Although the SEO settings of Joomla! 1.6 have remained unchanged, there's still a big improvement: by default, Search Engine Friendly URLs are now turned on. In SEO Settings (found via the Site | Global Configuration | Site tab) the Search Engine Friendly URLs option is set to Yes:
This means that Joomla! sites no longer output unreadable URLs like the ones common to the previous version:
http://www.example.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8
.
The new default Joomla! 1.6 URLs are much shorter and easier to understand:
http://www.example.com/index.php/getting-started
.
This is good news for site administrators, as they don't have to change any settings here. The default URLs are fine for search engines.