URL Rewriting Tool

Free URL Rewriting Tool — Generate mod_rewrite .htaccess Rules

Clean, readable URLs are essential for SEO and user experience. Search engines prefer descriptive URLs over parameter-laden dynamic ones, and users trust and share clean URLs more readily. URL rewriting transforms ugly URLs like /index.php?category=shoes&id=456 into clean paths like /shoes/456 through Apache's mod_rewrite module. This free URL Rewriting Tool generates the correct .htaccess RewriteRule syntax from your URL patterns without requiring regular expression expertise.

Enter your existing URL pattern and the clean URL you want to present, and the tool generates the RewriteRule and RewriteCond directives for your .htaccess file. The generated rules handle query string mapping, optional parameters, and conditional rewrites.

URL rewriting is foundational to most CMS platforms. WordPress's permalink system uses mod_rewrite to serve /category/post-title instead of /index.php?p=123. Understanding how it works lets you customize URL structures, fix legacy URL patterns, and implement canonical URLs for SEO.

URL Rewriting Concepts

RewriteEngine On. Must be at the top of your .htaccess file (or server config) to enable mod_rewrite. Without this, all RewriteRule directives are ignored.

RewriteRule. The core directive: RewriteRule pattern substitution [flags]. Pattern is a regex matching the incoming URL. Substitution is what it rewrites to. Flags control behavior (L = last rule, R=301 = redirect).

RewriteCond. A condition that must be true before the following RewriteRule applies. Used to check server variables, check if a file exists, or exclude certain paths.

Flags. [L] = stop processing more rules after this one. [R=301] = redirect instead of rewrite. [QSA] = append query string. [NC] = case-insensitive match. [F] = return 403 Forbidden.

Related Tools

• .htaccess Redirect Generator – Generate Apache redirect rules.
• Nginx Config Generator – Generate Nginx rewrite rules for Nginx servers.
• Redirect Checker – Test URL rewrites and redirects.

Frequently Asked Questions