====== SEO/SEF URLs ======

^ :!: Note ^
| Before you read this, please confirm that you understand Instant Update's [[dynamic_pages|dynamic pages]] system and [[auto_menus|automatic menus]]? |

SEO((Search Engine Optimized)) (or SEF((Search Engine Friendly))) URLs (or //links//) are such URLs which are made in the way Search Engines would like them. Some Search Engines will turn their backs and go away from your web site when they see question mark (?) in your links, because question mark indicates that a HTTP GET parameter has been sent to a page via URL and that indicates that a page is dynamic (page can change itself according to a HTTP GET parameter) so Search Engine can think that you are giving it some bunch of content which has no relation with your web site. To make Search Engine think that each Instant Update content is placed in separate **.iu** file, we will trick it by rewriting every request to a **.iu** file to your [[dynamic_pages|dynamic page]] with a parameter which will hold information with content name we want to display. To accomplish this we are using [[http://httpd.apache.org/|Apache web server]] with [[http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mod/mod_rewrite.html|mod_rewrite]] module. IIS users can use [[http://www.isapirewrite.com/|isapi_rewrite]], which, unfortunately, is shareware software.

To rewrite all requests from .iu pages to your dynamic page (default name is //page.php//), create blank text file, name it **.htaccess** and place it in your web server's root folder (usually named htdocs/ or public_html/) and place following lines in it. If such file already exists, just append following code at the end of it: 

<file>
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^(.*).iu-preview$ page.php?page=$1&iu_preview=true [L]
RewriteRule ^(.*).iu$ page.php?page=$1 [L]
</IfModule>
</file>

With this code you will simply redirect all requests for **//anything//.iu** to point to **page.php?page=//anything//**. It will also redirect all requests for **anything.iu-preview** to a Instant Update preview URL (it is internal Instant Update link, you don't need and you don't want to know anything about it).

^ :!: Notes ^
| You can change every occurrence of **.iu** to **.htm** or **.html** in code displayed above if you want to use .htm(l) extensions in [[auto_menus|menu links]] instead of .iu extensions. |
| If your [[dynamic_pages|dynamic page]] file name is different than //page.php//, you should replace **page.php** with your dynamic page file name in code displayed above. |