10 replies to this topic

[dabblingmum]

I just learned to build folders on my webpage, so my question is...
when i have thedabblingmum.com/parties

Should I have an index in that folder or is this okay for the entrance page?
thedabblingmum.com/parties/partycenter.htm

I want to make sure that the search engines can follow what is in my folders since I am new to this.

Thanks!

Alyice

Edited by dabblingmum, 08 October 2003 - 09:14 AM.

[qwerty]

Assuming there's more than one page going into the directory, I think it's a good idea to have a default page (with a standard default page name). That way, people can navigate to thedabblingmum.com/parties and see something other than an error.

On some servers, if you don't have a default page, you'll get one in the browser that will literally be an index of every file and subdirectory in the folder. It will say something like "Index of /parties" at the top and just contain a list. Not very good looking.

On other servers, you'll just get a 404 (not found) error, and that's not good either.

It just makes sense structurally for a directory to have a default page that acts as a hub for all the information in that directory. If someone goes to thedabblingmum.com/parties/surprise-party.html and likes what they see, they may just pop up to thedabblingmum.com/parties in the hope of finding a listing of the other pages in there that are relevant to parties.

[Jill]

What Bob says, makes good sense. But it really makes no difference to the search engines how you do it as long as you're navigation is linking to the pages in question, that's all that matters.

Jill

[OldWelshGuy]

Using index. as a main opening page in the folder does have the added advantage of making it more memorable, as well as belt n bracers effect. eg www.giftsforkids.com/birthdays is a lot less likely to be typed wrongly than www.giftsforkids.com/birthdays/gifts.htm I like using folders as it shortens domains to a more memorable version.

But this is just me from a marketing angle rather than a SEO angle.

from a systems angle (not that i know much other than experience) hosting software as far as i can remember will always default to a page titled Index. then look for home. if index is not present, if neither of these are present then you may well end up with a dreaded server list of contents with an alphabetical ordered link for each file.

[dabblingmum]

YOu guys are great! Thanks!

I will make the change immediately.... I appreciate the feedback very much.

Another question?

If I had a folder that is parties/index.htm

and work/index.htm

it's okay that the files are named the same because they are in different folders, correct?

Thanks again!

Alyice

[qwerty]

Absolutely. The name of the file is the same, but the URL is different, so no user agent (including a spider) will think they're the same document.

It works the same way on a home pc. Let's say you keep your financial records in spreadsheets, and you create directories by year. The file expenses\2002\medicalexpenses.xls is not going to be seen by your computer as identical to expenses\2003\medicalexpenses.xls

[dabblingmum]

Okay that totally clears up my confusion!

Now I have some work to do, but I have to tell you... I am already loving this folder thing! It sure makes looking through the back end of my website much easier and neater!

Thanks again for the wonderful advice...

Alyice

[dragonlady7]

Different servers will default to different pages.
Apache defaults to index.html. Apache is the most common server, so that's the most usual.
Windows defaults to default.html, I think, so if you have a windows server, that's what it looks for.
Zope, a file management tool on my current server, defaults to index_html, so you can have whatever file extension you want on it. (index_html.asp, index_html.htm, index_html.php, etc.)
I find it dazzling and baffling and horribly confusing. But that's something to keep in mind in case something doesn't work like you think it should-- the default isn't necessarily always the same, and depends on what software your server is using.

For your purposes, it seems that index.htm works fine, so don't worry about this! But for anyone who cares, it's worth keeping in mind.

[qwerty]

Windows defaults to default.html, I think, so if you have a windows server, that's what it looks for.

Among others. IIS (windows) defaults to a list of standard names and looks for them in order. The admin of a server can go in and change it, however, removing all but the one that's being used, or even changing it to a custom name.

You go into the properties of your site, then to the Documents tab, and you can make changes to the default list of default documents, changing the order, adding or removing names.

[Ron Carnell]

Among others. IIS (windows) defaults to a list of standard names and looks for them in order.

Apache does the same, with its list typically residing in the httpd.conf file ...

[csjavi]

The default page in Apache can also be set in the .htaccess file. This is usually the only option available if your site is hosted by a hosting company.

.htaccess is a really powerful tool. I wish I knew it better.

Does anyone know how to force Apache to parse files without extensions as server side include? The best I could come up with is

DefaultType text/x-server-parsed-html