How To Create Visitor Friendly Short URLs with iWeb
August 24th, 2010If you use iWeb, you already know that when you type in your website’s URL, once you are taken to your page, the URL in the address bar will forward to your domain name, followed by the site name that you gave in iWeb while publishing, followed by your page’s file name. It will look something like this;
http://www.mydomain.com/long-site-name/page-name.html
What we will show you in this tutorial is how to shorten the URL so it only looks like this;
http://www.mydomain.com/page-name.html
The steps to do this are actually quite simple and if you are already using iWeb SEO Tool there really isn’t much more to it. It does require that you have a real web host with an FTP server, but if you are serious at all about your website, you should have one already.
If you have any questions, feel free to post them below. This video has also been added to the iWeb SEO Video Walkthrough Tutorial
Twitter
Facebook
Youtube
Blog RSS
August 24th, 2010 at 4:25 pm
Excellent video guys, this answers one of the most common questions I get asked on AAi. Consider yourself retweeted.
Keep up the good work!
September 7th, 2010 at 8:32 pm
Thanks for posting the tutorial… unfortunately, these steps did not work for me. I published to a local folder (which is what I usually do anyway, as I use iWeb SEO tool to publish). When I opened the site using the “interior” folder with my site contents in iWeb SEO, then published to MobileMe, there was no difference… the site name still appears in the URL. Is it possible that this method doesn’t work with MobileMe or that there is something I’m missing?
September 9th, 2010 at 6:56 am
Yes,
there is no difference at all.
might be, we have done something incorrect ?
thanks
September 9th, 2010 at 8:25 am
Didn’t work for me either and I use mobile me. Can anything be done?
September 13th, 2010 at 11:54 am
It’s not supposed to work with MobileMe unfortunately. MobileMe is for personal websites only and shouldn’t be used to host an serious website. Read the terms and conditions for the MobileMe hosting to see why.
That is why we offer iWeb Web hosting. Not only do you get faster, more reliable servers, you also get access to support from people who know iWeb and can do the tricks shown in this article.
Hope this clears things up.
September 18th, 2010 at 7:33 pm
Didn’t work for me either. And I use a regular host powweb.com and have quite a large site. Just published with the same long url as iWeb does. What are we missing?
September 23rd, 2010 at 11:58 am
Hi, I also followed the steps and found no change in my site URL. And my site is not hosted by MobileMe. Any other suggestions of why this wouldn’t have worked? Thank you~
September 23rd, 2010 at 12:18 pm
@Judie and @Jamie:
Are you 100% sure you followed the instructions exactly as shown? The URL is made up of the domain name, the iWeb website folder and the default page name;
domainname.com/iWeb-Folder-Name/Page-Name.html
If you upload the exported iWeb folder you get the long urls, if you upload the files *within* the exported iWeb folder you get the short urls. So please make absolutely sure you did not open the exported folder in iWeb SEO Tool. INSTEAD, you opened the folder INSIDE the exported folder.
September 29th, 2010 at 10:42 am
You may be having trouble if you are entering the wrong directory path. We have found that many customers are entering the name of their iWeb site folder in the directory path field. This will mean your site just gets published to the old location and result in still having a long URL.
MAKE SURE that you enter your root directory in the directory path field. If you are using RAGE Web Hosting then you enter public_html/
If you are using Godaddy, leave the field blank.
For all other web hosts email them and ask them for your root directory.
September 30th, 2010 at 11:33 am
I also tried this approach and got nowhere. I am hosted on godaddy and left the directory path blank and it would not publish at all. Now what?
October 10th, 2010 at 11:35 am
I’m using iweb and I have two web sites one (personal) publishes on mobile me and other (business) on Go Daddy.
When I try to use the SEO tool only the personal site comes up. How do I get it to see the business site?
December 11th, 2010 at 3:47 pm
Paul: can I get contact info for the people who know iWeb and this issue? I have a large site with a long URL now that I re-built my old (Adobe GoLive) site to iWeb.. having double the problems with the Blog themed pages. Search engines still show page URL from my older site but error “Page not Found” when clicked on. Mostly because the URL has my domain name, and site name and page name. GoLive never presented this problem. I’m irritated that the experts at Mac One-to-one never mentioned this when I worked on building my iWeb site for 5 hours a day for 4 months. I need help!
December 15th, 2010 at 1:38 am
Is a permanent redirect the same as domain masking? If not, might this be a solution to shortening the URL on mobile me hosted sites?
December 18th, 2010 at 2:23 pm
I had the same problem as Sparrow.. If you leave the directory path blank it will not publish at all..it gets stuck loggin in. .. I am also using godaddy to host my website… The trick is you need to add a ( / ) and then leave the rest of the field blank… that fixed the problem i was having.. thank you for this great tutorial.. i hated having that long url.
December 22nd, 2010 at 5:41 am
@Brian: No a permanent redirect is not the same as domain masking. You should never use domain masking for any website. Your site will not be properly indexed by search engines, and users cannot share or bookmark specific pages on your site. Domain masking is never a good idea. The optimal solution is an iWeb friendly web host with the URL shortening technique discussed in this video. The next best thing to do is use CNAME forwarding without domain masking.
February 7th, 2011 at 9:15 pm
GO DADDY USERS READ THIS…………………………..
LUCAS CACERES you are the F-ING BOMB!!!!!!!!!!!!
I searched ALL OVER the web for a solution that actually worked and you are the ONLY ONE who nailed this issue.
Rage should be paying you the BIG $$$$
Who knew that a simple “/” would fix this issue.
IN LUCAS WE TRUST!!!!!!
March 28th, 2011 at 3:30 am
I have no problems getting this to work and have done so with a couple of different sites that I have done for people.
However… I can’t get the RSS feeds to work. If I try to subscribe I just get an address not found error. Consequently right now I’m migrating my site back to Mobile Me after moving away from there so I can get the short URL.
Any ideas?
April 7th, 2011 at 5:03 pm
When you select your site folder in iWeb you have the option to export you site to a local folder which you have done. There is also a field that says Website URL. Enter your root website URL (in this case it will be http://www.domain.com (replace domain.com with your domain)). This will fix the RSS issue.
April 14th, 2011 at 12:00 pm
Hi, This is awesome – I had been looking for this exact solution when it miraculously appeared in my email. But I am running into a problem at the early part – I create “my iWeb site” folder and save it to my desktop. But when I open it, there is nothing in it – no files in the folder. Do you know what I’m doing wrong?
Thank you!
April 18th, 2011 at 4:40 pm
@Paul
I am currently published to an FTP server… changed from Mobile Me because of limitations. When I publish to a local folder will the FTP info (FTP server settings) stay when I choose it again? I am going to shorten my URL, and work on Title Tags etc using the iweb SEO tool i downloaded from you guys. When i make changes to iweb site will i then publish to both? Can you go back and forth between local folder and FTP? New to this so any help would be appreciated.
April 18th, 2011 at 4:54 pm
@Liz: Did you export your website to a local folder from within iWeb?
April 18th, 2011 at 4:55 pm
@Julie: You can store your FTP details in iWeb SEO Tool so you don’t have to re-enter them each time.
You will always use iWeb SEO Tool to publish to your FTP server from now on.
So, in iWeb, export to a local folder. Then open that local folder in iWeb SEO Tool, enter your tags, and then publish to your FTP in iWeb SEO Tool.
April 18th, 2011 at 10:05 pm
@paul: ok i am at the end of the process for shortening URL and like the video have the contents of my file on the left hand side of the SEO tool. I clicked publish and i got a menu that says publish to FTP, MobileMe or folder. Am i publishing it to the folder? Do i also need to publish to FTP? Thanks again for the help… this is great!
April 18th, 2011 at 10:15 pm
@Julie: You just need to publish to FTP. You don’t need to publish to a folder from within iWeb SEO Tool.
April 18th, 2011 at 10:37 pm
@ paul, I am creating the folder (I think) just like it shows in the tutorial. I am saving the folder from inside iWeb to: /Users/lizhouck/Desktop/my iWeb site. But still, when I open that folder, there is nothing in it. Any other advice? Thanks!
April 18th, 2011 at 11:44 pm
@paul: i did try this and the connection kept dropping. I tried what sparrow did a while back adding the “/” to the directory path and it actually says uploading (so that must have done it) but has timed out several times. My site is photography greeting cards so maybe that is what’s doing it. There are so many images! At this rate it could take days. Any advice? Also, i have the secure FTP box checked am i supposed to? sorry to be the newbie asking all the questions.
April 19th, 2011 at 12:11 am
@Julie: Do not select the Secure FTP checkbox unless you have a secure FTP connection, which you probably don’t.
Also make sure you are using the latest version of iWeb SEO Tool;
http://www.ragesw.com/products/iweb-seo-tool.html
April 19th, 2011 at 12:16 am
@Liz: Do you know how to take a screenshot of what you see? Using the application called Grab which is in the Applications/Utilities folder. If you can send a screenshot to support using the form at:
http://www.ragesw.com/support.php
We can help you further with this issue.
April 19th, 2011 at 9:38 am
@paul: site is now uploaded and everything is there. the SEO tool is only letting me minimize no closing option what does this mean? i am heading to a mac class so need to shut down my computer… is there something else that needs to be published?
April 19th, 2011 at 1:42 pm
@Julie:
Every application can be quit by going to the menu in the top left corner of your screen (in this case it will say ‘iWeb SEO Tool’) and selecting ‘Quit iWeb SEO Tool’.
You can also press the COMMAND (apple key) and the Q button together.
April 19th, 2011 at 1:42 pm
@Julie: Also shutting down your computer will quit all open applications.
April 19th, 2011 at 2:29 pm
@paul: thanks. i knew this, i just didn’t know if it was a sign that something was not quite finished. thanks for all your help. now have shorter url and have title tags!
April 19th, 2011 at 7:16 pm
@ paul: one more question… now when i make changes to the site in iweb do i still publish in iweb or in SEO tool. Or do i publish in SEO tool just when i update SEO stuff? Publish in both depending on what changes i make??
April 20th, 2011 at 12:07 pm
@Julie: Always use iWeb SEO Tool to publish your server from now on. Don’t use iWeb anymore for publishing to your server.
April 21st, 2011 at 4:41 pm
@paul: yes. i am having a problem with all the time outs… it is taking hours and hours to publish. I am not checking the secure box, don’t have any strange characters in my file names and have the ‘/’ in my path because it is the only way the upload will work. Godaddy says to leave it blank but then it does not connect. what else can i try? When i apply title tags, meta tags or anything else on the seo tool i need to publish correct? seems like even for small changes the upload goes through the whole site. i am used to publishing just the changes and it only takes a minute with iweb. want to stick with it because i think it is critical to business getting started. thanks.
April 21st, 2011 at 4:50 pm
@paul: finally stopped the process and then checked my website. All of my paypal buttons are now missing (there is just a partial outline) and the site is super slow. Yikes. now what do i do?
April 21st, 2011 at 5:31 pm
@Julie:
If you stop the upload your site won’t work.
Are you sure you have the latest version?
April 21st, 2011 at 6:05 pm
@paul:
yes. i am sure. it is the one i got from you guys recently in an email and i checked it and it said latest version. I started the publishing again and nothing changed. Pay pal buttons are still missing. Last night before i published, i added the code for the stat counter and google analytics. could that have caused this problem? I also cancelled my MobileMe account because i had switched over to godaddy and it was a free trial. Yesterday the site was fine. In iweb the add to cart buttons are missing too. Does it make sense to publish now when the site is missing the buttons or should i stop it again and do something else? Frustrating, i thought i was getting somewhere. i would appreciate your help as i have just emailed a ton of people to let them know about my new site.
April 21st, 2011 at 6:19 pm
@Julie: If the images aren’t appearing in iWeb then this is an iWeb issue not an iWeb SEO Tool or publishing issue. Make sure the site looks correct in iWeb first before publishing.
April 21st, 2011 at 9:14 pm
@Paul:
The site was fine late last night and i did not touch iweb. all i did was add some info on the SEO tool, apply it and publish. so the buttons are missing but they still function. any ideas why this happened?
May 3rd, 2011 at 10:09 am
Hi all,
I’m having the same problem (obviously) and I have watched the iWeb SEO tool video over and over but it all sounds Greek to me.
I am in the process of doing a website for my photography business and I really don’t want to 1) pay a company to set up and maintain a website and get what they want to give me. I will always be in their list of things to do and won’t be on the top of their priority list, and 2) spend ages learning how to be a website builder.
iWeb is a fantastic piece of software and makes a really nice simple website. I only want to showcase examples of my work – its not that complicated. Apple must realise that there are a whole bunch of people like me that have their own businesses and want to use iWeb to do a quick, easy to maintain website.
Mine is at http://www.steveburrowsimages.com and too keep getting really long URL’s. I want to get it shorter and Rage’s iWeb SEO tool seems to insist that this can be shortened with no adverse affects (ie good SEO, site not working with other browsers properly etc).
I have done what was instructed but I can’t see any changes. Do I have to wait a couple of hours for the web host to catch up? I remember doing something a while back and was told that I had to wait for it to get on to the web. I use FTP.
I’d be interested in your comments.
Steve
May 3rd, 2011 at 6:32 pm
@Steve: Have you published with iWeb AFTER using iWeb SEO Tool? That is most likely the cause of your problems.
You have done everything else correctly. As you can see, your web site works with the short URLs;
http://www.steveburrowsimages.com/Welcome.html
July 10th, 2011 at 3:19 pm
Wow! So simple…and clearly explained…great job!
July 13th, 2011 at 7:11 am
Hi Guys,
Tutorial for shortening the URL is nice and clear, followed instructions as mentioned, unfortunately this does not work.
July 13th, 2011 at 10:15 am
Hi Dave,
Can you submit a support ticket to us and we can help diagnose the problem.
http://www.ragesw.com/support/
July 16th, 2011 at 11:23 pm
Hi, great tutorial and so simple. It worked for me, but I would like to know if there is a way to shorten the other pages for my site (not just home). When I go to one of my nav bar options, such as “Reviews,” my site says http://quillentries.com/Reviews/Reviews.html. I’ve found that this is the case with the iWeb “blog” page setups, because I do not have this problem on my “Contact” page: http://quillentries.com/Contact.html looks nice.
Now that I’m looking, I may be answering my own question here, but when I go into the folder where I published my site from iWeb, I see that the two blog-like pages are their own files, containing more files, while the Contact page is in the first layer of the site folder. iWeb seems to automatically do things this way, but if there is some kind of fix for this from Rage I would love to know.
July 17th, 2011 at 1:42 pm
Unfortunately what you want to do is not really possible. You should keep it as it is anyways as this is the proper way that your website should be structured. It is only important to have a short initial URL. You will see that every other page that has a blog does the same thing, including our website.
August 8th, 2011 at 1:46 am
Paul,
If we’re using wordpress, it is possible to have a very short link such as (for example):
http://www.yourDomain.com/blog/first-posting/
instead of (what iWeb does):
http://www.yourDomain.com/blog/entries/2011/8/8/first-posting/
Can I get the same result as WordPress does using iWeb SEO tool?
August 12th, 2011 at 3:42 pm
No you cannot do this easily with iWeb. I am not sure if it is even possible.
November 1st, 2011 at 5:32 pm
I seemed to understand everything that was done and explained right up to the last step. And I can’t figure out what the last step is. Why rush the last step, when that is what all the build up is? It should be clear and probably repeated…..
There were lots of do’s and don’ts but not clear on last step.
Go where and find Matt’s photos? Do what with it? what do you do when you get there. 30 seconds more would have been very helpful.
And I still want to know how to do the last several steps.