.htaccess - htaccess rewriting address bar -

have been trying change urls make them more seo friendly , @ moment have managed them sort of working how want it.

my original url this: http://www.example.com/index.php?keyword=nikon

so managed rewriting looks this:

http://www.example.com/compare/nikon.html

using this:

rewriteengine on rewriterule ^compare/([^/]*)\.html$ /index.php?keyword=$1 [r,nc,l] 

but have tried end result url in address bar this: http://www.example.com/compare/nikon.html

if change rewritten url in address bar variables still passed , in instances there anchor # tag after url still work?

thanks help

you want rid of r flag in rule. that's causing address bar changed original ugly looking url.

additionally, if want redirect browser ugly nicer looking url, need different rule. like:

rewriteengine on rewritecond %{the_request} \ /+index\.php\?keyword=([^&\ ]+) rewriterule ^ /compare/%1.html? [l,r] rewriterule ^compare/([^/]*)\.html$ /index.php?keyword=$1 [nc,l]