TypePad Beta-Tests URL Customization
TypePad is addressing the URL problem that has made the platform a no-go for many webmasters concerned about seo. Beta users can now control the filename of individual posts.
Typepad's previous system for posts was needlessly restrictive. The first time a post was saved, TypePad would create a short filename for the post based on the first umpteen characters of the post's title. This would be the post's filename forever. It had the advantage of keeping the URL safe from thoughtless changes (and resulting broken links). But a blogger thinking about seo or user experience had only one way to customize the URL: compose a dummy title consisting of the perfect filename, and save the post. This was it -- a one-shot chance to come up with the perfect URL, before finishing the post, as if the writing process wouldn't generate URL ideas in itself. Of course, you could compose your entire post elsewhere, and formulate your URL before ever touching TypePad, but lack of URL control is a poor reason for complicating your work process.
How does TypePad's new URL customization work? You won't see it unless you're looking for it. (You apparently won't see it at all if you're not a beta tester, but that will change.) On the composing screen, open the Display Options and check the filename option.
Your old posts will still be stuck with their automatically-generated URLs -- they will break if you change them, and TypePad currently offers no 301 redirect functionality. "We're working on that next," says Kimmie in the comment thread to the TypePad Beta Blog post.
For me this might be reason enough to take my small set of personal blogs onto TypePad. With a job and classical music habit, I'm relying on hosted platforms for personal blogs. For reasons I'll address another time, I waver between TypePad and Squarespace for blogs.
(Allow me to digress. This isn't a slam at Wordpress. It's only about what I have the bandwidth to support for a purely personal project, and the only self-hosted CMS that falls within that line for me right now is Big Medium. I've been using it for years, can work very efficiently, and, as a paid user I have the security of knowing that I can get problems solved quickly when the do arise. A recent change to an image libary at my ISP disabled BM's image handling, and as much as I admire Wordpress and its community, I doubt I could have been posting again so quickly without Big Medium's Josh Clark diagnosing my problem and telling me what to say to my ISP.)
Next time, I'll discuss Squarespace's URL approach and why I indeed waver between SQ and TypePad on such issues.
Bonnie Gibbons
I just got a chance to test this feature. Be careful. If you set the filename before finishing your post and finalizing the title, TypePad will automatically toss your post title into the filename field even if you've already put something else in there. Make setting the filename the last thing you do before publishing.
