SEO Tycoon

**joder** · 09-23-2007, 12:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ForrestCroce

Nope; I can get to your home page through both of these addresses:

I don't understand what you wrote above.

Web servers look for index.html (or index.php, etc.) inside / and display it. Even though http://www.tiskettaskets.com/ is in the address bar, http://www.tiskettaskets.com/index.html is what is being displayed.

**ForrestCroce** · 12:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vangogh

And here I was about to change my company name to the seo master guru of experts. So what you're saying is it's not a good idea?

Nah ... far too modest. You have to really let people know how smart you are. When you can't remember the acronym, then you've got it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by joder

[/list]I don't understand what you wrote above.

Web servers look for index.html (or index.php, etc.) inside / and display it. Even though http://www.tiskettaskets.com/ is in the address bar, http://www.tiskettaskets.com/index.html is what is being displayed.

Right, but that's not exposed to the outside world. If you type domain.com/index.html into the address bar, it should redirect you to just the domain name, and "silently" send down the default file. You don't want to be able to see this particular filename/url in the address bar, because people will link to you by copying and pasting from the address bar, and because you can get to your site through the domain name alone, so it can look like duplicate content to the spiders and dilute the links to your home page.

**vangogh** · 09-23-2007, 12:56 AM

James I'll just echo what Forrest said and also add that to a search engine

domain.com
domain.com/index.html
www.domain.com
www.domain.com/index.html

are four different URLs. Even though all four will typically show the same page they don't have to.

Most of the time a search engine will then see four pages of duplicate content and make the decision on which is the one to place in the main index. It may not be the one you want.

Imagine you get two links to your site. One links to domain.com and the other links to www.domain.com. You think you have 2 links pointing to your home page. Search engines see it as two different pages each with one inbound link.

**chrishirst** · 09-23-2007, 05:30 AM

Quote:

And here I was about to change my company name to the seo master guru of experts

Surely you mean Seo Master & Expert Guru ( S.M.E.G for short )

**joder** · 09-23-2007, 10:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ForrestCroce

Right, but that's not exposed to the outside world. If you type domain.com/index.html into the address bar, it should redirect you to just the domain name, and "silently" send down the default file. You don't want to be able to see this particular filename/url in the address bar, because people will link to you by copying and pasting from the address bar, and because you can get to your site through the domain name alone, so it can look like duplicate content to the spiders and dilute the links to your home page.

Okay. I didn't know everyone was supposed to configure for that. Would that be through mod_rewrite?

**chrishirst** · 09-23-2007, 01:06 PM

It's not something you should need to configure for if you get it right from day one. If you never link to the document name for the site root and folders it will never get indexed.

IF you already have more external back links to the default doc name (whether it be index.xxx or default.xxx) than to the folder root you probably need to redirect, BUT you have to be careful you do not create an infinite loop, as the server will do an implied redirect to the default document, so if you simply redirect back to the root name you will create a "locked loop". With .htaccess this will mean using (THE_REQUEST)

IF only your internal navigation points to the default document, it could be enough to remove the references to the default doc and use "/" for root links and end every folder reference with a trailing slash.

**vangogh** · 09-23-2007, 02:52 PM

I need to work on my acronyms Chris. SMEG works much better than SMGE. Maybe I should be the guru expert of master seos. The my acronym could be GEMS.

**joder** · 09-23-2007, 03:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrishirst

IF only your internal navigation points to the default document, it could be enough to remove the references to the default doc and use "/" for root links and end every folder reference with a trailing slash.

Thanks for the information. I haven't thought too much about SEO before. I will change a few links now!

**ADAM Web Design** · 09-24-2007, 12:32 AM

I'm just surprised Hirst didn't say Search Master, Engine Guru, and Marketing Authority (or SMEGMA for short.)

**ForrestCroce** · 09-24-2007, 01:48 AM

Search Master, Engine Guru, and Marketing Authority Virtuous Internet Learning Liaison Enterpeneur. If your acronym is Smegmaville, you have to know so much people can't even understand why they need you.