Fix broken links AKA enable SEF URL’s

Last week, I received an e-mail of one of my readers.  He said he had problems with his URL’s which were all broken.  He had read one of my articles, which didn’t solve the problem.  The reason?  He was trying to follow instructions that didn’t apply to him.  To fix this, there’s this article on SEF URL’S.

In 90% of the cases when someone says his “links are suddenly all broken”, it leads to the same problem:  an incorrect use of the built-in SEF URL functionality.  In the case I mentioned before, the reader had even enabled the option without knowing what he was doing.

When you’ve got broken links after “clicking something in the back-end”, do yourself a favor, and do the following:

  1. Login to the ADMINISTRATOR PANEL
  2. Use the menu to navigate to SITE > GLOBAL CONFIGURATION. You’ll be taken to the ‘site’ tab, which is where you want to be.
That yellow question mark is there for a reason...

Now, click on the image above.  See the SEO settings to the right?  There’s three options there; but the one that matters here is the “Use Apache mod_rewrite” option.  If this is set to “YES” and your links are broken, ask yourself this question:

Did I remember to edit the htaccess.txt file in the root of my site?

If your links are broken, the answer to this question is probably “no”.  Many people seem to be unaware of how important this is.  Well, it is.  Now, you’ve got two options.  You either set the option back to “No”, or you edit the htaccess.txt file.

How do you do that?

It’s simple, really.  Use FTP (or another tool) to navigate to the root of your website (the folder you installed Joomla! in).  Look for a text file, named HTACCESS.TXT. See it?  That’s your problem right there. So, let’s fix this problem.

Simply select the text file, and rename it.  name the document .htaccess  -> that’s DOThtaccess, in case you don’t see the dot. Once this very simple procedure is done, take a look at your site.  Your URL’s should no longer be broken.

Still having problems?  Leave a comment or contact me, and I might just help you out.  Note:  leaving a comment on this blog on how awesome I am is MANDATORY, just so you know.

23 thoughts on “Fix broken links AKA enable SEF URL’s”

  1. I am having problem with my SEF, if you search in the site using the joomla search for “chaqueta piaggio”, the article exists and appear in the search but it won´t work (try it please).

    htaccess is as it should… what can that be?

    Regards!

  2. Tried SEF setting, editing, htaccess and still Joomla can’ find links;
    Fatal error: Call to a member function getPath() on a non-object in /home/content/85/6561885/html/jupgrade/libraries/joomla/application/categories.php on line 435

  3. You r awesome! But my links still broken? I dont understand why 🙁 And I even had it install locally on my computer and works perfect but on my host doesnt. I rename the .txt file to .htaccess as you explain but nothing 🙁

    1. Ooooops my bad, it is working!!! I was confused, my file was htaccess.txt and I thought that had to be htaccess.htaccess!! now is only “.htaccess” and everything is working perfectly.

      Thanks again!

  4. Hi there.

    PROBLEM still NOT SOLVED !???

    I was about to write here that despite my .htaccess exists the problem is still not solved, when i was about to click post comment, one thing came into my mind..

    I checked the size of my .htaccess and compared to htaccess.txt vas.. twice smaller.. so i copied all the content from htaccess.txt and paste is in .htaccess.

    result? happy happy joy joy it works.

  5. Hello,
    I have completed the .htaccess, and all pages/links are working, except one page, Construction Zone. I have deleted the links and added them again (to go to another page), and still no luck. any thoughts.

    1. Hi Kathleen,

      Your “Construction Zone” link is working just fine for me. Sometimes you’ve got to clear your browser cache for all links to work properly.

      Very nice website, by the way!

      1. Hi Steve,
        thanks – What I did because I knew that this was the only page not working, was to change the page slightly, I am adding another project, so it corrected itself really. When you change to the Search Engine Friendly – it does change some things – never quit – and you finally get it – love Joomla
        Kathleen

  6. Sir me got an error of my website if u have an solution please reply me back Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 33554432 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 41 bytes) in /home/pressbri/public_html/administrator/components/com_rsgallery2/includes/items/item.php on line 53

  7. I have a lot of broken links, my Apache mod_rewrite is not activated and the file .htaccess is OK.
    Links to areas of the site applying to “registered members only” are showing broken in the IBP report. Can you please help? spareroom-online.co.uk

    Many thanks
    Marcus

  8. Hi! I am hoping you can give me a little help here. I have a joomla 2.5 web site with VM 2. I have the file .htaccess ok, the rewrite on, the seo for joomla in the global configuration its also on.
    On VM2 I have the SEO on. Also I have enable the system sef plugin.
    I am still working on this web but… its looking good in general, the links are working fine, most of them. BUT I think I played too much with this seo stuff and something went wrong. I have no clue how to fix it =(
    2 examples:
    1- if you click on top of the home, right side on: Mi carrito it opens a pop up where you can see what you added. On that pop up if you click on Mostrar Carrito, it should take you to the cart page but the link is not working.
    2- on my account page when you click on a link for adding your address, that link is not workin g either…
    Any ideas? It seems to be all related to VM pages…
    THANKS!
    YOU ROCK!

  9. Steven is indeed awesome. Just reaching out to him for help caused the solution to my problem to leap off the internet and onto my site. Magic!

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