How to: Create friendly URLs with your .httaccess File!

[Raptile]

How to: Create SEO Friendly URLs with your .httaccess File!

An example of SEO friendly URL can be seen in this page. Compare it with urls like http://mysite.com/?t=34 , you will find it easier to remember and the it also clearly tells you what this page is about. Furthermore, the words in the URL might match the search keywords, bringing more traffic from search engines.


If you are running a WordPress blog then you most likely will not need to edit your .httaccess File to make it URLs SEO Friendly as WordPress already has plenty of SEO Friendly features and plugins.


1. Creating .htaccess file


If you don't have a .httaccess file already created then create one and add the following lines if you already haven't.

Options +FollowSymLinks
 
RewriteEngine On

The first line Options +FollowSymLinks is required for some server configurations.


2. Create your own rewrite rule

For example, if you want to change links like http://mysite.com/index.php?topic=rules to http://mysite.com/topic/rules/, here?s the rewrite rule:

Options +FollowSymLinks
 
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^topic/([a-zA-Z0-9]+)/$ index.php?topic=$1

? Like regular expressions, the [a-zA-Z0-9] matches lower and uppercase of alphabets and numbers.
? The asterisk inside the brackets + is a quantifier that match 1 occurence to infinite occurences.
? Combining them, ([a-zA-Z0-9]+) matches alphanumerics of at least 1 character.
? The caret ^ means ?start with?, meaning the URL starts with the word ?topic?.
? The dollar sign $ means ?end?, meaning the URL ends with a slash.
? The $1 is backreference, it carries the content of the first group of brackets.
In other words, when user enters http://mysite.com/topic/faqs/ , the page being called and run would be http://mysite.com/index.php?topic=faqs


Example 2

If you want to change URLs like http://mysite.com/index.php?product=...tname&price=30 to http://mysite.com/products/productname/30/. Basically its similar to above:

Options +FollowSymLinks
 
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^products/([a-zA-Z]+)/([0-9]+)/$ index.php?product=$1&price=$2

? The [0-9] in matches numbers only.
? The plus sign is a quantifier that match 1 or more occurences.
? Combining them, ([0-9]+) means 1 or more numbers.
? Similarly, $1 will be the first brackets : product name and $2 would be the second brackets : price.


Example 3

If you want to change URLs like http://mysite.com/article.php?id=45 to http://mysite.com/article-45.html, here?s how:

Options +FollowSymLinks
 
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^article-([0-9]+)\.html$ article.php?id=$1

? The new thing here is the \. (backslash followed by a dot).
? The backslash here ?escapes? the dot, so that the dot means a real dot instead of ?anything?.

3. Extra Stuff
Custom 404 error page

Put this in your htaccess if you would like to have a custom 404 error page instead of the default one.

ErrorDocument 404 /404.php

Change the 404.php to your page.

Disable directory browsing

For security purpose, its best to disable directory browsing so that people won?t know what files you have. Use this :

Options All -Indexes

Protect .htaccess files

This should disallow other to access your .htaccess file, just like disallowing others to access your wordpress?s wp-config.php

<files .htaccess>
order allow,deny
deny from all
</files>

Alternatively, if you are not able to do these things on your own there are a few online Online URL Rewritters, which will make everything easier and simpler for you:

http://www.webconfs.com/url-rewriting-tool.php
http://www.myseotool.com/free-seo-to...-generator.php
http://www.generateit.net/mod-rewrite/
http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/mod...enerator.shtml

Static URLs are known to be better than Dynamic URLs because of a number of reasons
1. Static URLs typically Rank better in Search Engines.
2. Search Engines are known to index the content of dynamic pages a lot slower compared to static pages.
3. Static URLs are always more friendlier looking to the End Users.

Example of a dynamic URL

http://www.widgets.com/product.php?categoryid=1&productid=10

This tool helps you convert dynamic URLs into static looking html URLs.

Example of the above dynamic URL Re-written using this tool

http://www.widgets.com/product-categoryid-1-productid-10.htm

Note*
You would need to create a file called ".htaccess" and paste the code generated into it, Once you have created the .htacess file simply copy it into your web directory.
URL rewriting of this type would work ONLY if you are hosted on a Linux Server.

This tutorial was not fully written by me.

Raptile Reviewed by Raptile on 19th Feb 2012. How to: Create friendly URLs with your .httaccess File! How to: Create SEO Friendly URLs with your .httaccess File! An example of SEO friendly URL can be seen in this page. Compare it with urls like http://mysite.com/?t=34 , you will find it easier to remember and the it also clearly tells you what this page is about. Furthermore, the words in the URL might match the search keywords, bringing more traffic from search engines. If you are running a WordPress blog then you most likely will not need to edit your .httaccess File to make it Rating: 5

[inject0r]

Nice, I actually have a problem with IPB. everytime I change it to friendly urls and edit htaccess all my pages get 404 error code. i guess because its not for apache but I don't know it exactly.

[Cos]

Thanks for this amazing tut buddy!

[immu]

TFS especially custom 404!

[Raptile]

I've updated the thread, i hope you find it useful.

[vHostLayer]

Nice Detailed Tutorial