The website's URL structure, like a business card, not only displays to users but also is an important clue for search engines to understand the content and hierarchy of the website.A clear, concise, and semantically rich URL that can not only greatly enhance the user experience but also significantly improve the search engine optimization (SEO) of the website, helping the content to rank better.The Anqi CMS is well-versed in this, built-in with powerful static page functionality, allowing website operators to easily configure and optimize URL structure.

Why is URL structure so important for SEO?

Dynamic URLs usually contain question marks, equals signs, and various parameters such aswww.yourdomain.com/article.php?id=123&category=tech. Such URLs make it difficult for search engine crawlers to identify content themes and distinguish between different pages, and users may also find them not intuitive.

Compared to, pseudo-static URLs, such aswww.yourdomain.com/technology/anqicms-rewrite-rules.htmlthey look just like real static HTML files. This structure has several significant advantages:

  • Enhancing readability and user experienceThe user can roughly understand the page content from the URL, improving trust and click intention.
  • Enhance search engine crawling efficiency: Search engines prefer URLs that are structured clearly and have explicit levels, which helps in faster and more accurate crawling and indexing of pages.
  • Keyword optimization：Incorporate the core keywords in the URL to further indicate the theme of the search engine page, which helps improve relevant search rankings.
  • Reduce the risk of duplicate content.: A standard URL structure helps to avoid issues with the generation of identical content pages due to different parameter combinations, reducing the negative impact of duplicate content on SEO.

The design of AnQi CMS has taken these needs into account from the very beginning, therefore, configuring pseudo-static rules is a key step to improving website operation efficiency and SEO performance.

The AnQi CMS built-in pseudo-static configuration feature

The Anqi CMS integrates the management of pseudo-static rules in the background, eliminating the麻烦 of manually modifying the server configuration files (such as Nginx or Apache's rewrite rules).You can find the "Fake Static Rule" option under the "Function Management" menu in the background.Here, AnQi CMS provides several preset modes as well as highly flexible custom modes to meet the needs of different websites.

Choose the pseudo-static mode that suits you

AnQi CMS provides four built-in pseudo-static rules, each of which has its applicable scenarios:

  1. Numeric patternThis mode uses the ID of the content such as articles, products, single pages, and tags as part of the URL. For example:

    • Article details:/archive/123.html
    • Category list:/category/10.htmlThis model is concise and intuitive, especially suitable for Chinese websites, the URL does not contain complex pinyin or English words.

  2. Model naming patternThis pattern is usually more favored by English sites, it will integrate the URL alias of content models (such as "article" corresponding toarticleor "product" corresponding toproduct) into the URL. For example:

    • Article details:/article-123.htmlor/article/anqicms-features.html
    • Product List:/product-list-45.htmlThis pattern makes the URL more semantically meaningful, making it easier for users and search engines to understand the content type.

  3. Category Naming Pattern 1 (Chinese Site)This pattern is based on the numeric pattern and also reflects the category URL alias in the URL. For example:

    • Article details:/category-name/123.html
    • Label details:/tag-name/45.htmlIt maintains brevity while increasing the information content of the URL.

  4. Category naming pattern 2 (English site): Similar to the model naming pattern, but emphasizes the category URL alias, making it more prominent in the URL. For example:

    • Article details:/category-alias/article-alias.htmlThis pattern is very suitable for internationalized sites that need to emphasize classification levels and English semantics.

You can choose the most suitable one from these four modes according to the positioning of the website and the main user group, Anqi CMS will automatically apply the corresponding rules based on your choice.

In-depth customization of pseudo-static rules (Advanced mode)

If the built-in mode does not fully meet your personalized needs, Anqi CMS also provides a powerful custom mode.This allows you to freely combine variables to build the URL structure that best suits your preferences.

In custom mode, you need to define the URL rules for each type of page in the form of规则名===规则值. The rule names that can be defined includearchive(Document Details),category(Category list),archiveIndex(Model Home),page(Single Page),tagIndex(Tag Home),tag(Tag Details).

Variables you can use:

  • {id}: Unique ID of the content.
  • {filename}The custom URL alias for content (article, product, page, tag), usually in pinyin or English.
  • {catname}Custom URL alias for a category.
  • {catid}Category ID.
  • {module}The URL alias for the content model (such asarticleorproduct)
  • {page}: Page number, it needs to be placed within parentheses, such as(-{page}), indicating an optional pagination section.

For example, you can combine the rules like this:

archive===/{module}/{catname}/{filename}.html
category===/{module}/{catname}(-{page}).html
archiveIndex===/{module}.html
page===/page/{filename}.html
tagIndex===/tags(-{page}).html
tag===/tag/{filename}(-{page}).html

This example rule will bring a very semantic and hierarchical clear URL structure to your website.

Important reminder: the configuration of the server environment.

Ensure that your web server (such as Nginx or Apache) is properly configured for any pseudo-static mode you choose.Reverse ProxyForward all front-end requests to the AnQiCMS application.AnQiCMS will receive these requests and route and parse them internally according to the pseudo-static rules set in your backend.

This means that you do not need to write complex URL rewrite rules in Nginx or Apache to match AnQiCMS's pseudo-static paths, but simply configure a simple reverse proxy to direct all HTTP traffic to the port AnQiCMS is listening on (usually 8001), allowing AnQiCMS to handle the URL parsing logic.

A typical Nginx reverse proxy configuration snippet might look like this:

location @AnqiCMS {
    proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8001;
    proxy_set_header   Host             $host;
    proxy_set_header   X-Real-IP        $remote_addr;
    proxy_set_header   X-Forwarded-For  $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
}
error_page 404 =200 @AnqiCMS;
location / {
   try_files $uri $uri/index.html @AnqiCMS;
}

Please note that this is a reverse proxy configuration commonly used when deploying AnQiCMS, ensuring that all requests reach the AnQiCMS application.Please refer to your server environment and AnQiCMS installation document for specific server configuration.)

Other techniques for optimizing URL structure

In addition to configuring the pseudo-static rules, there are some practices related to URLs that can further improve the search engine friendliness of the website:

  • Use the "custom URL" field reasonablyIn publishing articles, adding categories, single pages, and tags, AnQi CMS provides the "Custom URL" field (corresponding to the static rules in the pseudostatic rules of the{filename}and{catname})。Suggest filling in meaningful, keyword-containing pinyin or English aliases for these contents, as this will directly reflect in the pseudo-static URL and further optimize SEO.
  • Keep the URL concise.Avoid long URLs or including too many unnecessary words.
  • Use hyphens-Word separatorThis is the URL word separator recommended by search engines, which helps it understand the various words in the URL.
  • Using 301 redirectIf the URL structure of the website needs to be adjusted, or some old pages are deleted/merged, it is necessary to use the '301 Redirect Management' function in the Anqi CMS backend to permanently redirect the old URL to the new URL to retain link weight and avoid traffic loss.

By using the pseudo-static feature provided by AnQi CMS, you can easily build URLs that are friendly to both users and search engines, helping your website win an advantage in the highly competitive online environment.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. After configuring the pseudo-static rules, what should I do if my website page does not open?Improper configuration of pseudo-static rules can indeed lead to inaccessible pages.