How to change the url to match the content being loaded while still on the same page

I have a main page called index.php which has a header, navbar and footer ETC loading via include files.
The main-content.php area is the only part of the page that changes. The included files in this area match
with the navbar buttons, the Home button loads content/home.php, the about button loads content/about.php

The problem is the url stays as my-domain-name/index.php all of the time.
Is there a way to load the content/main-content.php files into index.php
while changing the url in the address bar to my-domain-name/home.php,
or my-domain-name/about.php

I have an idea this can be done using .htaccess file however would like some advice
on how to go about it?