I’m Never Going To Get This Long URL In My Twitter Post

Tiny URL’s ……. what’s up with that ?  I don’t know about you but the fact that my post URL goes from: “What I Did On My Summer Vacation” to: http://fe.f48/EFA1.z ……… leaves me a little unsettled. If you ask the Tech guys they’ll tell you how it shows good form.  That’s GEEK speak for …… we can’t figure out how to sanely shorten a URL yet.  If you’re a blogger …. have I got an EXTREME solution for you !

When looking to add your URL to your Twitter feed,  it makes sense to drive home the name of the blog instead of a string of numbers along with the fact that the search engines really don’t like Tiny URL’s.  So I came up with this solution that by-passes the Plug-In route, (I need another Plug-In like a hole in the head).  So ……. try this;  the theory is pretty straight forward, first go to your “Dashboard” in the Admin Area of your WordPress Software.  Then go to “Settings” and click on “Permalinks” and go to “Common settings” and click on “Custom Structure”.  Add this code:  /%postname%/ …… now click “Save Changes”.

I usually like to see the whole URL of my post to show,  meaning;  site name, category, post name.  The Permalink “Custom Structure” looks something like this: /%category%/%postname%/  If yours is set-up in a similar fashion you will have to drop out the /%category%/  Of course it does not effect function,  you just won’t see it show up in the URL of your blog.

Now when you add your URL to your Twitter feed,  you no longer have to add:  http://bloggingextreme.com/what-i-did-on-my-summer-vacation

You simply add this:  http://bloggingextreme.com/what

That’s it.  Now,  if you have two posts that start with the word “what”,  WordPress will seek out the earliest post. If that is not the post that you want, you will have to add another word or letter.

Like this:  http://bloggingextreme.com/what-i

Get it ?  Good ! ………. Nuff said !  If this doesn’t work for ya ……. sorry,  I tried !  You’re back to the alphabet soup thing. 

I’ve got an update.  Since I published this post. Allan over at iwoodpecker.com passed along this killer tip to the above.  You can actually go with a numerical system if you want.

Like this: http://bloggingextrme.com/p0001

That way you don’t have to worry about two posts that start with the same word.  Just remember,  to avoid the number showing up in the post title, edit at the perma-link level and don’t forget to place the  “p”  in front of the number.

Thanks Allan!!! Great Tip!