Joomla 2.5.x. How to enable and use SEF URLs

Joomla is using non user and search engines friendly URLs by default.

E.g.: http://domain.tld/index.php?option=com_k2&view=itemlist&layout=category&task=&id=&Itemid=117

Its hard to remember such URL

Login to your Joomla admin panel and navigate to Site menu -> Global Configuration

You should see the following options on the right:

1. Search Engine Friendly URLs – set it to Yes to use search and user friendly URLs. The URLs will change to something similar to http://domain.tld/index.php/blog

2. Use URL rewriting – this options allows to remove index.php from the URL. Please note that the option is available if you are using Apache or IIS 7 web server only. Please contact your hosting provider and ask them which web server they are using.

If you are using Apache web server you should ask your hosting whether mod_rewrite is installed and enabled on your hosting account. Then you should connect via FTP to your domain, search for htaccess.txt file and rename it to .htaccess

If you are using IIS 7 web server you should ask your hosting provider whether IIS URL Rewrite Module is enabled for your account. Then you should connect via FTP to your domain, search for web.config.txt file and rename it to web.config

The URLs will change to something similar to http://domain.tld/blog

3. Adds Suffix to URL – option will add .html at the end of URL. E.g. http://domain.tld/blog.html

To manage aliases for the pages, articles, categories, K2 items or categories you should edit them and change the Alias field value.

Feel free to check the detailed video tutorial below:

Joomla 2.5.x. How to enable and use SEF URLs