Using htaccess and mod_rewrite to display new-page instead of newpage - php

Question

I'm working on my website and I created a few new web pages that explains more details of my website. Now for seo purposes I know google prefers for the link to contain the key words. So the pages I'm making could be call new shoes. Now I have gotten the pages to work as website.com/newshoes but since google may view this as one word, I'm working on making it display website.com/new-shoes instead using htaccess but I can't get it to work. This is what I came up with but it didn't work.
RewriteRule ^([^/]*)-([^/]*)$ /index.php?$1$2 [QSA,L]
So yeah can anyone help me out here. Thanks!
[edit]
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^reflap\.com [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.reflap.com/$1 [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^([^/]*)$ /index.php?$1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^([^/]*)/$ /index.php?$1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^([^/]*)/([^/]*)$ /index.php?$1&$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^([^/]*)/([^/]*)/$ /index.php?$1&$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^/facebook-chat/ http://chat.facebook.com/ [P]
ErrorDocument 404 /error.php

Answer 1

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^([^/]*)-([^/]*)$ /index.php?$1$2
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^reflap\.com [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.reflap.com/$1 [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^([^/]*)/?$ /index.php?$1 [QSA,L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^([^/]*)/([^/]*)/?$ /index.php?$1&$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^/facebook-chat/ http://chat.facebook.com/ [P]
ErrorDocument 404 /error.php

Answer 2

You need to put specifics in your rewrite rules above your generics - the ordering you have means that you are being redirected to index.php?new-page because you are matching a more general pattern first.
Try this:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^reflap\.com [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.reflap.com/$1 [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^([^/]*)-([^/]*)$ /index.php?$1$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^([^/]*)/([^/]*)$ /index.php?$1&$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^([^/]*)/([^/]*)/$ /index.php?$1&$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^/facebook-chat/ http://chat.facebook.com/ [P]
RewriteRule ^([^/]*)$ /index.php?$1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^([^/]*)/$ /index.php?$1 [QSA,L]
ErrorDocument 404 /error.php
This should fix your problem - but there's a more general issue in this .htaccess - RewriteCond directives only apply to the RewriteRule immediately following them. They don't continue on to any other rule following. This means that all rules after the first one will apply regardless of if the file or directory really exists.
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mod/mod_rewrite.html#rewritecond