How can I make search engine friendly urls with my app?

Website Tools & SEO | Updated November 2026

SEO-friendly URLs (also called "clean URLs" or "pretty permalinks") replace query-string URLs like page.php?id=42 with readable paths like /products/blue-widget. They are better for search engines and for users. Here is how to enable them on your hosting account.

In This Guide

WordPress Permalinks
Custom URL Rewriting With .htaccess
Other Applications
SEO URL Best Practices

WordPress Users

Change your permalink structure in Settings

Go to WordPress Admin > Settings > Permalinks and select "Post name" (the /%postname%/ option). Click Save. WordPress automatically creates the necessary .htaccess rules. This is the recommended permalink structure for SEO.

01. WordPress Permalinks

Log into WordPress Admin
Go to Settings > Permalinks
Select "Post name"
Click "Save Changes"

WordPress writes the required rewrite rules to your .htaccess file automatically. If it cannot write to .htaccess (permission issue), it will show you the rules to paste in manually.

Tip

If pretty permalinks result in 404 errors for all pages except the homepage, mod_rewrite may not be processing your .htaccess. This can happen with nginx reverse proxy configurations. See Nginx and .htaccess Redirect Issues for the fix.

02. Custom URL Rewriting With .htaccess

For non-WordPress sites, you can create clean URLs using Apache's mod_rewrite module. Add rules to your .htaccess file:

RewriteEngine On

# Rewrite /products/blue-widget to product.php?slug=blue-widget
RewriteRule ^products/([a-z0-9-]+)$ product.php?slug=$1 [L,QSA]

# Rewrite /blog/123/my-post-title to blog.php?id=123
RewriteRule ^blog/([0-9]+)/([a-z0-9-]+)$ blog.php?id=$1 [L,QSA]

The visitor sees the clean URL in their browser, but your PHP script receives the original query parameters. For a complete guide on rewrite rules, see Complete Guide to .htaccess.

03. Other Applications

Most modern CMS platforms and frameworks have built-in SEO URL support:

Joomla - System > Global Configuration > SEO Settings > enable "Search Engine Friendly URLs" and "Use URL Rewriting." Rename htaccess.txt to .htaccess in your Joomla root.
Drupal - Clean URLs are enabled by default in Drupal 8+. For Drupal 7, go to Configuration > Clean URLs.
Laravel / Symfony / CodeIgniter - These PHP frameworks handle URL routing internally. Make sure the .htaccess file in the public directory is intact.
Custom PHP - Use the mod_rewrite approach from section 02.

04. SEO URL Best Practices

Use hyphens between words - /blue-widget not /blue_widget or /bluewidget. Google treats hyphens as word separators.
Keep URLs short and descriptive - /hosting/shared-plans is better than /our-company/services/web-hosting/shared-hosting-plans-overview
Use lowercase - URLs are case-sensitive on Linux. Stick to lowercase to avoid duplicate content issues.
Include relevant keywords - But do not stuff them. The URL should read naturally.
Avoid changing URLs after publishing - If you must change a URL, set up a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one.

For more SEO guidance, see How to Submit Your Site to Search Engines.

Need Help With URL Configuration?

If your clean URLs are not working or you need help writing .htaccess rewrite rules, our team can assist.

Open a Support Ticket

Frequently Asked Questions

What are SEO-friendly URLs?

They are readable paths like /products/blue-widget instead of query strings like page.php?id=42. They are easier for people to read and share and clearer for search engines about the page's topic. They are also called clean URLs or pretty permalinks.

How do I enable pretty permalinks in WordPress?

In the dashboard go to Settings then Permalinks, choose Post name or another readable structure, and save. WordPress writes the rewrite rules to .htaccess automatically. If links then 404, re-save permalinks to regenerate the rules.

How do I make clean URLs in a custom app?

Use mod_rewrite rules in .htaccess to map readable paths to your script, for example rewriting /products/blue-widget to product.php?slug=blue-widget. Your application reads the slug and serves the right content while the visitor sees the clean URL.

Do clean URLs actually help SEO?

They help modestly by making the topic clear and the URL shareable, but content quality matters far more. Keep URLs short, lowercase, and descriptive with hyphens between words, and avoid changing them later without a 301 redirect.

Quick Recap

WordPress - Settings > Permalinks > Post name
Custom PHP - Use mod_rewrite rules in .htaccess
Use hyphens between words and keep URLs short
All lowercase to avoid case-sensitivity issues
301 redirect old URLs if you change them after publishing

Improving your site's URL structure · Last updated November 2026 · Browse all Website Tools articles