Search engine friendly

Enabling "Search engine friendly URL's" in your Joomla system would allow some search engines to better index your site. In order to do that please follow these steps:

Step 1: Enable SEO

Navigate to: Site -> Global Configuration -> SEO.
Then change Search Engine Friendly URL: to be Yes.
Please, [Save] the settings now.

Step 2: Enable mod_rewrite / Rename htaccess.txt file

If you want to use SEF for your Joomla installation you will have to enable Mod_Rewrite. Mod_rewrite is installed on SiteGround's servers and you can enable it for your account. In order to enable the rewrite rules for your SEO you will need to rename the htaccess.txt file in your Joomla installation directory to .htaccess. You can do this by using an FTP client or your cPanel -> File Manager section as shown on the image below:
Please, navigate to the folder of your account where the Joomla is installed and click the file name htaccess.txt. Then select "Rename" from the menu on the right, and rename it to .htaccess.

Step 3: Test the SEO functionality

Your Search Engine Friendly URL's should be enabled now. You can go to your site and try browsing through the menu links. Your URLs should now look like this:

http://yourdomain.com/section/category/article_name.html

instead of

http://yourdomain.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=26

Congratulations! You have successfully enabled the Search Engine Optmization module in Joomla!