Hide .html extension using .htaccess

Do you want to hide the .html file extension from your URL for cosmetic purposes? This can be implemented by adding a rewrite entry in your .htaccess file.

For example, if a webpage loads via URL https://yourdomain.com/page.html, after implementing the redirect, the webpage will be served via https://yourdomain.com/page.

To complete this guide, please ensure you have SSH Access to your hosting server. Serversaurus hosting relies on key based authentication to login via SSH/SFTP. To set up SSH access you can generate a SSH key pair and configure it in cPanel before proceeding with this guide.

Let's get started!

1. Open your terminal window and SSH to your hosting server:

   ssh username@yourserver.serversaurus.com.au

2. Change into your public_html directory (or alternative document root location):

   cd public_html

3. Edit the .htaccess file using vi:

   vi .htaccess

4. Paste the following text to the beginning of your .htaccess file by typing i and then paste the text:

   RewriteEngine on
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME}.html -f
   RewriteRule ^(.+)$ $1.html [L,QSA]
   RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /.*\.html\ HTTP/
   RewriteRule ^(.*)\.html$ /$1 [R=301,L]

   Once completed press esc then enter :wq to save your files changes.

Well done! Your URLs will now be rewritten without the HTML file extension.