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Remove URL tool - index.html
ModernM


#:3627602
 6:55 pm on April 15, 2008 (utc 0)

I just realized the reason my home page doesn't pull up may be due to the fact that google has my site indexed on both index.html and / . The odd thing is that index.html has not existed for months.

When I tried to use the remove URL tool in webmaster tools, it changes the URL to domain.com/ instead of domain.com/index.html. Any ideas?

Cal

TheMadScientist


#:3627842
 3:04 am on April 16, 2008 (utc 0)

If you use Apache:

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /index\.html\ HTTP/
RewriteRule ^index\.html$ http://www.example.com/ [R=301,L]

From jdMorgan, Post #5 in this thread:
Redirect index.html to Root Directory

ModernM


#:3627848
 3:16 am on April 16, 2008 (utc 0)

Thanks, the redirect is in place. I more worried about how long it will take for this to be fixed on google. Any idea on how long it will take? Is it just a matter of google bot hitting that page again? Looking at the logs it has tried to hit it about every 2 weeks, each time getting a 404.

Cal

TheMadScientist


#:3627879
 3:54 am on April 16, 2008 (utc 0)

No, there could be a number of contributing factors. It could be most of your inbound links were directed to /index.html, and all you need is the redirect to 'kick-in' and pass the weight from the links to recover.

It could be a duplicate content issue, which would be resolved in the same manner.

It could also be some other factor not having anything to do with /index.html being indexed. My guess is, it is not a duplicate content issue if it is one of the preceding possibilities, because index.html does not exist.

Is the new page you are serving your root page from indexed also? If so, you should redirect it also:

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /index\.(html?Šphp)\ HTTP/
RewriteRule ^index\.(html?Šphp)$ http://www.example.com/ [R=301,L]

The above would redirect index.htm, index.html & index.php.

Chances are the, unless the issue is loss of inbound links due to index.html being 404ed there is something else to find.

<ADDED>
Make sure you replace the ¦'s above with a solid bar or you will receive a server error.
</ADDED>

[edited by: TheMadScientist at 3:56 am (utc) on April 16, 2008]

ModernM


#:3627883
 3:56 am on April 16, 2008 (utc 0)

I have confirmed it is not inbound links. I have also confirmed it is a duplicate content issue. If I search domain.com/index.html, the site comes up in the index.

Cal

TheMadScientist


#:3627885
 4:02 am on April 16, 2008 (utc 0)

Interesting.
If that is it, the redirect should clear it up.

I think I remember reading in a thread a while ago where Google was getting better at 'picking a page' to rank as long as the duplicate content was within a single domain.

When you say your 'home page doesn't pull up' what type of search are you doing? Is it a site: ? or do you mean it is not anywhere in any results for any search?

[edited by: TheMadScientist at 4:42 am (utc) on April 16, 2008]

ModernM


#:3627887
 4:05 am on April 16, 2008 (utc 0)

It will pull up if I use the site: operator. It will not pull up if I search content on the page or the title of the page.

TheMadScientist


#:3627889
 4:10 am on April 16, 2008 (utc 0)

Thanks, I hope it clears thing up for you.

Hissingsid


#:3628040
 10:24 am on April 16, 2008 (utc 0)

Hi,

What is the difference between:

[R=permanent,L]

and

[R=301,L]

on Apache 1.3.20?

When I check both forms in a HTTP header checker they both return:

HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently

Cheers

Sid

TheMadScientist


#:3628215
 2:26 pm on April 16, 2008 (utc 0)

The number of characters used in your .htaccess file.

Hissingsid


#:3628271
 3:20 pm on April 16, 2008 (utc 0)

Thanks for that, very helpful.

Sid

 

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