How to shorten a web address using .htaccess

Redirecting web addresses is a common use for .htaccess when addresses become too long or complicated. For example, if you had a blog running on your website and you wanted to share a post you had made the address could look something like:

http://www.mydomain.com/how-to-use-htaccess-to-redirect-long-urls/

Using .htaccess we could create a redirect that is easier to type and remember e.g.

http://www.mydomain.com/htaccess

This technique is often referred to as url rewriting. Here is what our .htaccess file would look like:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>  
RewriteEngine On  
RewriteRule ^/htaccess$ /how-to-use-htaccess-to-redirect-long-urls [L]
</IfModule>

Lines 1 and 4 – Wrap our rewrite rule in a container that checks rewriting is available.

Lines 2 – Turns rewriting on.

Lines 3 – The rule says if there is a request for ‘www.mydomain.com/htaccess’ rewrite (redirect) it to ‘www.mydomain.com/how-to-use-htaccess-to-redirect-long-urls’. Finally the [L] means don’t process any more rules.

Once you have created your .htaccess file you just need to upload it to the web folder for your hosting using FTP.