Mod rewrite, .htaccess, and Friendly URLs

[Bronxgodzilla +]

As I am currently unfamiliar with "mod-rewrite," I understand of course the better spidering qualities, I would like to know more about what advantages and potential gotcha-liabilities of this Mod.

Can someone give a further explanation on why the server must use the mod rewrite (function) through a .htaccess file in order to reduce phpcalls part of the URL? I know in older (late 1990s) cgi-calls, searches would stop on the first "?" encountered in a link, but thought this was improved.

What other problems or committments does this route create for other 68C mods?

Thanks

[seymourjames +]

First of the bat.

Some people would say there is an advantage to rewriting urls into what appear to be static html pages. The pages are human readable. Others would say there is less reason to do it in terms of search engines. Search engines do not generally struggle with php formatted urls nowadays.

I think it is generally a good idea. I use mod rewrite on some sites but not on others. I prefer sites that use it as the urls are friendlier for visitors but it does require a certain level of skill to manipulate .htaccess files.

What is also important is that if you do decide to use mod rewrite (for search engine reasons) is that you look at the search engine optimization of your site as a whole. The use of alt tags on images, the use of title tags and meta descriptions. Are these unique per page, etc How are urls being referenced from page to page. How is duplicate content avoided, how are empty search results pages handled, how are expired listiings pages handled, what is the overall structure of your site (how easily can a search engine spider it), use of the robots.txt file to manimulate the spiders, what about content (content is king), etc. Now there are solutions to these which we have solved very nicely.

[Bronxgodzilla +]

This sounds exciting. But is it a total commitment which could be incompatible with other Template-Mods? IE does this mean I will have to adapt mod rewrite everywhere? -- for ex if I install the BoatSales Template and use the feedback mod?

Can you direct me to where I can read up on *why* mod-rewrite does what you say, so I can further understand?
thanks.

Originally Posted by seymourjames

I think it is generally a good idea. I use mod rewrite on some sites but not on others. I prefer sites that use it as the urls are friendlier but it does require a certain level of skill to manipulate .htaccess files.

What is also important is that if you do decide to use mod rewrite (for search engine reasons) is that you look at the search engine optimization of your site as a whole. The use of alt tags on images, the use of title tags and meta descriptions. Are these unique per page, etc How are urls being referenced from page to page. How is duplicate content avoided, how are empty search results pages handled, how are expired listiings pages handled, what is the overall structure of your site (how easily can a search engine spider it), use of the robots.txt file to manimulate the spiders, what about content (content is king), etc. Now there are solutions to these which we have solved very nicely.

[seymourjames +]

There is no guarantee that all mods being offered by everyone will work together but in general I have not heard of cases where they will not. I think you are pretty safe assuming that most work together without problems. There are of course going to be exceptions but they are few and far between. The template is less important in this regard. This applies in general to what ever template you use or whichever module you use.

The answer to your other question is there is lots of information about .htaccess available to you on the internet. I can also send you the .htaccess for one of my sites which you could easily adapt to include your own domain details and urls. You will also find information on the forum and people willing to offer advice if you get stuck with modifying a particular url.