Configuring URL aliases

The Joomla! Global Configuration Manager provides you with several options that enable you to create more effective URLs. There are two options to consider; they may not both be right for you, so it's important to understand their implications. The two options relate to whether your URL uses a suffix and whether the URL alias is in Unicode.

Both of the URL configuration options are located in the SEO Settings section of the Configuration Manager and can be seen in the image included in the section immediately above.

The first option to consider is whether you want your URLs to include a suffix. The suffix will be supplied automatically by the system and will reflect the document type. This will result in the system adding .html to the end of the URL. In other words, instead of getting the following URL:

http://www.yoursite.com/getting-started

When this feature is enabled, you will get the following URL:

http://www.yoursite.com/getting-started.html

To enable this option for your site, follow these steps:

  1. Go to the admin dashboard of your Joomla! site.
  2. Click on the shortcut icon labeled Global Configuration.
  3. On the right-hand side of the Site page is a section named SEO Settings, as seen in the previous screenshot. Set the option Adds Suffix to URLs to Yes.
  4. Click on the Save icon.

Tip

Is there an advantage to be gained by adding a suffix to your URLs? Probably not. There's little evidence to support the idea that there is a difference as far as the search engines are concerned. For your users, it's just another chance to make a mistake when typing in the URL.

Note

Note that it is also possible to change the default suffix from .html to .htm, though it does require editing one of the Joomla! core files changes that might get lost the next time the core — files are updated. If you really want to do this, read the information found at http://docs.joomla.org/SEO.

If your site is likely to use non-standard or non-English characters in your URL aliases, you will want to activate the Unicode option. If you do not enable the Unicode option, the system will attempt to transliterate any non-Latin characters in the alias into a standard Latin character.

Note

Note that some e-mail clients do not support UTF8, so if your target markets are purely in the Americas, or you otherwise are not interested in supporting foreign languages, you should pass on the Unicode option.

To enable this option for your site, follow these steps:

  1. Go to the admin dashboard of your Joomla! site.
  2. Click on the shortcut icon labeled Global Configuration.
  3. On the right-hand side of the Site page is a section named SEO Settings, as seen in the previous screenshot. Set the option Unicode Aliases to Yes.
  4. Click on the Save icon.

Note

Check out Chapter 3, Useful Extensions to Enhance SEO, for a discussion of extensions that can further optimize your URLs.

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