SEO friendly urls for opencart

Enable SEO URL’s in the OpenCart Admin

First of all enable SEO URL’s in your stores admin. Go to the Admin >>System >>Settings. Edit your store, and finally click the “Server” tab and set the SEO URL’s radio to “Yes” and save your settings.

Rename the .htaccess.txt file

Next you must create an .htaccess file. If you do not create this file your pages will not display. OpenCart provides a file called .htaccess.txt. Rename this file to .htaccess and you will be good to go. If you don’t have this file in your root directory you will need to make your own .htaccess file. The file should include the following:

# 1.To use URL Alias you need to be running apache with mod_rewrite enabled. 

# 2. In your opencart directory rename htaccess.txt to .htaccess.

# For any support issues please visit: http://www.opencart.com

Options +FollowSymlinks

# Prevent Directoy listing
Options -Indexes

# Prevent Direct Access to files

 Order deny,allow
 Deny from all

# SEO URL Settings
RewriteEngine On
# If your opencart installation does not run on the main web folder make sure you folder it does run in ie. / becomes /shop/ 

RewriteBase /
RewriteRule sitemap.xml /index.php?route=feed/google_sitemap
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^([^?]*) index.php?_route_=$1 [L,QSA]

### Additional Settings that may need to be enabled for some servers
### Uncomment the commands by removing the # sign in front of it.
### If you get an "Internal Server Error 500" after enabling any of the following settings, restore the # as this means your host doesn't allow that.

# 1. If your cart only allows you to add one item at a time, it is possible register_globals is on. This may work to disable it:
# php_flag register_globals off

# 2. If your cart has magic quotes enabled, This may work to disable it:
# php_flag magic_quotes_gpc Off

# 3. Set max upload file size. Most hosts will limit this and not allow it to be overridden but you can try
# php_value upload_max_filesize 999M

# 4. set max post size. uncomment this line if you have a lot of product options or are getting errors where forms are not saving all fields
# php_value post_max_size 999M

# 5. set max time script can take. uncomment this line if you have a lot of product options or are getting errors where forms are not saving all fields
# php_value max_execution_time 200

# 6. set max time for input to be recieved. Uncomment this line if you have a lot of product options or are getting errors where forms are not saving all fields
# php_value max_input_time 200

# 1.To use URL Alias you need to be running apache with mod_rewrite enabled.

# 2. In your opencart directory rename htaccess.txt to .htaccess.

# For any support issues please visit: http://www.opencart.com

Options +FollowSymlinks

# Prevent Directoy listing

Options -Indexes

# Prevent Direct Access to files

Order deny,allow

Deny from all

# SEO URL Settings

RewriteEngine On

# If your opencart installation does not run on the main web folder make sure you folder it does run in ie. / becomes /shop/

RewriteBase /

RewriteRule sitemap.xml /index.php?route=feed/google_sitemap

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

RewriteRule ^([^?]*) index.php?_route_=$1 [L,QSA]

### Additional Settings that may need to be enabled for some servers

### Uncomment the commands by removing the # sign in front of it.

### If you get an "Internal Server Error 500" after enabling any of the following settings, restore the # as this means your host doesn't allow that.

# 1. If your cart only allows you to add one item at a time, it is possible register_globals is on. This may work to disable it:

# php_flag register_globals off

# 2. If your cart has magic quotes enabled, This may work to disable it:

# php_flag magic_quotes_gpc Off

# 3. Set max upload file size. Most hosts will limit this and not allow it to be overridden but you can try

# php_value upload_max_filesize 999M

# 4. set max post size. uncomment this line if you have a lot of product options or are getting errors where forms are not saving all fields

# php_value post_max_size 999M

# 5. set max time script can take. uncomment this line if you have a lot of product options or are getting errors where forms are not saving all fields

# php_value max_execution_time 200

# 6. set max time for input to be recieved. Uncomment this line if you have a lot of product options or are getting errors where forms are not saving all fields

# php_value max_input_time 200

Enter SEO Keywords for URL’s

Finally, you need to enter SEO keywords for every page, information, product and category you want to have URL rewrite. You can find the field for the SEO Keywords under the Data tab when editing and creating items.

Once you have entered the SEO Keywords your URL’w will be working. Now go and enjoy more traffic and happy customers.

Things to take into consideration while Enter SEO Keywords for URL’s

When SEO URLs are activated now on keep in mind the following things while inserting the data:

Always insert the SEO keywords while inserting the data
Remove space in the SEO keywords like for this “Backyard Water Slide” use “Backyard-Water-Slide”.
Remove special characters (/, & $ @ # etc) also, as some browser will not detect them.
The most important things is that SEO Keywords must be unique through out the site if repeated then system will be confused which to show and it shows errors.
I have found you are not inserting SEO keywords field for category so insert it as well but remember must be unique through the site.