After activating SEO you should see your search engine rankings increase!

Enabling SEO is a 2 step process and these instructions are for installations that are using the Apache web server with mod_rewrite enabled and the Zeus web server. The first step for both web servers is activating SEO.

In admin under System > Component > Settings, click on Search Engine Optimization Settings and change SEO Status to True (1). If you have a Google Analytics Account number you may enter it on this page too. Then click Submit to save your changes.

Note: If you are using the Zeus web server please scroll down to the bottom of the page for the rewrite rule you need to use with Zeus.

Create a plain text file named .htaccess (note the leading period (.) which is required) and put the following into the file:


Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^(.*)-(.*)/(.*)\.html index.php?app=$1&ns=$2&ref=$3 [L,PT]

The rules shown above assume you have installed CCP in the root of your site (ie: http://www.yourdomain.com/) and you have not changed the default front-end script name (index.php).

If you have changed the front-end script name to something like zzz.php and the installation directory to xxx, your rewrite rules would look like this instead:


Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^xxx/(.*)-(.*)/(.*)\.html xxx/zzz.php?app=$1&ns=$2&ref=$3 [L,PT]

The .htaccess file you created should be installed in the root of your web server not in a sub-directory. It will not work if it is in a directory below the root.

Former ClickCartPro/ATS SEO Installs

If you have an older version of ClickCartPro with ATS SEO installed, in order to keep and index ATS-formatted URLs active for your newer store, you will want to follow the format below. Please note that the application id in the ‘ATS Ruleset Rewritten for Kryptronic SEO Ruleset’ is set to ‘ccp0’.

# Kryptronic SEO Ruleset

RewriteRule ^cat--(.*)--(.*)\.html xxx/zzz.php?app=ecom&ns=catshow&ref=$2 [L,PT]
RewriteRule ^item--(.*)--(.*)\.html xxx/zzz.php?app=ecom&ns=prodshow&ref=$2 [L,PT]
RewriteRule ^page--(.*)--(.*)\.html xxx/zzz.php?app=ecom&ns=display&ref=$2 [L,PT]
RewriteRule ^store xxx/zzz.php?app=ecom&ns=splash [L,PT]
RewriteRule ^splash xxx/zzz.php?app=ecom&ns=display&ref=splash [L,PT]

Note for 1and1 customers

The rules you put in the .htaccess file need an additional line as shown below. The RewriteBase line with the slash (/) is what you need to add if you are using 1and1 for your web site hosting.


Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^/(.*)-(.*)/(.*)\.html index.php?app=$1&ns=$2&ref=$3 [L,PT]

Note for Fasthosts customers

The rules you put in the .htaccess file require the removal of the Options +FollowSymLinks line as shown below.


RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^/(.*)-(.*)/(.*)\.html index.php?app=$1&ns=$2&ref=$3 [L,PT]

Zeus web server Rewrite Rule

The rules needed if you are using the Zeus web server are shown below. As shown they are for an installation of ClickCartPro in the root directory of your site. The rules for the Zeus web server are stored in a file named rewrite.script which should be in the root directory of your site.


match URL into $ with ^(.*)-(.*)/(.*)\.html
if matched then
set URL =/index.php?app=$1&ns=$2&ref=$3
endif