How to Use .htaccess to Easily Mask Links

This guide assumes you have already setup a website running on an Apache based webserver. If you are using IIS you will need a third party plugin such as IIS Rewrite.

Often times you may want to redirect links from your site as opposed to linking directly. This has a few benefits:

• If you need to change a link’s address you only have to change it in one spot instead of updating every page.
• Many visitors distrust long URLs such as those used for affiliate marketing
• Its easier to track how many people are clicking which links by using a redirect in between

First, create a special directory for the .htaccess redirect file. This is to prevent from interfering with any other .htaccess files that may be on your website. Name your directory something like links/ or visit/ as this is what the visitor will see in their status bar when they hover over the link.create a .htaccess file with the following

RewriteEngine On
 
#  Shopping
RewriteRule   ^amazon$  http://www.amazon.com
RewriteRule   ^ebay$  http://www.ebay.com
RewriteRule   ^newegg$  http://www.newegg.com
 
#  Search Engines
RewriteRule   ^google$  http://www.google.com
RewriteRule   ^yahoo$  http://www.yahoo.com
RewriteRule   ^msn$  https://www.msn.com
RewriteRule   ^ask$  http://www.ask.com

You can place a pound sign (#) to write comments and organize your links. Now, if you wanted to link to Google you would use the address http://www.yoursite.com/links/google (or whatever directory you created). Notice the (^) before and ($) after the link name.

Conclusion and Further Reading

.htaccess is a powerful way to manage your site. There are many more applications for .htaccess files such as password protection and migrating to a new file structure.

Look for a more comprehensive guide to .htaccess files here on EJ Web Development.