Paid and free generation of SEO URLs in OpenCart

Often, those who install OpenCart, when entering products, see something scary in the URLs, like:

 index.php?route=product/product&product_id=123

This doesn't look friendly either to users or search engines. Let's see how to turn this ugly URL into a normal one without manually specifying each link.

First, don't overlook the small things:

• In admin panel, go to System – Settings – Server – enable SEO URLs.
• If you have the best OpenCart build – Liveopencart OCStore, enable "SeoPro" on the SeoPro tab.
• If you have an htaccess.txt file in your root folder, rename it to .htaccess. If you skip this step, the RewriteRule simply won't work.

Next, how to turn a product name like "Новая модель смартфона" into a clean URL like:

 novaya-model-smartfona

There are three ways:

1) Manually type each word into the SEO Keyword field – suitable if you have just a couple of products. But if you have hundreds or thousands, it's a huge waste of time and nerves. Why repeat the same routine if there are URL generator modules available?

2) You can use our free module LiveOpenCart SEO – great if you have few products, a single language, no multi-store, and don't need extensive settings.
This module takes all Russian names, transliterates them, and provides clean URLs. If two products share the same name (it happens), it adds an ID suffix to avoid conflicts. Another life-saving feature – "overwrite existing URLs". To refresh all URLs, check the box and hit "Generate". If you'd rather preserve your configured URLs, leave it unchecked, and the module skips them. You have a choice: carefully maintain or update everything at once. This ensures users, Google, and Yandex understand the page's content before even clicking.

3) The ideal way is to choose and buy a full-featured generation module. We offer many in our SEO section. Pay special attention to these:

Multitool – a powerful solution for OpenCart store owners, offering extensive capabilities for data handling, analytics, orders, and SEO. A dedicated section is entirely for generating SEO URLs.

SeoUrl Generator – automated filling, mass generation, duplicate handling, flexible settings, preview testing, detailed reports, cron support, and transliteration of Cyrillic and Latin (including diacritics and ligatures).

Url Rewriting Tool – handles large data sets and manages SEO URLs for categories, products, manufacturers, and articles, either manually or automatically. Supports editing, selective deletion, custom URL creation, scheduled generation (CRON). Easy installation, multi-store, and multilingual support for OpenCart 3.0.

SeoGen 3.0 for OpenCart 3 – generates SEO links for products, categories, manufacturers, and articles; also generates/fills meta tags (H1, title, keywords, description) when supported by the platform database.

IMSeoUrl (OC 3) – SEO URL Generator – simple and convenient module for bulk SEO URL generation via transliteration, supporting products, categories, manufacturers, and articles (with tag support). Also offers automatic generation.

ChatGPT SEO – Mass generation of descriptions using neural networks – generates various content types, including SEO URLs, using AI.

Typically, these modules pull all product names, transliterate them into clean URLs, and add numeric or ID suffixes if duplicates occur. The helpful "overwrite existing" option allows refreshing URLs or preserving previously configured ones, ensuring both visitors and search engines understand page content clearly.

In short:

• enable SEO URLs
• configure .htaccess
• download a free or buy a paid module
• select relevant sections (products, categories, manufacturers, blog posts)
• click "Generate"
• receive clean, parameter-free URLs.

Oh, and remember to create a database backup before starting this whole process, or you'll have to restore your data via phpMyAdmin, and that's not fun at all. Don’t let tedious manual tasks disrupt your workflow!