Hey All,
Here we presenting an important aspect Search Engine optimization technique. URL rewriting can be one of the best and quickest ways to improve the usability and search friendliness of your site. Download code sample for this.
What is URL Rewriting?
1. On today’s modern internet, most of the websites are database driven. So, exchange of data between different pages is essential need of database driven websites. The query strings or GET parameters are very good approach to achieve this goal.
e.g. http://mayurlohite.com/page.aspx?productID=1
The above URL is dynamic and its sending the product id to page.aspx
1. On today’s modern internet, most of the websites are database driven. So, exchange of data between different pages is essential need of database driven websites. The query strings or GET parameters are very good approach to achieve this goal.
e.g. http://mayurlohite.com/page.aspx?productID=1
The above URL is dynamic and its sending the product id to page.aspx
2. So, what’s the problem with it?Well, Maximum search engines (some exceptions – like Google) will not index any pages that have a question mark or other character (like an ampersand or equals sign) in the URL. So that means the page with question marks in URL is ignored by most of the search engines.
3. So, How search engine finds or index my page ?
There will be a solution of this problem, which is rewrite the URL to search engine friendly URL.
There will be a solution of this problem, which is rewrite the URL to search engine friendly URL.
4. What is exactly the search engine friendly URL?
Lets take a look at above URL – http://mayurlohite.com/page.aspx?productID=1 &Productnane=visual-studio
we have to convert this URL to – http://mayurlohite.com/displayproduct/1/visual-studio
Clearly a much cleaner and shorter URL. It’s much easier to remember, and vastly easier to read out. That said, it doesn’t exactly tell anyone what it refers.
we have to convert this URL to – http://mayurlohite.com/displayproduct/1/visual-studio
Clearly a much cleaner and shorter URL. It’s much easier to remember, and vastly easier to read out. That said, it doesn’t exactly tell anyone what it refers.
5. How to convert Non search friendly URL to search friendly URL?
Its an easy task to converting URLs. Actually, I am working with ASP.NET C#. So, I will explaining how to achive this with ASP.NET. I am using Global.axas Application_BeginRequest event handler.
Application_BeginRequest: is an event handler. It is part of the ASP.NET website system. The Application_BeginRequest method is executed on all requests handled by the ASP.NET runtime.
First, this event handler is declared in a class that derives from HttpApplication. In such classes, the Application_BeginRequest method is automatically used when a request is received.
Its an easy task to converting URLs. Actually, I am working with ASP.NET C#. So, I will explaining how to achive this with ASP.NET. I am using Global.axas Application_BeginRequest event handler.
Application_BeginRequest: is an event handler. It is part of the ASP.NET website system. The Application_BeginRequest method is executed on all requests handled by the ASP.NET runtime.
First, this event handler is declared in a class that derives from HttpApplication. In such classes, the Application_BeginRequest method is automatically used when a request is received.
So. Lets get started.
1. First we are creating new website in visual studio 2010 for that open visual studio 2010. Click on File -> New -> Website
2. Select Visual C# from left and click on ASP.NET Empty Website template. In Bottom Web location Select File System and Type path to create new website.Give name “URLRewriteDemo” to website.
New Website in ASP.NET
3. Now empty asp.net website is created there is nothing to display on solution so first we create Default.aspx page. To create new page right click on solution explorer click Add New Item. Select Webform from template and name it Default.aspx and click on add.
4. Add one new page to solution(same as Default.aspx) and name it page.aspx.
5. Now we want to send the Product ID and Product Name from Default.aspx to page.aspx So, We are using Query String to pass the values e.g. http://mayurlohite.com/page.aspx?productid=1&productname=visual-studio
6. we can access these values on page.aspx by Request.QueryString["productid"] and Request.QueryString["productname"] but this is not a SEO friendly pattern.
7. To solve this Add one Hyperlink field to Default.aspx and set NavigateUrl=”~/displayproduct/1/visual-studio”.
ASPX CODE FOR Default.aspx
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd”>
<html xmlns=”http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml”>
<head runat=”server”>
<title> URL Rewrite Demo</title>
</head>
<body>
<form id=”form1″ runat=”server”>
<div style=”text-align: center;”>
<h1>
URL Rewrite Demo</h1>
</div>
<br />
<div style=”text-align: center;”>
<h2>
<asp:HyperLink ID=”URLHyperLink” runat=”server” NavigateUrl=”~/displayproduct/1/new-product”>URL Rewrite</asp:HyperLink>
</h2>
</div>
</form>
</body>
</html>
ASPX CODE FOR page.aspx
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd”>
<html xmlns=”http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml”>
<head runat=”server”>
<title>URL Rewrite Demo</title>
</head>
<body>
<form id=”form1″ runat=”server”>
<div style=”text-align: center;”>
<h1>
URL Rewrite Demo</h1>
</div>
<br />
<div style=”width:500px; margin:0 auto;”>
<table style=”width: 100%;”>
<tr>
<td>
<asp:Label ID=”Label1″ runat=”server” Text=”Product ID:”></asp:Label>
</td>
<td>
<asp:Label ID=”ProductLabel” runat=”server”></asp:Label>
</td>
<td>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<asp:Label ID=”Label2″ runat=”server” Text=”Product Name:”></asp:Label>
</td>
<td>
<asp:Label ID=”ProductNameLabel” runat=”server”></asp:Label>
</td>
<td>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
</td>
<td>
</td>
<td>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
</form>
</body>
</html>
<head runat=”server”>
<title>URL Rewrite Demo</title>
</head>
<body>
<form id=”form1″ runat=”server”>
<div style=”text-align: center;”>
<h1>
URL Rewrite Demo</h1>
</div>
<br />
<div style=”width:500px; margin:0 auto;”>
<table style=”width: 100%;”>
<tr>
<td>
<asp:Label ID=”Label1″ runat=”server” Text=”Product ID:”></asp:Label>
</td>
<td>
<asp:Label ID=”ProductLabel” runat=”server”></asp:Label>
</td>
<td>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<asp:Label ID=”Label2″ runat=”server” Text=”Product Name:”></asp:Label>
</td>
<td>
<asp:Label ID=”ProductNameLabel” runat=”server”></asp:Label>
</td>
<td>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
</td>
<td>
</td>
<td>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
</form>
</body>
</html>
8. In this example we are passing “displayproduct/1/visual-studio” to hyperlink[navigateurl] which is SEO friendly URL.
9. To write our rewrite rule we have to add Global.asax file in project. To add Global.asax right click on solution and click Add New Item and select “Global Application Class” from templates.
Adding Global.asax in asp.net
10. We are creating new Event Handler in Global.asax name it protected void Application_BeginRequest(Object sender, EventArgs e){}
CODE FOR GLOBAL.ASAX
<%@ Application Language=”C#” %>
<script runat=”server”>
void Application_Start(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// Code that runs on application startup
{
// Code that runs on application startup
}
void Application_End(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// Code that runs on application shutdown
{
// Code that runs on application shutdown
}
void Application_Error(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// Code that runs when an unhandled error occurs
{
// Code that runs when an unhandled error occurs
}
void Session_Start(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// Code that runs when a new session is started
{
// Code that runs when a new session is started
}
void Session_End(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// Code that runs when a session ends.
// Note: The Session_End event is raised only when the sessionstate mode
// is set to InProc in the Web.config file. If session mode is set to StateServer
// or SQLServer, the event is not raised.
{
// Code that runs when a session ends.
// Note: The Session_End event is raised only when the sessionstate mode
// is set to InProc in the Web.config file. If session mode is set to StateServer
// or SQLServer, the event is not raised.
}
protected void Application_BeginRequest(Object sender, EventArgs e)
{
//Grab the URL for matching the pattern. Returns the current URL path.
//e.g. http://example.com/displayproduct/1/visual-studio
HttpContext incoming = HttpContext.Current;
string oldpath = incoming.Request.Path.ToLower();
{
//Grab the URL for matching the pattern. Returns the current URL path.
//e.g. http://example.com/displayproduct/1/visual-studio
HttpContext incoming = HttpContext.Current;
string oldpath = incoming.Request.Path.ToLower();
//Declare variables for Query Strings.
string productid = string.Empty;
string productname = string.Empty;
string productid = string.Empty;
string productname = string.Empty;
// Regular expressions to grab the productid and productname from the page.aspx
//Here I am using regular expression to match tghe pattern.
Regex regex = new Regex(@”displayproduct/(\d+)/(.+)”, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase
| RegexOptions.IgnorePatternWhitespace);
MatchCollection matches = regex.Matches(oldpath);
//Here I am using regular expression to match tghe pattern.
Regex regex = new Regex(@”displayproduct/(\d+)/(.+)”, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase
| RegexOptions.IgnorePatternWhitespace);
MatchCollection matches = regex.Matches(oldpath);
//If Matches found then Grab the product id and name and rewrite it as our typical query string format.
//e.g: http://example.com/page.aspx?productid=1&productname=visual-studio
if (matches.Count > 0)
{
productid = matches[0].Groups[1].ToString();
productname = matches[0].Groups[2].ToString();
incoming.RewritePath(String.Concat(“~/page.aspx?productid=”, productid, “&productname=”, productname ), false);
}
}
//e.g: http://example.com/page.aspx?productid=1&productname=visual-studio
if (matches.Count > 0)
{
productid = matches[0].Groups[1].ToString();
productname = matches[0].Groups[2].ToString();
incoming.RewritePath(String.Concat(“~/page.aspx?productid=”, productid, “&productname=”, productname ), false);
}
}
</script>
11. Now we are analyzing Application_BeginRequest(Object sender, EventArgs e) event handler.
A. The first two lines returns the current URL path.
HttpContext incoming = HttpContext.Current;
string oldpath = incoming.Request.Path.ToLower();
HttpContext incoming = HttpContext.Current;
string oldpath = incoming.Request.Path.ToLower();
B. By using regular expression we can match the pattern of our requested URL with our rewrite URL. Means, when http://example.com/displayproduct/1/visual-studio is pattern matched with our regular expression and it rewrite the path to http://example.com/productid=1&productname=visual-studio
12. We can access the both query string parameter as same previous. e.g. Request.QueryString["productid"] and Request.QueryString["productname"] there is no change in traditional ASP.NET Query String system.
Hence, we achieve the SEO friendly URL by Global.asax Rewrite rule.
I have attached the Code sample for this project.Please download and run to get more clarification.
Source : Mayur Lohite
