How to Enable Joomla SEF URLs on GoDaddy Hosting

Enabling Joomla SEF URLs while using GoDaddy requires a few extra steps. GoDaddy has its own unique configuration that can leave many new Joomla users puzzled. If you search the Joomla support forum, you'll find a lot of GoDaddy customers that can't get Joomla SEF URLs configured properly. This post will show you step-by-step how to enable Joomla SEF URLs on GoDaddy hosting accounts.

1.) Log in to your Joomla Administrator account and navigate to the Global Configuration section. There you will see your SEO Settings. Change them to look like this:

Joomla SEF URLs

2.) Log in to your GoDaddy hosting account:

GoDaddy Hosting Account

3.) Launch the Hosting Control Center by clicking on the green arrow:

GoDaddy Hosting Control Center

4.) Launch the GoDaddy File Manager:

GoDaddy File Manager

5.) Open the htaccess.txt file that was included with the original Joomla files and remove the # before RewriteBase /. Then, copy all of the text to your clipboard.

GoDaddy and RewriteBase

6.) Within the GoDaddy File Manager click on the New icon:

GoDaddy New File

7.) Paste the text from the htaccess.txt file that you copied to your clipboard in step 5, and click save. Name the file .htaccess, and click Ok.

GoDaddy .htaccess

That's it! Your Joomla SEF URLs should now be working properly on your GoDaddy hosting account. So, what did we do differently? First, GoDaddy requires the RewriteBase to be set in the .htaccess file. Second, you cannot upload the .htaccess file via FTP, or rename the htaccess.txt file to .htaccess like you can with other hosts. You have to create the .htaccess file using GoDaddy's File Manager.

And, now your Joomla website has Search Engine Friendly URLs.

How to Enable Joomla SEF URLs on GoDaddy Hosting