As an experienced CMS website operation person, I know that a friendly URL structure is crucial for the website's search engine optimization (SEO) and user experience (UX).A clear, concise, and descriptive URL can not only help search engines better understand the page content, but also allow users to have an expectation of the page content before visiting.The Anqi CMS provides powerful static rule customization features, allowing us to flexibly configure the website URL according to specific needs.

Understand the friendly URL structure and its importance

Friendly URL structure, usually refers to those URLs that are easy for humans to read and understand and contain keywords. For example,https://www.example.com/products/category/item-name.htmlfarhttps://www.example.com/index.php?id=123&cid=456more readable and descriptive.

In content marketing and SEO strategies, a friendly URL structure plays a key role. They help:

  • Improve search engine visibility: Search engines tend to crawl and index URLs with clear structure and relevant content, which helps improve the ranking of the website in search results.
  • Improve user experienceThe user can quickly understand the page content through the URL, enhance trust, and improve click-through rate.
  • Simplify sharingA concise URL is easier to share on social media, in emails, or verbally.
  • Enhance brand awarenessA URL with the brand name or related keywords helps to strengthen the brand image.

The Aanqi CMS provides a solid foundation through its 'pseudo-static and 301 redirect management' function, making the customization of URL structure an important means to enhance website competitiveness.

AnQi CMS Overview of Static Rules

The Aanqi CMS is built-in with various static rules patterns, aimed at simplifying the URL configuration of the website.In addition to the default provided "number pattern", "model naming pattern", and two "classification naming patterns" and other preset rules, the system also provides a highly flexible "custom pattern", which is the key to achieving personalized and friendly URLs.

“Custom mode” allows us to precisely define the URL structure of different types of pages based on the business logic and SEO strategy of the website, thereby breaking through the limitations of preset modes and creating the URL form that best meets our needs.

Configure custom rewrite rules

To start customizing the pseudo-static rules, we need to log in to the Anqi CMS backend management interface and navigate to the 'Function Management' menu under the 'Pseudo-Static Rule' option.Here, we can select the 'Custom mode' and edit the corresponding rules.

In custom mode, we can configure six groups of rewrite rules, each corresponding to different page types of the website:

  • archive: URL rules for document detail pages.
  • category: The URL rule for the document list page (category page).
  • archiveIndex: The URL rule for the model homepage (e.g., the homepage for the 'Article' model).
  • page: The URL rule for a single-page detail page (for example, the "About Us" page).
  • tagIndex: The URL rule for the tag homepage.
  • tag: The URL rule for the tag detail page.

Each rule is adopted.规则名===规则值The form is configured in the following manner, for example:archive===/{module}-{id}.html.

Available rule variables

When defining custom rule values, we can use a series of system-provided variables, combine them, and build meaningful URLs. These variables include:

  • {id}The unique ID of the content, such as article ID, category ID.
  • {filename}The custom link name of the content, usually automatically generated based on the title or manually set.
  • {catname}: Custom link name of the category, it can also be pinyin or manually set alias.
  • {catid}Unique ID of the category.
  • {module}The name of the model table or URL alias for the content, for example 'article' or 'product'.
  • {page}Used to represent the page number of pagination. Please note,{page}Variables need to be enclosed in parentheses, for example(-{page})Page numbers are displayed only when pagination exists, and custom delimiters can be added before the page numbers.

Practical Application: Building Friendly URL Examples

By combining these variables flexibly, we can create highly optimized URL structures for different parts of the website.

Document details page (archive)

For document detail pages, we usually want the URL to clearly reflect the theme of the article and include keywords. For example, we can use the model name and the custom link name of the document:

archive===/{module}/{filename}.html

If the article title is "AnQiCMS Static Optimization", and the model alias is "article", and the custom link name is "anqicms-rewrite-optimization", then the URL will be/article/anqicms-rewrite-optimization.htmlThis is/article/123.htmlmore descriptive.

Category list page (category)

The category page serves as the skeleton for content organization, and its URL also needs to have a sense of hierarchy and descriptiveness. We can combine the model name, custom category link name, and optional pagination information:

category===/{module}-category/{catname}(-{page}).html

If a category name is "News Dynamic", the model alias is "article", the custom link name is "news", and it is currently the second page, the URL may be/article-category/news-2.html. If there is only one page, then/article-category/news.html.

Single page detail page (page)

Single-page pages such as "About Us", "Contact Us", etc., the URL should be concise and clear, directly reflecting the content of the page:

page===/{filename}.html

If the custom link name for the "About Us" page is "about-us", the URL will be/about-us.html.

Tag detail page (tag)

The URL of the tag page can help users and search engines understand the theme aggregated on the page:

tag===/tag/{filename}.html

If a tag is named "SEO optimization", and the custom link name is "seo-optimization", then the URL will be/tag/seo-optimization.html.

Model homepage (archiveIndex) and the tag homepage (tagIndex)

These page URLs are usually quite concise:

archiveIndex===/{module}.html(For example)/article.html)tagIndex===/tags(-{page}).html(For example)/tags.htmlor/tags-2.html)

By the above example, we can see that Anqi CMS's custom static rules provide great flexibility, which can help us achieve various URL structures that meet SEO and user experience requirements.

Important considerations when implementing custom rules

There are several key points to pay special attention to when customizing static rules to ensure the normal operation and SEO effect of the website:

The uniqueness of the URL and custom link name

In Anqi CMS, whether it is documents, categories, single pages, or tags, you can set a 'custom URL' or 'URL alias'.These custom link names must be unique throughout the entire site.If the manually entered custom link name duplicates the existing content, the system will automatically add random numbers at the end to ensure uniqueness.Suggest using English lowercase letters and hyphens (-) to create concise, descriptive custom link names.

Maintain consistency in rules

Once the pseudo-static rules are established, they should be maintained consistently.Frequent changes to the URL structure may confuse search engines, affecting the inclusion and ranking of the website.If indeed a change is required, please ensure to cooperate with the Anqi CMS 301 redirect function to permanently redirect the old URL to the new URL to preserve link weight and prevent traffic loss.

Completely test all links

After saving the new static rules, it is necessary to conduct a comprehensive test of all links on the website, including navigation menus, internal links, external links, pagination links, and search result pages.Ensure that all pages can be accessed normally and that the URL structure is consistent as expected.

Server environment configuration

The activation of pseudo-static rules usually requires cooperation with web servers (such as Nginx, Apache).If your website is deployed in Baota panel or similar environments, please make sure that the Nginx or Apache pseudo-static configuration matches the requirements of Anqi CMS.The installation document of Anqi CMS usually provides example configurations for Nginx or Apache's pseudo-static configuration, ensuring that these configurations are correct is the premise for the rules to take effect.

Conclusion

The custom static URL function of Anqi CMS provides us with powerful tools for website operators, allowing us to flexibly construct URL structures that are friendly to search engines and users.By meticulous planning and rigorous testing, we can not only improve the website's SEO performance, but also provide users with a better browsing experience, thereby occupying an advantage in the fierce market competition.

Frequently Asked Questions

What impact will it have on my website if I change the pseudo-static rules after content publishing?

After the content is published, changing the static rule will cause the URL of the original content to change.This could lead to the deactivation of the old URL that has been indexed by search engines, resulting in a 404 error when users access it through the old link, which may affect the website's SEO ranking and user experience.To avoid this situation, Anqi CMS provides a 301 redirect function.After changing the rules, you should configure 301 redirection in the background in time, directing all affected old URLs to the new URLs to retain the SEO weight of the old links and seamlessly guide users to the new page.

Can I use Chinese as the custom URL link name?

Although Anqi CMS automatically generates pinyin as the default value for the custom URL when you enter a Chinese title, we strongly recommend using English lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens (-) for the custom URL link name.Chinese URLs may encounter character encoding or compatibility issues in some browsers or servers, and are not as friendly for search engine crawling and recognition as English URLs.Adhering to the use of English pinyin or short English words as link names is a better practice.

Why didn't the website URL change or why did a 404 error occur after I saved the custom static rule?

This may be caused by several reasons. First, please make sure that the configuration file of your web server (such as Nginx or Apache) has set up reverse proxy and pseudo-static rules correctly to support the URL rewriting mechanism of the Safe CMS.The installation document of AnQi CMS usually provides corresponding server configuration examples.Secondly, it may be because the system cache has not been updated in time, you can try to clear all the cache in the background "Update Cache" feature.Finally, please carefully check whether there are any syntax errors in the custom rules you have filled in the "static rules" in the background, any minor spelling mistakes or incorrect variable usage may cause the rules to fail.For example, pagination variable{page}Must be enclosed in parentheses, such as(-{page}).