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Change a URL with mod_rewrite

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 21:18:07 +0000

Question: My current website URL looks like http://mydomain.com/index.php?page=creative. How can I remove the index.php and question mark to make it look more like a regular page address?

Answer: If your web server is Apache, you should be able to do this with mod_rewrite. If you have a shared hosting account, first make sure that your web host has enabled mod_rewrite. Then, create an .htaccess file or edit your current one, placing the following strings inside it:

RewriteEngine on RewriteRule ^([^/\.]+).html$ index.php?page=$1 [L]
The above will change http://mydomain.com/index.php?page=creative to:

http://mydomain.com/creative.html

This will make it easier for users to remember your URLs and possibly for search engines to index them.

How to create subdomains in cPanel

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:26:07 +0000

A subdomain is an nice way to make a sub-section of your website stand out. For example, if your domain is “garbleygook.com”, and you want the “store” to be noticeable, you could create a subdomain called “store.garbleygook.com”. Creating subdomains in cPanel is much quicker and easier than trying to do it manually with Apache configuration files. Just follow these simple steps:

1. Login to your cPanel on your web server.
2. Scroll down to the “Domains” section.
3. Click “Subdomains”
4. Where it says “Subdomain”, enter the prefix you want before your domain name (i.e. “store”).
5. In the drop-down menu next to it, select your domain (i.e. garbleygook.com).
6. By default, cPanel will place the document root for the new subdomain under the document root for your default domain. If you want it called something else or stored somewhere else, modify that box, but be careful not to mix files unintentionally.
7. Click “Create”.

Once you have created your subdomain, you can modify the settings any time in the “Modify a Subdomain section”, simply by clicking on the document root path of the one you want to edit. It will take you to the file manager for that subdomain. Clicking “Manage redirection” will cause the subdomain to redirect to the URL of your choice.

Symantec : Shortened URLs pose security risk

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 20:55:19 +0000

Nearly all of us have used URL-shortening services such as bit.ly or TinyURL. They are a great convenience, but according to Symantec , pose a security threat.

The computer security firm says their malicious use is on the rise, and that they are especially dangerous because users do not always know where the links point.

The good thing about many modern URL-shorteners is they will generally display a gateway page before redirecting to the user to show what site the link points to. Not all services offer this feature or require it to be used, however. The next time you encounter a shortened link, think twice before clicking.

Source | Radio New Zealand

Search Engine Friendly URLs

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:35:57 +0000

In a previous post, we learned about dynamic websites. One of the drawbacks of dynamic websites that we did not mention was the incomprehensibly long URLs that often result. The URL to a page might looks something like: yourdomain.com/indep.php?reallylongname&somethingelse&sid003234.

Content management systems like Joomla, provide a solution that works fairly well. Relying on Apache’s mod_rewrite feature, the web server will translate your long URL into something simple that looks like a traditional HTML URL. The SEO theory is that these URLs are friendly to search engines and improve rankings.

Aside from that, a URL that looks like yourdomain.com/somethingelse.html is much more appealing to users, particularly if they want to find that page again and forget to bookmark it. It adds the appearance of permanence to your dynamic pages and will improve your site’s user experience.