This article applies to X-Cart 5.5.1.x. If your store runs X-Cart 5.6.x, see SEO-friendly URLs in X-Cart 5.6.x.

Clean URLs are always on in X-Cart 5.5.1.x — there’s no switch to enable or disable them. The address of every page is built from its Clean URL, the human-readable part you can edit in the Admin area. To learn how to edit it, see About SEO-friendly URLs in X-Cart.

URL structure

Page type	URL	Example
Product	/{clean-url}	https://example.com/ams-front-mount-intercooler
Category	/{parent-category}/{category}/	https://example.com/cooling-systems/intercoolers/
Brand (Shop by Brand add-on)	/{clean-url}	https://example.com/4play
Vehicle make and model (Make/Model/Year add-on)	/{make}, /{make}/{model}	https://example.com/ford/f-150
Content page	/{clean-url}	https://example.com/terms-and-conditions

Special storefront pages keep short fixed addresses, for example /contact-us/, /bestsellers/, and /all-brands/.

For the addresses of vehicle pages, see Vehicle page URLs (Make/Model/Year add-on).

URL settings

The URL settings are defined in the x_cart.clean_urls section of your store’s configuration (config/packages/x_cart.yaml). Changes to the URL formats don’t affect the addresses that already exist, and they require you to re-deploy your store to take effect.

Formats of product and category URLs

Setting	Default	Other values
`product` — format of product URLs	`domain/goalproduct` (/ams-front-mount-intercooler)	`domain/goalproduct.html` (adds .html)
`category` — format of category URLs	`domain/parent/goalcategory/` (/cooling-systems/intercoolers/)	`domain/goalcategory/` (no parent categories); `domain/parent/goalcategory.html`; `domain/goalcategory.html`
`canonical_product` — which address the `rel="canonical"` tag on a product page points to. It doesn’t change the address customers see when they open the product page	`domain/product_clean_url` — canonical points to the product’s own address, for example /ams-front-mount-intercooler	`domain/main_category_clean_url/product_clean_url` — canonical points to the product’s address with its category’s path in front, for example /cooling-systems/intercoolers/ams-front-mount-intercooler

Choose the formats before search engines index your store. If you change them later, you may need to set up 301 redirects from the old addresses.

Other settings

use_language_url (default: on) — adds the language code before the address of pages in languages other than your store’s default language, for example, /de/sale instead of /sale. Requires re-deploy.
default_separator (default: -) — the string that separates words in automatically generated clean URLs. Only a hyphen (-) and an underscore (_) are supported; an empty value means hyphens.
capitalize_words (default: off) — starts every word of a generated clean URL with a capital letter.
use_unicode (default: off) — allows non-Latin characters in generated clean URLs.
aliases — custom addresses for special pages, in the form target: 'clean-url'. By default, the address of the contact page is /contact-us.
short_product_urls_in_lists (default: off) — added in X-Cart 5.5.1.56. Controls the address of a product link shown on a category page. Off (default): the link includes the category path, for example /cooling-systems/intercoolers/ams-front-mount-intercooler, even though the same product is also reachable at the short address /ams-front-mount-intercooler. On: category pages link to the short address only.

Changes to default_separator, capitalize_words, and use_unicode don’t affect clean URLs that already exist.

Changing the category URL format

Be careful when you switch from a category format that includes parent categories to one that doesn’t. If categories with the same name exist at different levels, they can end up with the same address, and some category pages become unreachable.

Example. The category format is domain/parent/goalcategory/, and you have three categories named “Oils”: at the top level (example.com/oils/), in “Supplements” (example.com/supplements/oils/), and in “Beauty” (example.com/beauty/oils/). If you switch to domain/goalcategory/, all three get the address example.com/oils/, and only one of them stays reachable.

FAQ

Q: Can I remove the parent categories from category URLs?

A: Yes. Set the category format to domain/goalcategory/. Make sure that your categories have unique names, or set different clean URLs for them manually.

Q: Can I get URLs that end in .html?

A: Yes. Use the product and category formats that end in .html.

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