How to create SEO-friendly URLs in ExpressionEngine?

@rusty.rosenbaum 

Creating SEO-friendly URLs in ExpressionEngine involves several steps to ensure that your URLs are clean, descriptive, and structured in a way that search engines and users can easily understand. Here are some tips and steps to achieve this:

1. Enable "Pages" Module: ExpressionEngine's Pages module allows you to create static, SEO-friendly URLs for your entries. Ensure this module is enabled in your ExpressionEngine settings.
2. Use Descriptive Titles: When you create entries, use concise and descriptive titles because they often form the basis of your URLs.
3. Configure URL Title Settings: Navigate to the "Channel" settings and click on the channel you want to edit. Ensure that "URL Title" is set to automatically create from the entry's title or customize it as needed for clarity and brevity. You can also manually adjust the URL title when editing entries to enhance readability and keyword relevance.
4. Set Up URL Templates: Design your template structure to reflect the content hierarchy. For example, you might have URLs like example.com/blog/post-title or example.com/product/product-category/product-name.
5. Use Categories in URLs: Enable categories in your channel and use them to create URLs that are more descriptive, such as example.com/category-name/entry-title.
6. Avoid Special Characters: Stick to lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens in your URLs to ensure compatibility and avoid issues with URL encoding.
7. Enable URL Segment Titles: If your ExpressionEngine setup allows, use the URL segment feature to add additional path information without altering templates manually.
8. Customize .htaccess for Clean URLs: Ensure your .htaccess file is correctly configured to handle URL rewriting for cleaner URLs, such as removing the index.php part from your URLs.
9. Utilize Add-ons: Consider using ExpressionEngine add-ons that enhance URL customization and SEO, such as Structure or SEO Lite, to further optimize your URLs and metadata.
10. Monitor and Adjust Over Time: Regularly review your URLs in analytics tools to see how they perform and adjust your strategy as necessary to improve SEO performance.

By following these steps, you can create SEO-friendly URLs in ExpressionEngine that both search engines and users find appealing. Remember that maintaining a consistent, clear, and well-organized URL structure is key to long-term SEO success.