htaccess similar file names goes to same page - .htaccess

Question

Most of the RewriteRules are working fine but there are a couple that have the same word in them and aren't going to the correct page.
Here is my full htaccess
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{SCRIPT_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{SCRIPT_FILENAME} !-d
# Rewrites for main pages
RewriteRule home index.php
RewriteRule about-us about-us.php
RewriteRule business-advice business-advice.php
RewriteRule associates associates.php
RewriteRule become-an-associate associates-sign-up.php
RewriteRule blog blog.php
RewriteRule contact-us contact-us.php
RewriteRule log-in log-in.php
RewriteRule sign-up sign-up.php
The problem resides within the two associated links. When I go to [MYURL]/associates it works fine but if I go to [MYURL]/become-an-associate it takes me to the correct URL but shows content from [MYURL]/associates
Anybody got any ideas?
Thanks,

Answer 1

The pattern for RewriteRule's are regular expressions and the rules all loop until the URI stops changing. That means the first time around, when you request /become-an-associate, it matches and is rewritten to /associates-sign-up.php. Then, the second time around, the rule with the pattern associates matches because of "/associates-sign-up.php". You need to add boundary checks (e.g. ^ and $) as well as the [L] flag:
# Rewrites for main pages
RewriteRule ^home/?$ index.php [L]
RewriteRule ^about-us/?$ about-us.php [L]
RewriteRule ^business-advice/?$ business-advice.php [L]
RewriteRule ^associates/?$ associates.php [L]
RewriteRule ^become-an-associate/?$ associates-sign-up.php [L]
RewriteRule ^blog/?$ blog.php [L]
RewriteRule ^contact-us/?$ contact-us.php [L]
RewriteRule ^log-in/?$ log-in.php [L]
RewriteRule ^sign-up/?$ sign-up.php [L]