First verify ModRewrite is enabled in Apache.

Create a test folder within your web root path and then create a file named .htaccess in your new folder containing this text:

RewriteEngine On

Now visit yourdomain.com/testfolder. If you get a 500 / Internal Server Error then you need to enable ModRewrite in Apache.

Once the page is loading without a 500 error, we can continue.

I’m going to show you how to turn an ugly URL like:

http://www.yourdomain.com/index.php?pageid=49382

to

http://www.yourdomain.com/pages/jewelry-and-watches/49382

First, let’s open .htaccess back up and add the following line:

RewriteRule ^([^/]+)/([0-9]+)[/]?$ index.php?keywords=$1&id=$2

Just to explain, the line above is rewriting any requests like:

/testfolder/these-are-my-keywords/123

to

index.php?keywords=these-are-my-keywords&id=123

Remember it’s not REDIRECTING, it’s REWRITING. This happens blindly to the user/spiders, so it can add true value to your web structures.

Next create a file named index.php in the same test folder with the following contents:

<?php
  //dump out $_GET variables
  print_r($_GET);
?>

You can now visit the page in your browser to see it in action.

Example URL:

http://www.yourdomain.com/testfolder/the-keywords-you-want/12345

You should get output from index.php like:

Array ( [keywords] => the-keywords-you-want [id] => 12345 )

I have posted a PHP function that will keywordize a page title or description.