Seo Friendly URL's --Seo Tips

To turn SEF support ON:
1. You must run Apache
2. You must have mod_rewrite enabled
3. Your server must allow .htaccess override
4. Set $mosConfig_sef= “1″ in configuration.php (if you cannot do it in the global config for any reason. If your file is UNWRITABLE you will need to change the file permissions of the file.
5. Rename htaccess.txt to .htaccess
You will notice that sections/content/items have nice URLs like:http://www.site.com/content/view/5/2/and components have URLs like:http://www.site.com/component/option,com_contact/Itemid,3/
Search Engine Friendly URLS (SEF) Troubleshooting:
1. Check you run Apache
o To check this go to administration > System > System Info.
o Server type should be listed next to Web Server. SEF will not run on IIS.
2. You must have mod_rewrite enabled
o To check this go to administration > System > System Info. Click on PHP Information tab. Scroll down until you find Loaded Modules row. mod_rewrite should be listed here. If it’s not loaded ask your web host to activate mod_rewrite.
3. Your server must allow .htaccess override
o To check this delete everything from your .htaccess file and write a simple command here, for example:
o Code: “Redirect /google.html http://www.google.com”
o Now point your browser to http://www.yoursite.com/google.htmIf it redirects you to Google.com then you are OK.
4. Set $mosConfig_sef= “1″ in configuration.php
o You can also activate SEF under Site > Global Configuration.
5. Rename htaccess.txt to .htaccess
o Remember! This can be done with a FTP program. Note the dot in the beginning! Also note that you can’t do this on windows, you must rename it directly on server.
Note that SEF is turned OFF by default.
Double check you renamed htaccess.txt to .htaccess and that you turned SEF on in configuration.php.