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.
Homepage Index vs Home vs Default?
-
Should your home page be www.yoursite.com/index.htm or home.htm or default.htm on an apache server? Someone asked me this, and I have no idea. On our wordpress site, I have never even seen this come up, but according to my friend, every homepage HAS to be one of those three. So my question is which one is best for an apache server site AND does it actually have to be one of those three?
Thanks,
Ruben
-
Thanks so much! I really appreciate the insight.
Ruben
-
If you want more information yes Apache server does make
Most Apache web servers have set the following pages as the default page with a directory.
default.htm default.html index.htm index.html index.php
If using WordPress you could see index.php because WordPress
Uses a PHP Database regardless of what your friend told you ideally you should have
Properly 301 redirected static links when talking about links that are going to be seen by Google.
this
Means WordPress websites ideally should not contain publicly visible index file of any kind.
To cut to the chase I have cited this response from Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s web spam team. to Yoast
Referenced from http://yoast.com/wordpress-seo-url-permalink/
I emailed Matt and asked whether it makes sense to add .html for systems like WordPress. His response:
In general I wouldn’t. My WP has urls like http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/remove-result/ and that’s pretty ideal.
So. Case closed.
Should I add .html to my permalink structure?
A good collection of resources. Are posted as links below this line.
Use Yoast http://yoast.com/wordpress/seo/
Is an excellent source of WordPress knowledge I strongly recommend using the Yoast WordPress seo tool the reason a side from being one of the very best Word press plug-ins that enhance your Word press site this one uses
http://yoast.com/change-wordpress-permalink-structure/
http://yoast.com/wp-content/permalink-helper.php
If you need to make changes to your link structure A great
resource I understand redirects is the link under this line
http://24ways.org/2013/url-rewriting-for-the-fearful/
If you need to redirect an index tag using Nginx
http://moz.com/blog/htaccess-file-snippets-for-seos
http://codex.wordpress.org/Linking_Posts_Pages_and_Categories
-
Merry Christmas,
Ruben
Your friend is speaking about a 100% HTML site and the answer is your site should not end using
www.yoursite.com/index.htm or home.htm or default.htm
Using Word press your site should end in www.yoursite.com or www.yoursite.com/
Some people when they ring there site over from an HTML static site to WordPress they might find a parma links
http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Permalinks
If you do this and 301 redirect any links that would be changed by using WordPress to the new Permalink structure shown below or if you feel like using one of the others which I recommend against you may. However most sites are best served using the settings below.
Sincerely,
Thomas
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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.
Related Questions
-
On page vs Off page vs Technical SEO: Priority, easy to handle, easy to measure.
Hi community, I am just trying to figure out which can be priority in on page, off page and technical SEO. Which one you prefer to go first? Which one is easy to handle? Which one is easy to measure? Your opinions and suggestions please. Expecting more realistic answers rather than usual check list. Thanks
Algorithm Updates | May 30, 2024, 6:48 AM | vtmoz0 -
Fresh backlinks vs old backlinks: A solid ranking factor?
Hi Moz community, Backlinks being a major ranking factor, do they must be very recent or fresh to make a ranking difference compared to the backlinks which are years old? We know usually fresh content ranks well, but I wonder how much the fresh/recent backlinks impact in rankings. Do the years old backlinks from related and reputed website have same impact on rankings? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | Dec 5, 2017, 6:18 AM | vtmoz0 -
How long for google to de-index old pages on my site?
I launched my redesigned website 4 days ago. I submitted a new site map, as well as submitted it to index in search console (google webmasters). I see that when I google my site, My new open graph settings are coming up correct. Still, a lot of my old site pages are definitely still indexed within google. How long will it take for google to drop off or "de-index" my old pages? Due to the way I restructured my website, a lot of the items are no longer available on my site. This is on purpose. I'm a graphic designer, and with the new change, I removed many old portfolio items, as well as any references to web design since I will no longer offering that service. My site is the following:
Algorithm Updates | Jun 8, 2016, 7:11 PM | rubennunez
http://studio35design.com0 -
Numbers vs #'s For Blog Titles
For your blog post titles, is it "better" to use numbers or write them out? For example, 3 Things I love About People Answering My Constant Questions or Three Things I Love About People Answering My Constant Questions? I could see this being like the attorney/lawyer, ecommerce/e-commerce and therefore not a big deal. But, I also thought you should avoid using #'s in your url's. Any thoughts, Ruben
Algorithm Updates | Aug 29, 2014, 10:40 AM | KempRugeLawGroup0 -
How To Index Backlinks Easily?
I have already pinged my backlinks, While pinging individual urls but all the same backlinks are not indexed. How to index my backlinks?
Algorithm Updates | Jul 30, 2014, 8:42 AM | surabhi60 -
Does google index non-public pages ie. members logged in page
hi, I was trying to locate resources on the topics regarding how much the google bot indexes in order to qualify a 'good' site on their engine. For example, our site has many pages that are associated with logged in users and not available to the public until they acquire a login username and password. Although those pages show up in google analytics, they should not be made public in the google index which is what happens. In light of Google trying to qualify a site according to how 'engaged' a user is on the site, I would feel that the activities on those member pages are very important. Can anyone offer suggestions on how Google treats those pages since we are planning to do further SEO optimization of those pages. Thanks
Algorithm Updates | Mar 10, 2013, 7:08 PM | jumpdates0 -
Home page replaced by subpage in google SERP (good or bad)
SInce Panda, We have seen our home page drop from #2 in google.ie serp to page 3 but it has been replaced in the same position @#2 by our relevent sub page for the keyword that we ranked#2 for. Is this a good or bad thing from and seo point of view and is it better to have deep pages show in serp rather than the homepage of a site and what is the best line of action from here in relation to seo. Is it best to work on subpage or home page for that keyword and should link building for that phrase be directed towards the subpage or the homepage as the subpage is obviously more relevent in googles eyes for the search term. It is clear that all areas of the site should be looked at in relation to link building and deep links etc but now that google is obviously looking at relevancy very closely should all campaigns be sectioned into relevent content managed sections and the site likewise and treated on an individual basis. Any help that you may have would be very welcome. Paul
Algorithm Updates | Oct 12, 2011, 11:42 AM | mcintyr0 -
Singular vs plural SEO
Hi everyone, OK I've been looking at the Google adwords keyword tool and it's thrown some of my On-page SEO into question (everything said here are examples, I haven't used any real life terms or figures). Lets say my page is about "Green Apples", let's say the keyword tool shows that the singular version "Green Apple" gets more searches (as an example). Should I optimize for the singular or the plural? Also lets say my title tag for that page is "Green Apples | Apples Galore UK" would Google/SEOmoz count that as an optimisation for the singular "Green Apple" or do the search engines take the title literally and don't differenciate between singular and plurals? Thanks in advance everyone! Regards, Ash
Algorithm Updates | Jan 8, 2016, 7:25 PM | AshSEO20112