Enabling SEO URLs in the OpenCart admin

1. Login to your OpenCart admin panel.
2. Navigate to System > Settings and click the "Edit" link.
3. On the "Server" tab, set "Use SEO URL’s" to "Yes" and save the changes.

   

4. Connect to your server via FTP using any FTP client (e.g. FileZilla)
5. In your main OpenCart directory, there should be a file called .htaccess.txt. Rename it to .htaccess. If you already have an .htaccess file, add this code at the end of the file:

# SEO URL Settings
RewriteEngine On
# If your opencart installation does not run on the main web folder make sure you folder it does run in ie. / becomes /shop/ 

RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^sitemap.xml$ index.php?route=feed/google_sitemap [L]
RewriteRule ^googlebase.xml$ index.php?route=feed/google_base [L]
RewriteRule ^download/(.*) /index.php?route=error/not_found [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !.*\.(ico|gif|jpg|jpeg|png|js|css)
RewriteRule ^([^?]*) index.php?_route_=$1 [L,QSA]

6.* If your store is in a separate directory (e.g. "shop"), open the .htaccess file in a text editor and look for this line:

RewriteBase /

If your shop is installed in a directory called “shop“, for example, change the above line in the .htaccess file to:

RewriteBase /shop/

Remember to put the slash (/) at the end. Otherwise the SEO URLs will not work with OpenCart.

Adding SEO keywords for your products and categories

Note: The default OpenCart SEO URL functionality doesn't work with multi language multi shops. You'll need to install an extension for that.

Note 2: Do not use spaces in your keywords. Use only unique SEO keywords. You cannot use the same keyword for a product and a category.

To add SEO keywords for your products:

1. Go to Catalog > Products
2. Click "Edit" for a product
3. On the "Data" tab fill in the SEO keyword field

   

4. Go to Catalog > Categories and repeat the process for your categories

If SEO URLs don't work

1. Contact your hosting account provider and ask them if mod_rewrite is enabled on your hosting account.
2. Download the default OpenCart .htaccess file here
   
   and upload it to the main directory of your store. If your store is installed in a separate directory (e.g. shop) make sure to open this .htaccess file first and change this line RewriteBase / to RewriteBase /shop/ or whatever the name of your OpenCart directory is.

rsdimitrov

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