Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • SEO Q&A
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • MozCon

        Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
      Moz API

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Digital Marketers

        Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. SEO Tactics
    3. On-Page Optimization
    4. Are there any SEO benefits changing the default home page filename (index.htm) to a keyword rich filename

    Moz Q&A is closed.

    After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

    Are there any SEO benefits changing the default home page filename (index.htm) to a keyword rich filename

    On-Page Optimization
    3
    6
    2286
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • Grafimart
      Grafimart last edited by

      II'm a newbie. I have a website using the default home page filename: index.htm. I have total control over the web server. I was wondering whether I can get any SEO improvements for my main keyword if I change the default filename with a filename that contains the main keyword, like our-main-product.htm (doing the 301 redirect and changing the server search order, of course)?

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • Grafimart
        Grafimart @ThompsonPaul last edited by

        Thasnk you so much for your help, Paul.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • ThompsonPaul
          ThompsonPaul @Grafimart last edited by

          Hey Oscar - my second language is French and I couldn't possibly have asked the question in my other language as well as you have here, so don't worry about the language issue at all!

          For your question about changing the index.htm to something with a keyword: no, that would have absolutely no effect. As long as the redirect was with a 301 code, the search engines and the visitors will never know that page even exists. That's the whole purpose of the 301-redirect. it makes that page invisible to the search engines.

          I would also strongly advise not to switch to a keyword-rich subdomain. that's just asking for a lot of headaches and problems in the future.

          What you are suggesting here is trying to create what is called and Exact Match Domain (EMD), meaning the title of your domain matches the keyword you are trying to rank for. The value of these has recently been lowered by Google anyway, and as I say, doing it using a subdomain will cause all kinds of hassles, not to mention confusion for your users.

          If I were you, the area i would be focusing most of my efforts would be on building and earning links form other websites. At the moment, you essentially only have one other domain linking to you.

          In addition, trying to rank with a very competitive general term like impresión digital will be very difficult for a new site. Better to use terms like impresión digital en Chihuahua and others related to where you offer your services. This is assuming that most of your customers are fairly local, not from all over the Internet.

          Hope that answers your question? If not, be sure to let me know.

          Paul

          Grafimart 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • Grafimart
            Grafimart @ThompsonPaul last edited by

            Hi Paul:

            I already got rid of the index.htm name appearing in the url homepage, and also I have all the needed 301 redirects for the mydomain.com, mydomain.com.mx and mydomain.mx pointing to www.grafimart.com. Please, take alook at: www.grafimart.com

            What I really want to know is whether I can get some SEO benefit if I change the index.htm main home page filename for my main keyword: impresion-digital.htm, even when it is not to be shown to the users. In other words: Does the google bots consider as a valid keyword the index page name, even when it is not shown?

            http://www.grafimart.com/impresion-digital.htm

            instead of:

            http://www.grafimart.com/index.htm

            I´m thinking on this based on the fact that my domain name is a branded name and I find difficult to get better SEO for my main page using a subdomain like

            (impresion-digital.grafimart.com)

            Hope you can understand my poorly written english.

            Oscar

            ThompsonPaul 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • generalzod
              generalzod last edited by

              Google weights most of its SEO 'strength' to the actual domain name iteself - and even then, from left to right i.e the further right your main keyword is, the less juice it will get.

              However, if you have relevant content on the page and name the page accordingly then you are making what is called an 'seo friendly' URL. Many people who use Wordpress for example, change their permalinks to change the url from something like mysite.com/p1 to mysite.com/keyword - which WILL make a difference, albeit not a huge one.
              So if it's straightforward for you to do so, then by all means do it. Outside of SEO it will help your visitors better understand what the page is about, and will look a lot prettier in the SERPs too.

              Also, rather than 301'ing each page, you may be able to change the structure of your permalinks within your .htaccess file so that it will happen automatically e.g by naming the file with the title of your page or postname.

              Hope this helps...

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote -1
              • ThompsonPaul
                ThompsonPaul last edited by

                What you actually want to do is get rid of that index.htm address for your home page altogether, Oscar. You want your visitors to only be able to reach your homepage at one URL. This means you need to use 301 rewrites to make your /index.htm page redirect to your primary domain name. (E.g. the website name with no filename after it.)

                You also want to make sure that you have chosen between www.youdomain.com and yourdomain.com (without the www) as the primary address, and rewritten the other one to point to the primary. This is called canonicalisation of the home page. The search engines see each of those addresses as completely different pages because they have different URLs - even though they display the same page. As a result, they'll be considered duplicate content and will effectively be competing against each other.

                There are many questions here in Q&A that explain how to do these kind of redirects. Let us know if you can't find one that works for you.

                Hope that helps?

                Paul

                Grafimart 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                • 1 / 1
                • First post
                  Last post

                Got a burning SEO question?

                Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                Start my free trial


                Browse Questions

                Explore more categories

                • Moz Tools

                  Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

                • SEO Tactics

                  Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

                • Community

                  Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

                • Digital Marketing

                  Chat about tactics outside of SEO

                • Research & Trends

                  Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

                • Support

                  Connect on product support and feature requests.

                • See all categories

                Related Questions

                • gregvellante

                  Do keywords within a dropdown menu add any SEO value?

                  I haven't seen this written about in some time. Has anyone had any experience dabbling in this?

                  On-Page Optimization | | gregvellante
                  0
                • DamianTysdal

                  Ranking dropped after change single page url, should I change it back?

                  I was making updates to the content on the following page, and a few days later dropped from #2 SERP ranking to 50+. Things I checked: Yes, 301 redirect was implemented right away. After publishing, I manually requested indexing in search console. Right after publishing I re-submitted the  sitemap manually and Google said they had not crawled it in 9 days. My question: should I change the URL back to the old one, or give it a little more time (especially since I re-submitted sitemap) Original URL: https://www.travelinsurancereview.net/plans/travel-medical/ New URL: https://www.travelinsurancereview.net/plans/travel-medical-insurance/

                  On-Page Optimization | | DamianTysdal
                  0
                • GOMO-Gabriel

                  Shifting target keyword to a new page, how do we rank the internal page?

                  I have been targeting one keyword for home page that was ranking between the postilion 6-7 but was never ranking on 1st as there were 2 highly competitive keywords targeted on the same page, I changed the keyword to an internal service page to rank it on 1st, I have optimized the content as well but the home page is still ranking on 11th, how do I get the internal page rank on that keyword

                  On-Page Optimization | | GOMO-Gabriel
                  0
                • CosiCrawley

                  Google Console returning 0 pages as being indexed

                  HI there, I submitted my site notebuster.net to Search Console over a month ago and it is showing 0 pages as being indexed under the index status report. I know this isn't right as I can see that in google alone by typing in (site:notebusters.net) there are 113 pages indexed. Any idea why this might be? Thanks

                  On-Page Optimization | | CosiCrawley
                  0
                • Adclick

                  My Meta Description changes when i use different keyword in google search.

                  Hello everyone, I have a question for the community. I have a website with several articles and news that i manage. I set specific meta descriptions for every page but when i search in google it gives me back different meta descriptions depending on the keyword that i use to search. What i notice is that google looks in my page for the most relevant part of the text that combines with my keyword and gives me back that result. I thought that this only happen when i have an empty meta description. Anyone felt the same ? Best Ricardo www.meuportalfinanceiro.pt

                  On-Page Optimization | | Adclick
                  0
                • dawsonski

                  Is it necessary to add keywords to all of your pages?

                  Hi Everyone he company I work for has  just built a new website  with approximately 87 pages/sub pages. Should i be looking to add keywords and descriptions  to all of these pages, via the allocated areas in the back end of the site?  I am using "google's key words" tool  to generate relevant key words. If any one has any advice it would be much appreciated. Thanks for you help Regards Pete

                  On-Page Optimization | | dawsonski
                  0
                • MitchellStoker

                  Does having a "+" in a URL hurt SEO? Would much value be gained changing it to a hyphen?

                  There's a site that contains "+" signs in the URL in order to call different information for the content on the page.  Would it be better to change those to hyphens (-), or not that much value will be gained, so leave them as is? Thanks!

                  On-Page Optimization | | MitchellStoker
                  0
                • inhouseninja

                  SEO value of "in the news" links on home page?

                  Notice more sites have an "in the News" section on the home page, or something similar like press releases... Apart from providing users fresh content, is there an SEO value to this?  What is the explanation for this? Have a feeling the answer is obvious but just not too sure Thanks a lot.

                  On-Page Optimization | | inhouseninja
                  0

                Get started with Moz Pro!

                Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                Start my free trial
                Products
                • Moz Pro
                • Moz Local
                • Moz API
                • Moz Data
                • STAT
                • Product Updates
                Moz Solutions
                • SMB Solutions
                • Agency Solutions
                • Enterprise Solutions
                Free SEO Tools
                • Domain Authority Checker
                • Link Explorer
                • Keyword Explorer
                • Competitive Research
                • Brand Authority Checker
                • Local Citation Checker
                • MozBar Extension
                • MozCast
                Resources
                • Blog
                • SEO Learning Center
                • Help Hub
                • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                • How-to Guides
                • Moz Academy
                • API Docs
                About Moz
                • About
                • Team
                • Careers
                • Contact
                Why Moz
                • Case Studies
                • Testimonials
                Get Involved
                • Become an Affiliate
                • MozCon
                • Webinars
                • Practical Marketer Series
                • MozPod
                Connect with us

                Contact the Help team

                Join our newsletter
                Moz logo
                © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                • Accessibility
                • Terms of Use
                • Privacy

                Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.