Making WordPress Permalinks Work

If you have been in the SEO industry for any amount of time chances are you have gotten a client who installed wordpress on a shared
Windows IIS 6.0 hosting plan.  Or maybe you are a “do-it-yourselfer” who has his wordpress website or blog on a shared Windows IIS 6.0 hosting plan. Either way, chances are you have no idea how to get the permalinks to work and you are trying everything possible!

Let me save you from countless hours of frustration.   Unfortunately, Windows IIS 6.0 doesn’t support WordPress permalinks ~ period!  The reason is because it doesn’t have the ability to use mod_rewrite. It only works if you install a third-party ISAPI filter.  But because you are on a shared hosting plan, you don’t have access to install ISAPI filters and 99.9% of the time your web host won’t install them for you.   You can search far and wide, but mod_rewrites won’t work.  Editing the root of the Windows (web.config) won’t work!  Etc., etc., etc.  – it won’t work.

Look no further.  I lay before you the 10 steps to making WordPress 3.01 Permalinks ~ WORK on a shared Windows IIS 6.0 hosting plan.  Before you begin the steps ~ please make sure that you meet the necessary prerequisites.

PREREQUISITES:

A.  First – Your domain must be a Windows Shared Server and the IIS version must be 6.0.   

If you are Windows IIS 7.0  You will use Create a New Rewrite Rule.
If you are Windows IIS 6.0, but NOT on a shared server.  You will use ASAPI_Rewrite

If  you don’t know your hosting domain information – you can find it by adding Firefox Domain Details Addon to your Firefox.   After installing this, you can check the IIS / Apache version, and the IP details of your domain, etc. in the status bar of the Firefox.  Or you can check with your Server.   If your server is ixwebhosting.com, servergrid.com or a H-Sphere, Plesk or Hosting Controller ~ chances are good that you are on a Windows Shared Server with IIS 6.0.   Check to make sure!

If you are an Apache web server you will use the mod_rewrite and create an .htaccess file.  Remember: Apache is only for Linux server and it cannot be installed in a Windows server. Apache is to Linux server; like, IIS is to Windows server. 

B. Second – To be safe and assure success, You must be using wordpress 3.01.  I have only used this with WP 3.01.  This also works with WP Thesis  and numerous Thesis Skins.  So if you are using Thesis ~ no worries!  

C.  Finally – I have only tested the below 10 steps with the H-Sphere web hosting automated control panel.  I have not used it with “Hosting Controller” nor “Plesk.”  So whichever web hosting control panel you are using (hosting controller, Plesk, H-Sphere or any of the partial beta control panels),  you must have the ability to change your 404 error page with your web host.

10 STEPS:

1.  Open FTP with (ie: FileZilla or SmartFTP, etc.) and at the base of your Wordpress folder (where your wp-admin, wp-content and wp-includes files are located) Create the file wp-404-handler.php  The name of the file is: wp-404-handler.php

2.  Once the new wp-404-handler.php file is created.  Open it for edit in Notepad or BBEdit.

3.  With the file open for edit in Notepad or BBEdit, Paste the following code into your new file wp-404-handler.php 

<?php
// This is the default file for the site. Usually index.php
$default = 'index.php';

// The name of this file.
// Set this value for the URL in Custom Error Properties of your website in IIS.
// Goto: IIS Manager > Websites > [Site Name] > Properties > Custom Errors >
// 404 & 404;2 & 404;3 > URL (Requires a '/' prefix in IIS).
$thisfile = '404-handler.php';

$_SERVER['ORIG_PATH_TRANSLATED'] = str_replace($thisfile, $default, $_SERVER['ORIG_PATH_TRANSLATED']);
$_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME'] = str_replace($thisfile, $default, $_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME']);
$_SERVER['ORIG_PATH_INFO'] = str_replace($thisfile, $default, $_SERVER['ORIG_PATH_INFO']);
$_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME'] = str_replace($thisfile, $default, $_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME']);
$_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] = str_replace($thisfile, $default, $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']);
$_SERVER['PATH_INFO'] = false;

$qs =& $_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'];
$ru =& $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];
$pos = strrpos($qs, '://');
$pos = strpos($qs, '/', $pos + 4);
$_SERVER['URL'] = $ru = substr($qs, $pos);
$qs = trim(stristr($ru, '?'), '?');

// Required for WordPress 2.8+
$_SERVER['HTTP_X_ORIGINAL_URL'] = $ru;

// Fix GET vars
foreach ( $_GET as $var => $val ) {
  if ( substr($var, 0, 3) == '404') {
    if ( strstr($var, '?') ) {
      $newvar = substr($var, strpos($var, '?') + 1);
      $_GET[$newvar] = $val;
    }
    unset($_GET[$var]);
  }
  break;
}
include($default);
?> 

This code was created by John at Ikailo Media Solutions.   This code is robust and fixes a lot of the differences between Apache and IIS.   It fixes values in _SERVER and resolves a problem in _GET.  It works with all WordPress versions 2.8 and later.

Top 10 SEO Educational Resources

Thanks to Alexasmith and Canadafred for inspiring the following top 10 with their posts at Daniweb http://www.daniweb.com

If you are a newbie to SEO and not yet a member of daniweb.  You need to join their forums.  Daniweb is an online community of more than 800,000 software developers, web developers, internet marketers, IT consultants and tech gurus who are all enthusiastic about making contacts, networking and learning from each other.

Top 10 Sources for SEO Education.

1.  Research, study and become well versed in SEO history.  We are not the makers of SEO history, instead we are made by SEO history. (play on MLK’s famous quote).

2.  Attend SEO seminars, summits, and conferences.  Education is growth. Education is, not a preparation for life; education is life itself.

5.  Find out who the SEO, SEM and PPC guru’s,  subscribe to their blogs and sources of information and then finally study and learn their routes towards success. 

8.  Subscribe to Matt Cutts Blog (Principle Engineer at Google).  http://www.mattcutts.com Stay appraised to his musings, however consider the source and be prepared to study with your filter glasses on.

9.  Become an AdWords Qualified Professional.  You can join the Google Adwords Certification Program at http://www.google.com/intl/en/adwords/professionals/

10.   Join SEMPO http://www.sempo.org/home , SEOMoz http://www.seomoz.org , and Search Engine Watch http://searchenginewatch.com/

SEO Friendly Internet Directories

Are directories beneficial or obsolete?  I remember the days when directories were the bomb!  But then Google started penalizing directories that were selling links for the purpose of gaining PR and the bomb exploded!

The question now begs, are directories still beneficial?  Or can they actually hurt us in our quest for PR? 

In a nutshell and to get to the point, the answer is yes.   The right directories are very beneficial, but they aren’t beneficial for the reasons that you might think.

When Google began holding the PR of directories hostage in order to force them to change – they unfortunately also hurt the web designer/SEO who submitted to these directories.  I remember watching in horror as my PR droped due to affiliation.

Google has continued to drop the PR on most link sites. There are very few directories with PR on their link pages.  Some try to use the rel=”nofollow” tag,  but to no avail.   When you top this off with the fact that Google has also penalized sites for getting involved in link trades and no longer places as much benefit on blog links, bookmarkings or forum links ~ one must ask, is Google trying to devalue PR?  ~hint, hint, hint!     Google is ranking information above product.   In other words, Google is smiling with a big smile on information that visitors find relevant and useful versus product – which is simply who has the most links…

And it is in this that we find the answer to our question.  If we need to provide information to our visitors that they will find useful.  Forums and blogs that are “relevant and correlate with the subject” are a good bet for success with Google.   Knowing this… we can also see how directories will greatly benefit us.  But they have to be directories that are clean (SEO Friendly) or they will hurt us via affiliation.   

So here is a list of 10 (SEO Friendly) Directories.  The 10 listed directories are void of “nofollow” and void of links in frames.  They are friendly in that they CURRENTLY allow googlebot to index the links easily.   They are in no particular order.

1. DMOZ The Open Directory
http://www.dmoz.org
An authority link and its free.  Having trouble getting submitted?  Consider becoming an editor - if you have time! Hint… hint… hint…    Don’t keep resubmitting your site, it only puts you at the end of the line.  I used to be an editor close to a decade ago…

2. HOT vs. NOT
http://www.hotvsnot.com
High Page rank directory $60 for a year $200 for a permanent link.

3. YAHOO DIRECTORY
http://www.dir.yahoo.com
This is an authority link.  Inclusion is free to non-profits, but can be slow.

4. LIST YOUR SITES
http://www.listyoursites.com
Take about 2 weeks to accept.

5. LIBRARIANS INTERNET INDEX
http://www.lii.org
Extremely high-quality free link ~ much coveted, on the same plane as the .edu link, but very difficult to get.   Websites go through a major review.  They won’t let commercial sites submit unless they are highly rich in informative content.

6. BEST OF THE WEB
http://botw.org/
Non-commercial sites – only get in Free.  HIGH Google PR – making this one of the better directories.

7.  AD TRADER
http://www.packadtrader.com
Reviews site quickly.

8. BUSINESS DIRECTORY
http://www.business.com
Business sites submission cost $299 a year.  Get the standard listing only. 

9. CRAIGS DIRECTORY
http://www.craigs-directory.com
No it isn’t affiliated with “craigslist.org.”  It is owned by Craig Hughes, not Craig Newmark.  Trivia: Did you know that Craig Newmark still retains majority ownership with ebay of craigslist.org. Go Craig! 

10. JOE ANT
http://www.joeant.com
Similar to DMOZ.  Puts site in several categories. Free for editors guaranteed review within two business days.  I remember when Joe Ant started ~ a bunch of us DMOZ editors jumped ship and started editing for Joe Ant…