My friend Frank over at YouShouldKnow.com just gave me a good tip on how to remove the optional “Category” in your category URL’s on a Wordpress blog.

Normally the categories would look like this:
http://www.clausheinrich.com/category/web-directory/

with the change it will become:
http://www.clausheinrich.com/web-directory/

Find the file wp-includes/classes.php and about halfway down you can change the settings.
To remove the category like above do this:

$this->category_structure = $this->front . ‘category/’;

change it into this:

$this->category_structure = $this->front;

Update:
In the Wordpress 2.1 branch you will find the code in wp-includes/rewrite.php
Thanks to Caio Proiete for informing

Wordpress Version 2.3.x branch:
Delete this:
$this->category_structure = $this->front . ‘category/’; else

Wordpress Version 2.5.x branch:
I have not tried this personally, but reading from comments it is should be possible to now use the Base Category feature to disable the “category” directory.
Brad mentions in comment #27:
Adding the /. in Settings - Permalinks -Category Base field works fine in 2.5.
Where are ppl seeing the /. in the URL? (e.g. www .example.com/./foo/)
I’m having no problems with it.

So feel free to test this out, and any reports back are appreciated.

Technorati Tags: wordpress, blog, category, permalinks, hack

Just a very quick update on the recent contest I have decided to participate in Directorycontest.com/
Looks like I jumped up to a 12th place on the first crawl/indexing Result page. Thats quite ok. Now the detail page just has to get a little time to suck the wonderful juice out of the internal links strengths, and I should rocket up on 1. page

If I wanted, then I could have tweaked a real nice category with both keywords “directory” and “contest”, but dont think its wise to turn it into a 100% SEO contest.
This IS about finding the strong directories, and not the best SEO experts.

more info will follow as I get the results pages checked

Further update 15. dec:
I have not been able to find anything in the rules about number of entries pr. person allowed, so decided for the heck of it to add my brand new paid directory AllUcDirectory in the directorycontest.com
I do not expect anything from this at all, and cannot expect anything from a site less than a week old.

Further update 30. dec.
Have been working alot the past few weeks, and have just made a check on the rankings again and will update here:
www.global-weblinks.com fell 2 places and is at 14th position
www.allucdirectory.com has climbed to 29th position

Technorati Tags: directorycontest, contest, directory

Ok, I think a post explaining the use of rel=nofollow on some of my directories is in order, so I can explain the very good reasons why I have done this, as there are much confusion on the internet about this tag. Many rate a directory useless if they spot a nofollow tag somewhere on the pages within.*SHHHH. Let me share a secret with you: That belief is not allys true*

Background:
After some intense testing on my pages, categories and detailpages it became clear that eg. Global WebLinks Directory was leaking its PageRank / PageStrength so fast, that only the first main category pages got some link juice and spreaded it out on the first 20 listings in the main category (Page 1). Some categories have 600+ listings, so that means the directory became pretty useless for 580 other listings in the category.
My mission is to give everyone a fair chance of the link popularity my page can offer, and not only the alphabetically top. Importaint to remember the directory IS free.

A brilliant tag has been made rel=”nofollow” where I can try to control the flow of link juice, so with precise and specific usage, I can keep the link juice inward and first spread it out on the detail pages that every listing has in the directory.

I have made a few data flow diagrams to show how the internal / external links is distributed.

This shows the distribution I make. Instead of ALOT of outgoing links on the “linkfarmish” category pages, I throw it all down to the subcategories and detailpages, which will then provide every link in the system with a indexed backlink with moderate strength.

To say it short: I take the high linkstrength from the sites first in alphabeth and give it more equally to all. (Robin Hood style)

I also run a Toplink program (featured listings) and as a thank for their backlink or payment, they are the only ones in the directory without any rel=nofollow flags at all.
You can see a diagram below for TopLinks.

The reason for my confidence relies on many tests done on my Regional Danish Directory and the power of this method has become so so clear.
I get alot of quality traffic now from searchengines, directly down to the high ranking detailpages on the directory. Everybody wins by this. I get more traffic/more indexed pages and higher incomming links chance because of the bigger audience, which serves the detailpages = linkowners in the end.

An explanation of the diagrams:

I might add more to the post in time, but guess this goes for a quick explanation.

Technorati Tags: directory, directories, searchengines, nofollow

After about 15 hours of work I have my new Paid Directory ready for launch.
AllUcDirectory.com is my newborn directory, and it will be one of the directories I will continue to work hardest on to get a good and strong directory for the future. (This will mean days, weeks, months, years of promoting it)

The directory is based on my own script used on all my other directories aswell.
The directory will be ad-free. Meaning no adsense or affiliate banners.
 

It will only accept quality content sites. (Quality over money)
All listings is permanent and will remain to atleast year 2050
I will have a max # listings in each category. Not set yet, but probably 15-20 

Prices for submitting is set high, as this in time will be a high PageRank / Page Strong directory.
- Featured $44.85
- Featured Deep Link $54.85
- Standard $14.85
- Standard Deep Link $24.85
- Standard with Reciprocal (PR2 minimum) $6.85 

I just found this Directory Contest through my favorite forum DP. Its a great competition between directory owners, to show how good and strong their directory is.
Winners will be the top 10 directories that show up on Google search on the Directory Contests webpage “directorycontest.com”
End date for the contest is February 6. 2007, 10 AM P.S.T

Prizes are donated by several sponsors, and the total prizesum keeps going up as more sponsors join in.

1. Prize $2000
2. Prize $400
3. Prize $200
+ alot of other goodies. See the current prizes here

I love this. After working hard all year with theese directories I own, I can finally put one of them to the test. I’m gonna use Global WebLinks Directory as my entry. (The wise thing might have been to put it up on my strongest directory Danskelinks.dk, but I really like to try my international directory on this, as it is my plan to improve this directory alot in the new year and it will be my Flag Ship )
The directory have had a really hard ride after I made a complete site structure change this summer. Google did not like that change, and I was out in the void for 2 months, and now … slowly … returning to what I would expect of my directory. Traffic is going up by the day, and my audience is turning over to “normal people” from SE and not just webmasters looking for a free link.

Only sad thing is I first spot this competition now But I’m sure it will go ok
If you own a directory, then join this contest. I really recommend it!

Technorati Tags: contest, directorycontest, directories, directory

I stumpled upon this great tool from SEOmoz to measure your Page Strength, a measure made by checking various things like inbound links, popularity, mentions of your page across the www.
The tool gives you a relative importance / visibility of a webpage.

I belive this tools is way better to determine how strong a page is, whereas PageRank only gives you a measure of the inbound links
Aviva directory has made a collection of various paid directories and their link strength. Check them out

Technorati Tags: PageRank, Directory, Link Strength, SEO Tool

When developing websites, and especially optimizing them, its a good thing to have some usefull tools.

http://www.iwebtool.com/ 
These guys have a good selection of tools for webmasters. I can mention:

• Domain lookup
• Website speed test
• Reverse IP lookup
• Ping tests
• Link extractor
• Meta tag extractor
• Pagerank prediction
• Backlink checker
• Link popularity

And alot of other tools.
They also offer webmasters to incorporate theese tools on your own page, so you can give this service to others from your site. That is a sweet feature

http://www.linkvendor.com/seo-tools/domain-popularity.html
This is a great Domain Popularity checker from LinkVendor.
You can easily cross check searchengines for backlinks and strength on your site (or your competitors )

http://www.backlinkwatch.com/
Quite good backlink checker. I like the output, even though it takes some time to get through all links.

Technorati Tags: SEO, SEO Tools