URL format

Forbidden URL characters

This setting can be used to list additional characters that should be replaced or removed in URLs (document 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 will be used 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 will be forbidden. If empty, only the characters specified by the Forbidden URL characters setting will be 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 would only allow alphanumeric characters and the caret symbol (^) to be used in URLs.

Please note that this setting cannot be used to allow the default forbidden URL characters.

Friendly URL extension

Specifies the extension of friendly URLs. The extension should be preceded by a dot when entered, such as: .aspx or .html. When you omit this value, the friendly URLs will be the same as the alias path (e.g. /products/nokia).

Please note: The system of “friendly” or “smart” URLs provides several benefits. They are easy to remember and easy to write into the browser address bar. They are search engine friendly (SEO friendly). They show users where they are located on the website. You can easily send the URL of the document to your friend and they will see the same page with the particular document.

Files friendly URL extension

Specifies the extension for files that will be used in friendly URLs, such as ".aspx" or ".html".

Example: getattachment/<node alias>/myimage.aspx

When you omit this value, the friendly URLs of files will have no extension at the end: getattachment/<node alias>/myimage

Excluded URLs

List of URLs (without domain) that should be excluded from the CMS engine. You can enter several paths separated by a semicolon (;).

Document 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 checked, the name path of documents will automatically be copied into their URL path when they are saved.

Use permanent URLs

If enabled, URLs of documents and document attachments will be generated in permanent format; if disabled, friendly URLs will be used. Learn more in Linking pages and files.

Remember original URLs when moving documents

Determines if new document aliases should be created when a new document URL path or extension is set.

Automatically update document alias

If enabled, the alias of a document is automatically updated to match any changes in the name of the given document in the default culture. Also, the document 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 document responsible for generating the sitemap can be specified through the Google sitemap path setting.

Google sitemap path

Specifies the path of the document used to generate the website's sitemap. This document must contain the Google Sitemap (XML Sitemap) 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 document used to provide the website's robots.txt file. This document should contain a Custom response web part configured to generate the required robots.txt content.

Regardless of the selected document's location in the content tree, its output is returned whenever the <website domain>/robots.txt URL is requested.

Allow permanent (301) redirection

If enabled, the system will use permanent (301) redirection instead of standard (302) redirection for SEO purposes.

Move ViewState to the end of the page

If enabled, the ViewState field is relocated to the end of the source code generated for pages, allowing more content to be processed by search engines.

Use NOFOLLOW for user links

If enabled, the system will instruct 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 document

The entered document path will be loaded as the default value of the Replacement document field shown if a user chooses to specify an alternate page when deleting a document in CMS Desk. If needed, a different path can be entered for each specific case.

SEO - URLs

Use URLs with trailing slash

Specifies how the trailing slash in URLs should be handled. Possible options:

•Leave the URL as is

•Always use URLs with a trailing slash

•Always use URLs without a trailing slash

Redirect document aliases to main URL

If enabled, documents will always have only one valid URL and other aliases will be redirected to this main URL (for SEO purposes). The main URL of a document is determined either by its alias path, or custom URL path if one is specified.

Please note that this setting may be overridden by the Alias redirection property of individual document aliases.

Redirect invalid case URLs to their correct versions

Determines how the system should handle the letter case of characters in URLs. Available options:

•Do not check the URL case

•Use the exact URL of each document

•Redirect all requests to lower case URLs

•Redirect all requests to upper case URLs

Redirect documents to main extension

If enabled, URLs will be redirected to a corresponding URL with the current main extension if their extension is different. The main extension is the first one specified in the Friendly URL extension setting.

Process domain prefix

Determines how the www domain prefix should be handled in the website's URLs. You can choose to leave the domain as it was entered or have it rewritten to either always or never include the prefix.

Please note that this setting is not applied to IP addresses and top‑level domains.

Default page

Allows you to have all possible URLs that access the home page of your website redirected (permanent 301) to one single URL. This is highly recommended for SEO purposes, because it prevents duplicate content, i.e. the same content available under several URLs.

You can choose from the following options:

•Not specified - all of the possible URLs will be supported and no redirection will be performed.

•Use domain root - the base URL of the website's domain name will always be used for the home page.

•Use page defined by default alias path - the URL of the document specified by the website's Content -> Default alias path setting will be used.

•Use default page URL - the default page URL will always be used: <domain>/default.aspx

Important: This setting only works correctly if the website is hosted on IIS 7 or newer, with an Integrated Managed pipeline mode.

SEO - Cultures

Force domain culture

If checked, document URLs will always be generated using the domain to which the current content culture is assigned. This also means that the URL will be redirected to the corresponding domain name whenever a different language is selected.

Cultures can be assigned to domains through the Visitor culture property, which is available for the website's main domain when editing the given site in Site Manager -> Sites. Domains for other languages can be defined as document aliases, which also have the Visitor culture property.

This option cannot be used in combination with language prefixes.

Use language prefix for URLs

If enabled, all document URLs will be generated with language prefixes. The language prefix is identical to to the culture code or culture alias (if set) of the currently selected content culture.
 
Example: <domain>/en-US/Home.aspx

This cannot be used if the Force domain culture setting is enabled.

Allow URLs without language prefixes

If enabled, URLs without language prefixes will be allowed. Otherwise they will be redirected to a corresponding URL with a language prefix. This setting is usable only if Use language prefix for URLs is enabled.