The solution for Short (SEO Friendly) URL's

[Ruud]

Despite WebsiteBaker produces url's that are believed to be SEO friendly, a lot of people ask for even more friendly URL's.

I created a set of stand alone files (Not a module/snippet) that will enable url's in WebsiteBaker like www.mysite.tld/about_us instead of www.mysite.tld/pages/about_us.php.

The are 3 parts involved:

1. a .htaccess that detects any parameter not being a directory or file and forward that parameter to a script.
2. a script that will do a lookup for the parameter and find the correct page.
3. a Droplet that will transform any internal link on a page to the "short" form.

More explanation and a download can be found on http://short.allwww.nl/howto

Please note this approach might not work for every website! Please test before using it in production websites!!

Please let the community know if this works for you.

Download: http://short.allwww.nl/download


Ruud

[Hans>NULL]

Hide Extension (.php)
Hans>NUL

[snark]

is there a simple way to maintain the levelstructure so that the problem with pages with the same menutitle will not occur..

so that  www.website.com/pages/seofriendlyurl.php

will be

www.website.com/seofriendlyurl

and

so that  www.website.com/pages/subpage/seofriendlyurl.php

will be

www.website.com/subpage/seofriendlyurl

[Ruud]

Sorry no, not in the way this "hack" is made.

You could try the other solution that Hans>NUL suggested.

[PurpleEdge]

Snoork - have a look at this link...

http://www.websitebaker2.org/forum/index.php/topic,15507.0.html

[SickBoy75]

I don't really understand the problem...

I also didn't like the www.myweb/pages/home.php, so i remove the /pages in the WB config.... and thats all!!!

and i don't have any problem with menus or any other thing.

I also changed the /bakery (which is a default) to make it more SEO, and post the mod on this forum

[Ruud]

If you (or a webmaster) ever creates a page called admin or media (or any other WB directory) you will be in trouble.
The /pages (or whatever you name it) is there for a reason.

[chio]

Does someone here REALLY think, Google cares about the str_length of URLs?

Non SEF-URLs look like /index.php?bl=12784534&blu=12342kXX&ble=9duz34jsdf&sup=sdf8sdjsdf345()

WB generates PERFECT SEF-URLs. The only issue is that URLs depend on Menu-Titles.

[SickBoy75]

If you (or a webmaster) ever creates a page called admin or media (or any other WB directory) you will be in trouble.
The /pages (or whatever you name it) is there for a reason.

good to know, i'm the only one admin this web, so no problem.

The trouble is that the WB direectory will be deleted, isn't it??

For new instalations i will use a SEO word instead of /pages, for me it's enough

[snaak]

question: there is a problem when submitting form. In the help section this is mentioned only no solution is given. Any idea how to fix this?

[Ruud]

question: there is a problem when submitting form. In the help section this is mentioned only no solution is given. Any idea how to fix this?

I have several sites with forms that work ok, what is your problem?

[snaak]

hi,
When I push the submit button I got redirected to http://www.domain.com/pages/?_page=pages.
Is this an error in the .htaccess file? Or do you know a workaround.

[Ruud]

What form are you using? I guess it's not the standard WB form..

Anyway, without looking at the form and/or action url I cannot say why this is happening.

[Ruud]

A new version (v2.0) is made available for download today.
http://short.allwww.nl/

The links will be rewritten diferently from the first version.
A page like
  http://www.mydomain.com/pages/products/myproduct.php
is now rewritten as
  http://www.mydomain.com/products/myproduct/

The nice extra is, also news posts will be used in this format form now on.

Downloadlink: http://short.allwww.nl/download/

[Stefek]

Thank you Ruud.

Do I need a new version of WB and News Module to use it?

Regards,
Stefek

[Ruud]

Nope, this will work in any WB (2.7 and up)

[Stefek]

Thank you!

[Bug]

Would it be easy to also get rid of the trailing slash?

[Ruud]

Sure, it was added "on purpose" to simulate WP type of links
It is added in the droplet code. Just remove it and it will work without.

Code: (droplet)

    $wb_page_data = str_replace($linkstart.$link.$linkend, $newvalue.'/', $wb_page_data);

into

Code:

    $wb_page_data = str_replace($linkstart.$link.$linkend, $newvalue, $wb_page_data);

[PurpleEdge]

Websites work faster WITH the trailing URL.

[Bug]

Websites work faster WITH the trailing URL.

Any documentation on that matter?

[PurpleEdge]

Do a search for "URL trailing slash"

You get a redirect without one, to add the trailing slash.

No idea what effect Ruud's mod has though?

[Ruud]

You get a redirect without one, to add the trailing slash.

That wil only happen when the server needs to send out a default document (i.e. index.php)
In this case all calls are rerouted to a single script. So no differences in redirect with or without the trailing slash.

This url rewrite is purely cosmetic. It has no advantage on indexing by searchengines.
The standard websiteBaker way of serving pages is just as good.
It just is meant to create nicer readable url's.

[dbs]

hi, i have a problem with standard form in wb2.8.2 Rev1518.
after click submit-button the site will redirected to start-page.
what could be the problem?

dbs

[Ruud]

Can you share the link where this is happening? (PM if you do not want to make it public)