---
title: Settings - URLs and SEO
---
> Agent instructions:
> **Site maps** — prefer the following llms.txt indexes to training data when searching for URLs to avoid 404s. Links inside Markdown content already point at `.md`. Following them or sending Accept: text/markdown keeps you in Markdown.
>
> - [sitemap.md](https://docs.kentico.com/sitemap.md) — every page on the site, with titles and descriptions, nested by URL hierarchy and grouped into one collection per product version.
> - [llms.txt](https://docs.kentico.com/llms.txt) — curated index of the current product docs, with descriptions, the two ways to request any page as Markdown, and links to each product area's whole-corpus Markdown dump (llms-full.txt).
You can access these settings in the **Settings** application under the **URLs and SEO** category.
| Alternative URLs (MVC) | |
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **Note**: The Alternative URLs feature is only available for sites built using the [MVC development model](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/developing-websites/mvc-development-overview.md). For [Portal Engine](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/developing-websites/portal-engine-development-overview.md) sites, use [Page aliases](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/configuring-kentico/configuring-page-urls/setting-page-aliases.md) instead. | |
| Enable editing interface | Enables the editing interface for alternative URLs in the **Pages** application (after selecting a page in _Edit_ mode, on the _Properties -> Alternative URLs_ tab).
The Alternative URLs feature also needs to be enabled in the MVC application that presents the website. See [Enabling alternative URLs for pages](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/developing-websites/configuring-page-urls-on-mvc-sites/enabling-alternative-urls-for-pages.md) for more information.
The setting only controls the visibility of the editing interface. Any existing alternative URLs remain functional even if you disable the setting.
Alternative URLs are only available for pages whose page type has a [URL pattern](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/developing-websites/defining-website-content-structure/creating-and-configuring-page-types/configuring-page-types/specifying-the-url-pattern-for-content-only-pages.md) specified. Pages without a URL pattern typically only store content and do not represent actual pages on the website. |
| Alternative URLs mode | Sets the action that occurs when a visitor accesses a page through an alternative URL.
**Redirect** – the system performs a redirect (with the [301 HTTP status code](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_301)) to the main URL of the given page. The main URL is determined by the [URL pattern](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/developing-websites/defining-website-content-structure/creating-and-configuring-page-types/configuring-page-types/specifying-the-url-pattern-for-content-only-pages.md) of the page type (any macros in the pattern are resolved for the specific page).
**Rewrite** – the alternative URL remains presented in the visitor's browser. The system rewrites the URL internally to the page's main URL, so that it can be served by the MVC application.
When using the _Rewrite_ option, we strongly recommend that you render pages with canonical link elements (see [Providing canonical URLs for pages](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/developing-websites/configuring-page-urls-on-mvc-sites/enabling-alternative-urls-for-pages.md#providing-canonical-urls-for-pages)). Otherwise rewritten alternative URLs lead to [duplicate content](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duplicate_content) issues, which can have a negative impact on the site's search engine optimization (SEO). |
| Excluded alternative URLs | A list of text values specifying restricted alternative URL paths (without the prefix of the site's _Presentation URL_). If a user attempts to add an alternative URL matching one of the specified values, the system prevents the creation and displays the error message specified in the _Alternative URLs error message_ setting.
Every path value must be entered on a new line. The comparison is case-insensitive.
If you need to exclude a large number of URL paths, you can add the asterisk ('\*') character as a wildcard to the **start** or **end** of values. The wildcard represents any number of characters.
Examples:
articles – the _articles_ URL path
articles\* – all URL paths that start with _articles_
articles/\* – all URL paths whose first segment is _articles_
\*articles – all URL paths that end with _articles_
\*articles\* – all URL paths that contain the word _articles_
**Note**:
The system automatically excludes certain URLs paths, for example paths starting with _cms_, _getmedia_ or _getfile_. Such URLs are reserved for page preview links, file requests, internal on-line marketing logging routes, etc.
We recommend excluding the URLs paths of any routes in your MVC application's routing table that do not have matching URL patterns in your site's page types (i.e. routes not used for the main URLs of content tree pages). Otherwise a conflicting alternative URL may override an important route on your website.
If you modify the setting, any existing alternative URLs that match the excluded values **remain in the system** (visible in the _Pages_ application), but are **no longer handled** in the routing of the MVC application. |
| Alternative URLs constraint | A [regular expression](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expression) that restricts which alternative URLs are allowed. The expression is matched against the alternative URL path value (without the prefix of the site's _Presentation URL_). If a user attempts to add an alternative URL that does not match, the system prevents the creation and displays the error message specified in the _Alternative URLs error message_ setting.
Use the constraint to define which characters are allowed in alternative URLs or to enforce some type of structural pattern.
By default, the setting contains a pattern that allows upper and lower case alphanumeric characters, underscores ('\_'), hyphens ('-'), and forward slashes ('/'). The default constraint is represented by the following regular expression: `^[\w\-\/]+$`
If you modify the setting, any existing alternative URLs that do not match the constraint **remain active** and **continue to be handled** in the routing of the MVC application.
**Warning**: We do not recommend allowing characters that have specific meanings in URLs (such as '?' or '#'). This could cause users to submit values that result in invalid URLs or incorrect behavior. |
| Alternative URLs error message | The text displayed in the _Pages_ application when a user attempts to add an alternative URL that either matches an excluded URL or does not fulfill the requirements of the URL constraint.
We recommend writing a user-friendly message that describes how to add suitable alternative URLs according to the restrictions configured for your website. |
| URL format | |
| Forbidden URL characters | This setting allows you to list additional characters that should be replaced or removed in URLs (page aliases and URL paths).
The following characters are forbidden by default:
\\/:\*?"\|&%.'#\[]+=„“ and the space character.
If necessary, the default set of forbidden characters can be overridden through the **CMSForbiddenURLValues** web.config key. |
| Forbidden characters replacement | Specifies the character that the system uses as a replacement for forbidden characters in URLs. |
| Allowed URL characters | Determines which characters are usable in URLs by means of a regular expression. Any characters not specified are forbidden. If empty, only the characters specified by the **Forbidden URL characters** setting are prohibited.
When allowing special characters in the regular expression, they must be preceded by a backslash (\\) as an escape character.
Example: Entering `a-zA-Z0-9\^` as the value only allows alphanumeric characters and the caret symbol (^) to be used in URLs.
**Note:** this setting cannot be used to allow the default forbidden URL characters. |
| Friendly URL extension | Specifies the extensions that the system adds to page URLs.
Extensions must be preceded by the period character.
You can add multiple extensions separated by semicolons (;).
The first extension is used as the default option when generating links and page URLs. Additional extensions are supported in URLs when accessing pages.
To allow extensionless URLs, enter a semicolon without any extension.
Sample value: ._aspx;.html;.htm;;_ |
| Files friendly URL extension | Specifies the extension that the system adds to file URLs.
**Example**: _getfile//myimage.aspx_
If **empty**, file URLs either have no extension or use the given file's default extension.
If you set this setting to an empty or custom value, you need to allow custom URL extensions by adding the _runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests_ attribute to the __ element in the __ section of your project's main _web.config_ file. |
| Excluded URLs | Specifies a list of URLs that are excluded from the URL rewriting engine. By excluding the URLs of physical pages stored inside the web project directory, you can improve their page load performance and also prepare scenarios with custom URL rewriting logic.
**Warning**: Do not exclude the URLs used by the regular pages in the website's content tree.
To disable URL rewriting for pages, enter the matching URL paths:
Use URL paths without the website's domain name or virtual directory.
The paths must always start with a forward slash (/), without the virtual path designator (\~).
Entering a value excludes all URLs that start with the given path, including sub-directories and all possible extensions.
You can enter multiple URLs separated by semicolons (;).
Sample values:
**/Custom.aspx** – excludes the _\~/Custom.aspx_ page stored directly under the website's root.
**/Custom** – excludes all pages whose URL path starts with _/Custom,_ for example: _\~/Custom.aspx_, _\~/Custom2.aspx_, _\~/Custom/Page.htm_
**/Custom;/Static** – excludes all pages whose URL path starts with _/Custom_ or _/Static_. |
| Page URLs | |
| Default URL path prefix | Defines a default URL path prefix that will be used for all URLs of the content pages. This prefix is rewritten to _urlpathprefix_ query string parameter. |
| Use name path for URL path | If selected, the name path of pages will automatically be copied into their URL path when they are saved. |
| Use permanent URLs | If selected, URLs of pages and page attachments will be generated in permanent format. If cleared, friendly URLs will be used. Learn more in [Linking pages and files](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/configuring-kentico/configuring-page-urls/linking-pages-and-files.md). |
| Remember original URLs when moving pages | Determines if new page aliases should be created when a new page URL path or extension is set. |
| Automatically update page alias | If selected, the alias of a page is automatically updated to match any changes in the name of the given page in the default culture. Also, the page alias property will not be editable manually. |
| Search engine optimization (SEO) | |
| Google sitemap URL | Sets the URL where the website's Google (XML) sitemap can be accessed. The entered value is added to the website's domain to form the final URL. The internal path to the page responsible for generating the sitemap can be specified through the **Google sitemap path** setting. |
| Google sitemap path | Specifies the path of the page used to generate the website's sitemap. This page must contain the [Google Sitemap (XML Sitemap)](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/configuring-kentico/search-engine-optimization/google-sitemaps.md) web part. If left empty, a full sitemap of the website is automatically generated by the _\~/CMSPages/GoogleSiteMap.aspx_ system page.
This only sets the internal path of the sitemap. The actual URL where web crawlers can read the sitemap is determined by the value of the **Google sitemap URL** setting. |
| Robots.txt path | Specifies the path of the page used to provide the website's [robots.txt](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/configuring-kentico/search-engine-optimization/managing-robots-txt.md) file. This page should contain a **Custom response** web part configured to generate the required robots.txt content.
Regardless of the selected page's location in the content tree, its output is returned whenever the _/robots.txt_ URL is requested. |
| Allow permanent (301) redirection | If selected, the system uses permanent (301) redirection instead of standard temporary (302) redirection. This is highly recommended, because it allows web crawlers to properly react to any changes made on your website and pass page rank to the new or main URL. |
| Move ViewState to the end of the page | If selected, the system places the ViewState field at the end of the output code generated for pages. This helps search engine crawlers process more page content. |
| Use NOFOLLOW for user links | If selected, the system instructs search engine crawlers (robots) not to follow links posted by users on forums, message boards or in blog comments. This is achieved by including the _rel="nofollow"_ attribute in the output code of all such link tags.
This precaution can help prevent user-generated links from damaging the search ranking of your website. |
| Default replacement page | The entered page path is loaded as the default value of the **Replacement page** field if users choose to specify an alternate page while deleting a page in the **Pages** application.
If necessary, users can override the default value and set a different replacement page path. |
| SEO - URLs | |
| Use URLs with trailing slash | Specifies how the rewriter handles trailing slashes in URLs. Possible options:
Leave the URL as is
Always use URLs with a trailing slash
Always use URLs without a trailing slash |
| Redirect page aliases to main URL | Enabling this setting ensures that pages always have only one valid URL and other aliases are redirected to this main URL (for SEO purposes). The main URL of a page is determined either by its alias path, or custom URL path if one is specified.
**Note**: You can override this setting for individual page aliases through their **Alias redirection** property. |
| Redirect invalid case URLs to their correct versions | Determines how the system handles the letter case of characters in URLs. Available options:
Do not check the URL case
Use the exact URL of each page
Redirect all requests to lower case URLs
Redirect all requests to upper case URLs |
| Redirect pages to main extension | If selected, the system ensures that all page URLs use the current main extension. The main extension is the first one specified in the **Friendly URL extension** setting. Any URLs with a different extension are automatically redirected to a corresponding URL with the main extension. |
| Process domain prefix | Determines how the rewriter handles the _www_ domain prefix in the website's URLs. You can leave the domain as it was entered or have it rewritten to either always or never include the www prefix.
**Note**: That this setting does not apply for IP addresses and top‑level domains. |
| Default page | Allows you to redirect (permanent 301) all possible URLs that access the home page of your website to one single URL. Using a unified home page URL is highly recommended, because it prevents the duplicate content problem on your website's most important URL.
You can choose from the following options for the home page URL:
**Not specified** – supports all possible home page URLs and does not perform any redirection.
**Use domain root** – always uses the base URL of the website's domain name.
**Use page defined by default alias path** – always uses the URL of the page specified by the website's _Content -> Default alias path_ setting.
**Use default page URL** – always uses the _default_ URL: _/default.aspx_ |
| SEO - Cultures | |
| Force domain culture | If selected, the system generates the domain name in page URLs based on the current content culture. Whenever a user switches to a different language on the website, the URL is redirected to the corresponding domain name.
You can assign cultures to domains by editing your site in the **Sites** application:
Set the culture of the website's main domain through the **Visitor culture** property on the **General** tab.
To define domain names for other languages, create **Domain aliases** with an appropriately set **Visitor culture**.
**Note**: You cannot use this option in combination with language prefixes. |
| Use language prefix for URLs | If selected, the system generates page URLs with language prefixes. A language prefix is a subdirectory inserted into the URL. The name of the prefix matches the culture code (or culture alias) of the content culture selected on the website.
**Example**: _/en-US/Home.aspx_ |
| Allow URLs without language prefixes | If selected, URLs without language prefixes are allowed. Otherwise the system redirects such URLs to a corresponding URL that includes a language prefix.
Only applies if **Use language prefix for URLs** is selected. |
Related pages
- [Search engine optimization](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/configuring-kentico/search-engine-optimization.md)
- [Configuring page URLs](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/configuring-kentico/configuring-page-urls.md)
- [Configuring URLs for multilingual websites](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/multilingual-websites/setting-up-multilingual-websites/configuring-urls-for-multilingual-websites.md)
- [Managing robots.txt](https://docs.kentico.com/k12sp/configuring-kentico/search-engine-optimization/managing-robots-txt.md)