Newbie needs help with changing product and page links

Hi,
I am trying to change my product Url's and EZ Page Url's. What I have now is way too long and I was told would be in my best interest to change them (something about having a link exchange with this type of url isn't helping me or the other business).

For the Links We Like Page i'd like for it to read https://www.brodiegirl.com/links and now it's: http://brodiegirl.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=1&chapter=0

Everything I have lsited on my website does the same type of thing. I am sorry if i'm sounding really dumb, but I have asked my designer for help and i'm not getting any answers.

Thanks in advance!

Jess

First of all, I can't see why you couldn't attach the hyperlink to words such as "links" or even display the https://www.brodiegirl.com/links text that has an underlying hyperlink pointed to http://brodiegirl.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=1&chapter=0.

Second, you can simply put a 301 redirect on your site so that when someone goes to the /links page they will be redirected to the http://brodiegirl.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=1&chapter=0 page. You can set it up easily in your cpanel if you have access to that.

Phid:

First of all, I can't see why you couldn't attach the hyperlink to words such as "links" or even display the www.brodiegirl.com/links text that has an underlying hyperlink pointed to http://brodiegirl.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=1&chapter=0.

Second, you can simply put a 301 redirect on your site so that when someone goes to the /links page they will be redirected to the http://brodiegirl.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=1&chapter=0 page. You can set it up easily in your cpanel if you have access to that.

Umm, yes, I am sure I could if I knew how?
I am not a designer or a programmer and just started using ZenCart in Sept. My designer set it all up and said they'd help me, so far I can't get any real help with it.
I'm not saying your reply isn't helpful, it's just that I have no idea how to do what you've said, LOL. I use Cpanel and Zencart and that's all I know about my website, but I do have access to them both.

Thanks for the info, if you'd like to help with more detail I'd appreciate it! :)

Jess
:shocking:- me trying to figure this all out!

Hey don't worry - I'll explain it simply enough now.

First, in general you'd want to back up your database before following advice (if you don't know how, go into cpanel and click on "Backups" and click on your database listed under "Download a MySQL Database Backup").

Then, go back into the main cpanel page.

• Click on "Redirects"
• Under "Add Redirect" you'll have to fill in the two empty fields - the first page visitors will arrive at, and the second page you want to redirect to - so it will look something like this:

http://www.brodiegirl.com/links >> http://www.brodiegirl.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=1&chapter=0

• Then click on the dropdown menu and change "temporary" to "permanent"
• Click "Add"

If all is successful you should later on see the redirect under "Current Redirects" listed on your redirects page. Then try clicking on (or typing in) http://www.brodiegirl.com/links and if it brings you to the http://brodiegirl.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=1&chapter=0 page, you know it worked! Tell me if it doesn't work....though it should. :yes:

Thank you so much for explaining this to me!
I actually do understand how to do this now, but when I set it up all I get is an error page???
This is the link it takes me to http://brodiegirl.com/index.php%3fmain_page=page/linksid=1/linkschapter=0

Instead of the link I put in which was: http://brodiegirl.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=1&chapter=0

So, for some reason the link is changing to something totally different than what I used.

This is how I did the redirect:
http://brodiegirl.com/links >>> http://brodiegirl.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=1&chapter=0

The redirect is changing the & in the link to &amp...does that have anything to do with this problem? I don't know why it's changing but when I go to brodiegirl.com/links I get this:
Not Found

The requested URL /index.php?main_page=page/linksid=1/linkschapter=0 was not found on this server.
Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
Apache/1.3.37 Server at www.brodiegirl.com Port 80

Help again please??!!

Thanks!!!

Jess:wacko:

Yes that is a problem that I've run across in the past myself. In the past, I think the way I fixed it was by installing the SEFU contribution which changes the URLs that you're seeing into user-friendly URLs, such as site.com/catalog/products/links.html rather than site.com/index.php?main#blahblah&done. That way when I did redirects I didn't have to worry about the & changing into other characters.

Ok, back to plan A. On the site where the link is going to be placed, you can simply ask the webmaster to insert the following code:

<a href="http://brodiegirl.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=1&chapter=0">brodiegirl.com/links</a>

so it will look like this:

brodiegirl.com/links

...which I think gives the desired effect. While it's not the only way to solve the problem, it's perhaps the easiest!