ad placement on the homepage. Unlike most Adsense ready themes currently available, ProSense blends a 468 x 60 banner unit between the second and third post on the blog homepage.

  This enables you to display relevant ads to search visitors who arrive at your homepage, as they are more likely to scroll and scan through your posts.The inclusion of a well-blended horizontal link unit near the top of the homepage also attracts navigational-style visitor clicks.




• Highly Optimized Ad units on post pages. There are two types of ad blocks on both the top and bottom of the single post page. You can choose between using a 468 x 60 banner and 300 x 250 rectangle at the top of the post or a 468 x 60 banner and 336 x 280 large rectangle at the bottom of the post.

  The ability to designate and match different ad units is exclusive to ProSense and is currently not available for other Adsense Ready themes.




• Pre-blended Adsense unit colors. All Adsense unit colors are tweaked to match the blog’s link and background colors. There is absolutely no need for you to spend time picking the appropriate ad colors.




• Search Engine Optimized site structure. ProSense is built from good, clean code that validates well. The CSS positioning is written so that your blog content is prioritized in the source code as this may help to improve search engine crawling and ranking. Dynamic and descriptive title tags are also used for each blog page.




• Compatible with Wordpress 2.0+. ProSense has been tested with the latest 2.2 Getz version of Wordpress and no problems were experienced.




• Widget-Ready. If you’re a widget lover, you’ll be happy to know that Prosense allows you to easily install and use widgets to complement your content and advertising scheme.

Important User Notes

Please remember to change the Publisher ID for the default Adsense units after you upload the theme! You’ll need to insert your personal Adsense publisher id (e.g. pub-xxxxxx) in the various Adsense units that you decide to use.

All the ad units are found in the following theme files:

Single Post Pages:

• adsense_singlepost_top_square.php – 300 x 250 Medium Rectangle
• adsense_singlepost_top_banner.php – 468 x 60 Banner
• adsense_singlepost_bottom_square.php – 336 x 280 Rectangle
• adsense_singlepost_bottom_banner.php – 468 x 60 Banner

Homepage:

• adsense_sidebar.php – 160 x 600 Skyscraper
• adsense_homepage_linkunit.php – 468×15_4 Link Unit
• adsense_homepage_banner.php – 468 x 60 Skyscraper

Alternate Color Schemes for ProSense

For those you would prefer a different color scheme, we’ve also provided Prosense in a clean blue or gray color combination so feel free to download these versions if they find them more to your liking.

Theme Support and Feedback

The theme is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license and requires you to keep the designer attribution links in the theme footer. So please do not remove them, even if you modify the theme. Thanks!

Theme support will be provided on this post itself so please leave a comment if you have any queries. Any feedback on the theme will also be much appreciated.

Upgraded versions of the theme will be released in the near future so you might want to subscribe via RSS feed to get free updates.

Download ProSense | ProSense Blue | ProSense Gray | Demo Page

Introducing ProSense: An Adsense Ready SEO Wordpress Theme

Very useful for repeat visitors to your blog because they’re very likely to subscribe if you just give them a gentle nudge in the right direction. Here’s his explanation of how the plugin works:

By default, new visitors to your blog will see a small box above each post containing the words “If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!â€? After 3 visits the message disappears. You can customize this message, its lifespan, and its location…This plugin requires cookies. Users without support for cookies will always see the new visitor message. It has been tested with WordPress 2.0, but it may work with earlier versions.

A screen shot of the plugin in action on Miller’s blog:

Wordpress Plugin to Increase RSS subscribers