sh404SEF

297 reviews

Get sh404SEF (v4.24.7)

Introduction

Site Management, SEF, SEO & Metadata, URL Redirection, Social Share

After more than 15 years of duty, sh404SEF won't be ported to Joomla 4. To move to Joomla 4, please consider our newer extensions, released over the last couple years, including 4SEF to maintain your site SEF URLs (see Related extensions on this page or visit our website) and 4SEO for metadata.
sh404SEF is discontinued from August 17, 2023 - same as Joomla 3 end of support. Please update to 4SEF and 4SEO to maintain your URLs and metadata.

Joomla 4 notice

We created sh404SEF® for Joomla with SEO in mind. sh404sef helps you improve your search engine rankings and get more traffic to your website. Satisfy many of the Google recommendations for search engine optimization with just a few clicks.
sh404sef also includes many security features.

sh404SEF® is the most popular and longest developed Joomla seo extension. We are dedicated, full-time Joomla professionals who work each and every day to bring you the very best extensions and prompt support. Our staff have over 20 years of combined experience with Joomla (and Mambo) and we maintain some of the longest, continually developed Joomla add-ons available.

Brand new documentation set, including "Getting started" as well as other specialized short videos.

Features:
* sh404SEF rewrites Joomla URL to user-friendly format (SEF URL or URL rewriting): mysite.com/index.php?option=com_content&Itemid=69&id=34
becomes mysite.com/en/sh404SEF-and-url-rewriting/list-of-available-plugins.html but it does in a way that prevent Joomla standard SEF duplicate content issues.

Important: from version 4.17, we automatically add robots meta tag required for full visibility in Google search results.
NEW: Support for Google Analytics version 4
NEW: Full Turkish translation
NEW: insert a QRCode anywhere, on any page
NEW: Redesigned Google Analytics reports, can now also display on frontend without having to log-in
NEW: block requests based on simple rules
NEW: Redirect mutiple URLs together, no more using .htaccess
NEW: Add canonical tags to mutiple URLs in one go
NEW: URL shortener can now shorten any URL, not just of current site
NEW: extended Structured data support: social profiles, corporate contacts, logos
Connector with wbAMP, our Accelerated Mobile Pages for Joomla plugin
Automatic redirect of 404s errors to most similar page
Google Sitename, Google breadcrumb and Google sitelinks search JSON+LD markup
Using oAuth2 for Analytics authorization
Twitter Cards support
Google Analytics Universal support
Google Tags manager support
all output through JLayout, easily override in template
Create and insert Open Graph data: quickly and easily add social media buttons to your entire site to allow sharing on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Linkedin and Pinterest.
Integrated Google Analytics reports display
Automatically generate tiny URLs (shURLs) for your content
Full urls and bulk meta data management
Multi-lingual support
Easily redirect 404s to suggested SEF URLS
Instantly add global support for canonical URLs (add rel="canonical" HTTP headers)
Removes automatically duplicate URLs, a common problem with Joomla websites
Create human ear and search engine friendly (SEF) URLs
Control URL re-write mode on a per-application basis
Support for Google News URL format
Easily customize the page title and page description with bulk updater
Create customized error pages (i.e. 404) with relevant links, suggest best match pages
Harden against cross-site scripting attacks (XSS)
Harden against malicious page requests
Limit flooding attacks
Protect input forms such as the contact page from spam (using Project Honey Pot)
Control site access from suspicious domains (using IP address whitelisting and blacklisting)

We Support many third-party SEF plugins via the standard Joomla installer.
Components we support natively include: VirtueMart, K2, FlexiContent, Kunena, Jomsocial, Community Builder and more.

Write a review

Very fast support

Claus Nielsen (3).
Posted on 30 December 2012

Have used SH404SEF on pages I created and always found it very easy to get up and running.

Had an issue today, and it was solved via the support forum in very short time ...

Thanks a lot for a great extension and a superb support.

Easy to use and very good support.

ar (3).
Posted on 24 December 2012

Easy to use and very good support. I don't have much more to say i think that's enough.

Thanks to support

Codextrous (2).
Posted on 12 December 2012

Hi, I was facing problems with redshop , and you guys helped me a lot, thanks!!!!

Excelent support and excellent component!

Messes a lot up

Devik (16).
Posted on 08 December 2012

I don't see this as a relevant tool for anyone using Joomla 2.5 or newer, truly. Every single extension on my site is updated and all of them are rated Popular here yet I still face many issues. Once I think everything is working, I come across something else messing up that's directly linked to this extension. Once the extension is off, everything runs perfectly fine.

This extension is to make life more simple, not the other way around. To go into further detail, the security features are lacking. To stay secure year round prepare to pay year round even for large security vulnerabilities.

The thing that gets me are all of the cheaper/free extensions that are equivalent to this one don't have anywhere near as many problems.

I spent a lot of time and effort with this extension, in the end I was able to get everything working and have to say I not only feel as if I completely wasted my time but also feel a lot more appreciation towards some of the other extensions offered here.

It's important to state that the people I spoke with were very professional.

Owner's reply: Hi

As you don't really point at any particular issue you had, I cannot really provide any specific answer. There are still a few comments I can make though:

First, a technical one: having a problem which appears when sh404SEF is on, and disappear when sh404SEF is off does NOT mean in any way that sh404SEF is causing the issue. Only that the fault, wherever it happens, only appears when SEF urls are on, and that's pretty different.
Again, you did not provide details, but if you had things like disappearing images or templates, javascript that doesn't work anymore or Itemids confusion, I can already tell you that sh404SEF is not causing this, despite the fact this problems go away when you switch it off.
Best advice is to contact support, which can usually work things out but sometimes the faulty extensions cannot be fixed, or this is too complicated.

Second, the extension is not simply here "to make life more simple". It is here to achieve higher SEO performance and do more things in the simplest possible way, that's a little bit different.

I'm glad you were able to have your site running in the end, and that you appreciated the support professionalism.
Hopefully next time the ride will be smoother. sh404SEF has been around for more than 6 years now, but still has just been voted as part of the Top 10 extensions by Joomla! community magazine. I hope this shows we're still working hard on it on a day to day basis!

Rgds

sh404SEF

Tomasz Bieliński (3).
Posted on 08 December 2012

Must have component if you care for SEO (who don't care:-).

It is not easy to apply in first moments buy if you read the instructions it turns out to be very cute applitation.

And the support is great - very friendly and quick.

Disappointed!

Слава Холопов (1).
Posted on 03 December 2012

Stay away from this extension!

I bought this extension to kill duplicates in Google indexing.

It is resulted in:

1) increased site loading speed

2) increased number of duplicates

3) No custom 404 page as promised

Just check their support forum before to buy. You I have found dozens of users with the same problems but without any support to solve it.

I actually was so shocked that nowadays the products like sh404sef can survive.

I lost my time, my money and Google positions.

Owner's reply: Hi pryanick,

Sorry you have such bitter feelings. I think you should have tried contacting support before giving up less than 2 days after getting sh404SEF!
We could have answered your concerns:
- as with any SEF extension, there is a performance hit, on default install. Now with sh404SEF, you can enable not only a URL cache but also a global database cache that will actually speed up your site (user reports up to 10%)

- it is technically impossible for sh404SEF to create duplicate content. That's because sh404SEF does NOT create any url. It only "translates" them from non-sef to sef. Every URL you see on your site has been created by Joomla (and installed extensions), not by sh404SEF
However, sh404SEF does PROTECT you against this Joomla habit. I think you might have been mistaken by the fact that sh404SEF shows you a list of duplicated urls it has found in Joomla, and maybe you thought sh404SEF created them?
In any case, all those duplicate urls are grouped together by sh404SEF into one unique URL visible to search engines and visitors. That's one of its primary feature.

- the custom 404 page works fine. Again, you might have needed to talk to us in case something went wrong on your particular site, but that's also one of the founding block of sh404SEF. It's not only customizable, per language, but also includes a similar url feature, to help users go to the page they were probably looking for.

Hope this helps, do not hesitate to contact us back in case you want to have a second look.

Rgds

Excellent solution and great support

Stewart Rogers (1).
Posted on 03 December 2012

We've been using SH404SEF for some time on our corporate website. While we did have some issues very early on, the more recent versions have been solid and help us to manage some fairly complex scenarios with ease.

Not only is this a highly recommended solution, we've been extremely impressed at the support provided.

Wholeheartedly recommended.

Awesome plug-in and a very helpful tech support

Goran (8).
Posted on 06 October 2012

I've been using sh404sef for a couple of years now and I love it. I like the ability to customize URL's if necessary and all of the other features it brings. I also like the security features it comes with. This is a very extensive and very useful plugin.

I had an issue after upgrading from Joomla 1.5 to 2.5 with some urls in the main menu not going to right articles and not displaying properly. I posted my problem on the Forum and Jimie from their support team was very quick to respond. He found the solution and fixed the issue for me in the admin area of my web site. That saved me a lot of headache and I am very grateful for that. So, 2 thumbs up for the customer support!

btw, the solution to the problem is simple: just re-save the article in question and the link(s) pointing to it will work just fine.

Tonight I'll sleep a little better:)

Needs improvement, but good overall.

Rachel (6).
Posted on 27 September 2012

I'm a developer and am extremely picky with the way my URLs are generated. I've been using sh404SEF for quite a while, and have had mixed feelings about it. I've decided that overall it is a good SEF extension, but needs a lot of improvement. I do recommend it for purchase (and have) especially for the price, but I'm not completely in love with it.

The good: The extension is updated continuously and very well-maintained by the developer. I love the fact that SEF URLs are generated automatically and efficiently. In essence, you can activate this extension with little to no configuration and let it take care of the rest. It is great at finding URLs you didn't even know existed, and most of the time generates truly SEF URLs. I also love how easy it is to manage META tags.

The bad: The interface is not the most intuitive and has a bit of a learning curve to it, but overall is not too difficult to get used to. It desperately needs a 'Quick Edit' URLs feature as well, similar to their META tag management feature.

I think the worst part of this extension is the customer support. I lurked a lot more on the forums than asked questions myself, mainly because most of my questions had already been asked. What I saw was a lot of pointing the finger at other extensions for issues that sh404SEF should be responsible for. Sure, you could contact the other developers and ask them to help you change how URLs are generated for that extension, but isn't URL management the entire purpose of sh404SEF? It often seemed like the developer just wanted to wipe their hands clean with multiple issues and mark each of their threads as 'Solved' without really caring whether or not the issue was really solved -- sometimes with issues that were 100% a result of sh404SEF. To me, that's totally unacceptable when you are technically paying for the support.

The extension is a little primitive in the sense that there is no way to control how individual components generate URLs or META tags, other than the standard extensions it comes integrated with. Your only option is to use the extension's own router, which most of the time has limited versatility. You can also manually edit each SEF URL created by that component, which is way too much work.

Conclusively, I do wish sh404SEF were more versatile and straightforward, but if you do not need completely custom SEF URLs and META tags that vary according to extension, sh404SEF is a great value and should more than satisfy your SEF needs.

Owner's reply: Hi CookiePlease

Thanks for your taking the time to put an extensive review of sh404SEF. It's an interesting one, because you seem to be looking at sh404SEF from a specific angle, as a "SEF url manager".
sh404SEF is not anymore only focused on creating nice urls. You can and you will always manually customize any url on your site, and for the most common extensions, there's strong capability to tailor the SEF url build up. But we've been focusing much more on SEO. For instance, automatic management of duplicate urls created by Joomla is in my mind far more important than anything else, in these times of Panda and Penguin Google updates. That focus on SEO directed the introduction of features such as Analytics, "social SEO" and so much more.

As for interface, it's always a matter of workflow and probably a bit of taste, but as the first sh404SEF for Joomla! 3 version is nearing release, now is probably a good time to review. I'd be happy to hear what you found less intuitive and requiring a learning curve, please feel free to contact me.
Please note that many users performing customization on many urls usually prefer to export urls into a spreadsheet, make changes and import them back.
Now again, the introduction of Bootstrap in Joomla 3 will facilitate the introduction of nice UI features.

As you have seen in the reviews here on JED, support is usually a rather positive side for sh404SEF. It struck me in your comment that you didn't had any bad experience, but only commented on a "general feeling", looking up the forum.
sh404SEF is interacting with a lot of extensions, and it is indeed very often happens that source and solution of issues are in other extensions. I can't recall how many relative urls I've seen used for instance, making images or styles disappear when sh404sef is activated, thus making it look as if sh404SEF is causing the issue when it's not.

Another factor to keep in mind while looking through the support forum is that several major extensions have built in support for sh404SEF. In such cases, URL settings and even suport is to be found directly inside those extension themselves. The first that come to my mind are K2, Flexicontent or redShop for instance.

Rgds

Awesome, simple, slick extension!

Satish Sharma (9).
Posted on 20 September 2012

Amazing extension, Totalnewbie to seo sef and beginner with joomla but this little widget helped me sort out my urls in superfast time! Well worth the price! Thanks for an amazing extension and keep it up guys !

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sh404SEF

Version:: 4.24.7
Developer:: Yannick Gaultier
Last updated:: Jul 26 2023
1 year ago
Date added:: May 27 2007
License:: GPLv2 or later
Type:: Paid download
Related extension :: 4SEF
Includes:: c p
Compatibility:: J3

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Uses Joomla! Update System

Demo Support Documentation

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