Joomla .htaccess with GoDaddy Shared Hosting
SEO, SEF, Joomla, GoDaddy, .htaccess
Search Engine Optimization
The article comes on the heels of finally solving a problem that has plagued not only myself but countless other CMS users using GoDaddy shared hosting (Deluxe or Ultimate). This solution works on the new 2011 and 2012 - 4GH hosting.
SEO is extremely important for Joomla, Wordpress, Drupal and other CMS websites alike. One big problem with hosting is that it's so cheap with companies like GoDaddy, hence this article. Here are some tips and tricks for fixing .htaccess files to work with SEF URLs and Apache mod_rewrite.
- Step 1 - Make sure your Joomla Administation > SEO settings are all OFF.
- Step 2 - Download the htaccess.txt file to your computer (preferably using Dreamweaver)
- Step 3 - Edit the file as follows:
Uncomment the line "Options +FollowSymLinks" by removing the "#"
Add the line "Options -MultiViews" - Should look like this:
Options +FollowSymLinks
Options -MultiViews
Uncomment the line “RewriteEngine On” by removing the "#"
Uncomment the line “RewriteBase /” by removing the "#"
DO NOT amend the "RewriteBase /" line to include your subfolder unless you are using the installation such as "www.example.com/site2". This will not work with multiple websites within the shared hosting that have seperate folders (or subfolders).
Your domain manager will allow you to point your domain (i.e.-- "www.example2.com") to the subfolder within your host. (i.e.-- "/example2")
- Step 4 - Save the files by doing a "Save As" and amend the file name to ".htaccess". If using Dreamweaver it will as you if you really want to use the period tag. Click Yes.
- Step 5 - Delete the "htaccess.txt" file from your server first. Then proceed to upload the new amended ".htaccess" file.
- Step 6 - Go to the Joomla Administrator > SEO Settings and set both SEF URLs and mod_rewrite to "Yes" and hit Apply.
- Test both the Homepage of the site and another page. If it doesn't work either wait 30 minutes or also try this secondary option IN ADDITION to the steps above.
- Step 7 - Login to your GoDaddy account and go to Account > Domain Manager
- Step 8 - Click on your domain to edit and under the DNS Manager click the Launch link.
- Step 9 - Add a new record to your "A (host)" record with the following:
Host: * (insert just an asterisk "*")
Points to: ("ip address", this is the same as the @ A record)
TTL: 1 Hour
Example:
Host: *
Points to: 123.123.123.1
TTL: 1 Hour
- Step 10 - Click Save and test. This could take 1 hour and GoDaddy even states DNS updates could take up to 48 hours. I've usually experienced 5-10 minutes updates.
The entire reason for having this done is to make sure you have functioning SEF URLs, right? One more addition you may want to take care of right now is to insert a 301 redirect for "non www" addresses. This will help boost your ratings on SEO optimization sites and improve your Google, Yahoo and Bing results.
Add the following code to your .htaccess file: (usually below the comment "########## Begin - Custom redirects")
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^yoursiteaddress.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.yoursiteaddress.com/$1 [L,R=301]
I know I've read these solutions in other places, however I do not recall the exact pages I found the on and none of these solutions were placed all in one spot for me to site my references. If you would like to repost this, take credit for or whatever, it's yours! Hope this helps, enjoy.
