Speed & SEO
7 answers. Clean addresses, page titles, sitemaps and a faster site.
- How do I remove index.php from my URLs?
Rename htaccess.txt to .htaccess, then turn on Use URL Rewriting in Global Configuration → Site → SEO.
- Turning on URL Rewriting broke my site
Your server needs mod_rewrite (Apache) or a rewrite rule (Nginx). Ask your host, or set RewriteBase in .htaccess if Joomla is in a subfolder.
Fix - How do I change the page title and description Google shows?
Edit the menu item: Page Display → Browser Page Title, and Metadata → Meta Description. For single articles, use the article's Publishing tab.
- How do I make my Joomla site faster?
Turn on caching and Gzip in Global Configuration, use WebP images, and remove extensions you don't use. Good hosting matters most.
- Which cache setting should I use?
Conservative caching is safe for most sites. Add the Page Cache plugin only if your pages are the same for every visitor.
- How do I remove the numbers (IDs) from my URLs?
Content → Articles → Options → Integration: set Remove IDs from URLs to Yes, then check that your links still work.
- Does Joomla make a sitemap and robots.txt?
Joomla ships robots.txt.dist: rename it to robots.txt. A sitemap needs an extension such as OSMap.
