Long URL’s such as http://yourwebsite.com/index.php?route=common/home will destroy your Opencart website ranking on Google and other search engines.
This article explains step by step exactly what to do to ensure your Opencart website has shorter, friendly and meaningful URL’s.
First of all OpenCart 1.5 already contains clean URL’s so there is no need to add any modules to achieve this. You just need to follow these steps:
Go to the “System” and click on “Settings”. Locate the store you want to alter and click the “Edit” link on the right. Finally click the “Server” tab and set the SEO URL’s radio to “Yes” and save your settings.
Note: The keywords will not be created for you automatically. You must also have Apache mod_rewrite turned on. Most web hosts will have this on by default. Step 3 of this tutorial will explain how to add the keywords.
Once you locate the .htaccess file change the following lines:
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^sitemap.xml$ index.php?route=feed/google_sitemap [L]
RewriteRule ^googlebase.xml$ index.php?route=feed/google_base [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !.*\.(ico|gif|jpg|jpeg|png|js|css)
RewriteRule ^([^?]*) index.php?_route_=$1 [L,QSA]
To:
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^sitemap.xml$ index.php?route=feed/google_sitemap [L]
RewriteRule ^googlebase.xml$ index.php?route=feed/google_base [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !.*\.(ico|gif|jpg|jpeg|png|js|css)
RewriteRule ^([^?]*) index.php?_route_=$1 [L,QSA]
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^route=common/home$
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ http://www.yourwebsite.co.uk? [R=301,L]
If you do the step above your home page will change from something like this: http://yourwebsite.com/index.php?route=common/home to this: http://yourwebsite.com
Step 3: Enter SEO Keywords for URL’s manually
Finally, you need to enter SEO keywords for every page, information, product and category you want to have URL rewrite. You can find the field for the SEO Keywords under the Data tab when editing and creating items.
Once you have entered the SEO Keywords your URL’s will be working.
Once you have followed all these instructions you can begin to reap the benefits of higher rankings, increased traffic and more customers.
Author: Mohammed Jichi (SEO friendly URL OpenCart)
This article explains step by step exactly what to do to ensure your Opencart website has shorter, friendly and meaningful URL’s.
First of all OpenCart 1.5 already contains clean URL’s so there is no need to add any modules to achieve this. You just need to follow these steps:
Step 1: Enable USE SEO URL’s in your store server settings
To use SEO URL’s you need to enable them under your stores server settings as follows:Go to the “System” and click on “Settings”. Locate the store you want to alter and click the “Edit” link on the right. Finally click the “Server” tab and set the SEO URL’s radio to “Yes” and save your settings.
Note: The keywords will not be created for you automatically. You must also have Apache mod_rewrite turned on. Most web hosts will have this on by default. Step 3 of this tutorial will explain how to add the keywords.
Step 2: Change some content in your .htaccess file to make your homepage SEO URL Friendly
Go to your host control panel and edit your .htaccess file. Sometimes this file is hidden in order to unhide it you can click on your web host control panel file manager and tick the show hidden files option followed by the “go” button.Once you locate the .htaccess file change the following lines:
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^sitemap.xml$ index.php?route=feed/google_sitemap [L]
RewriteRule ^googlebase.xml$ index.php?route=feed/google_base [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !.*\.(ico|gif|jpg|jpeg|png|js|css)
RewriteRule ^([^?]*) index.php?_route_=$1 [L,QSA]
To:
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^sitemap.xml$ index.php?route=feed/google_sitemap [L]
RewriteRule ^googlebase.xml$ index.php?route=feed/google_base [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !.*\.(ico|gif|jpg|jpeg|png|js|css)
RewriteRule ^([^?]*) index.php?_route_=$1 [L,QSA]
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^route=common/home$
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ http://www.yourwebsite.co.uk? [R=301,L]
If you do the step above your home page will change from something like this: http://yourwebsite.com/index.php?route=common/home to this: http://yourwebsite.com
Step 3: Enter SEO Keywords for URL’s manually
Finally, you need to enter SEO keywords for every page, information, product and category you want to have URL rewrite. You can find the field for the SEO Keywords under the Data tab when editing and creating items.Once you have entered the SEO Keywords your URL’s will be working.
Once you have followed all these instructions you can begin to reap the benefits of higher rankings, increased traffic and more customers.
Author: Mohammed Jichi (SEO friendly URL OpenCart)
Wonderful Blogs, Such a great list. Thanks for sharing all these blogs all are very useful to every one.
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