Joomla 3.0 · Joomla Tutorials

Joomla 3.0 Tutorial on How to Remove the index.php from your URL

Joomla 3.0 Tutorial on how to remove the index.php word from your URL.  If you look at your Joomla 3.0 website and click on any link it will always have the index.php word attached to it.  For example on my Joomla 3.0 website, if I click on a menu item ‘Elaine CmsMind Links’ the my URL will change from:

  • cmsmind.com -> cmsmind.com/index.php/Elaine-cmsmind-links
  • See screenshot below:
Joomla 3.0 Remove index.php from URL - before change

Joomla 3.0 Remove index.php from URL – before change

Now, the question is, Why would Joomla add an index.php word to my URL?  I don’t know, but all I know is that I want it gone.  I want my link to change from:

  • cmsmind.com -> cmsmind.com/elaine-cmsmind-links

That is what my link should look like, without the index.php word in my URL.  Below I will show you how to change your URL to remove the index.php from your URL as well.

Overview of Steps to Remove Index.php from URL

  1. Go to File Manager and Rename htaccess.txt
  2. Go to Global Configuration in Joomla 3.0
  3. Change Site SEO Settings in Global Configuration in Joomla 3.0
  4. See Changes in Frontend – Success!

Steps:

1.  Go to File Manager and Rename htaccess.txt

You will need to go to your Joomla 3.0 File Manager or TELNET into your website to rename the htaccess.txt file to .htaccess.  In my example, I telnetted into my website’s files and rename the file manually.

Joomla 3.0 Remove Index.php from URL - rename htaccess.txt to .htaccess

Joomla 3.0 Remove Index.php from URL – rename htaccess.txt to .htaccess
  • Login to your Webhosting and access your website filename
  • Rename htaccess.txt to .htaccess
  • cd website
  • mv htaccess.txt .htaccess

2.  Go to Global Configuration in Joomla 3.0

In Joomla 3.0 Global Configuration you can access the top level of your website.  You can take your website offline, change your SEO settings, server settings and more.

Joomla 3.0 System Global Configuration

Joomla 3.0 System Global Configuration
  • Login to your Joomla 3.0 Administrator Backend
  • Click on ‘System’
  • Click on ‘Global Configuration

3.  Change Site SEO Settings in Global Configuration in Joomla 3.0

You can change your Joomla 3.0 Site SEO Settings to allow SEO friendly URL’s.  Basically URL’s that can be read easily by search engines.  Read easily means the url contains words that you and I can understand, and not just numbers with number signs and question marks.

Joomla 3.0 Remove Index.php from URL - Change Site SEO Settings

Joomla 3.0 Remove Index.php from URL – Change Site SEO Settings
  • Click on ‘Site’ tab
  • Under ‘SEO Settings’, set the following values:
    • Search Engine Friendly URLs = Yes
    • Use URL rewriting = Yes
  • Click on ‘Save & Close’

4.  See Changes in Frontend – Success!

Now you can refresh your Joomla 3.0 website.  As stated above my menu link to ‘Elaine CmsMind Links’ was previously prefixed by the word index.php and after I refresh it, it is no longer there.  See screenshot of how my link looks now after I made the changes.  YAY no more index.php in my URL link.

Joomla 3.0 Remove Index.php from URL - after changes

Joomla 3.0 Remove Index.php from URL – after changes
  • Refresh your Joomla 3.0 frontend
  • See the link does not show index.php anymore.
  • In my case my link changed just as I wanted, from :

cmsmind.com -> cmsmind.com/elaine-cmsmind-links

If you skip Step 1, you will get errors.  All the links on your website will not work.  So Step 1 is very critical in the success of this tutorial.  If you do not know how to access your file manager or how to rename a file, contact your webhosting provider.  They should be able to help you.

I hope that helps.  Please leave a comment if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Elaine

2 thoughts on “Joomla 3.0 Tutorial on How to Remove the index.php from your URL

  1. Doesn’t work. Other than the home page, each page gives internal server error. And yes, I did do step 1 also.

  2. Hello,
    that’s just great! I usually don’t write comments like this, but this article was so clear and perfect that I felt I must write something.
    Thank you very much, Elaine!!

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