suppose you want /articles.php?cat=$1&art=$2 to become magazine/1/2 then you need these two rules: #articles.php?cat=$1&art=$2 RewriteRule ^magazine/([^/]*)/([^/]*)$ /articles.php?cat=$1&art=$2&marker [L] RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} /articles\.php [NC] RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^cat=(.*)&art=(.*) RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} !marker RewriteRule (.*) http://mydomain/%1/%2? [R=301,L]