Defining Homepage

How do I define my homepage for Search Engines

[kanetrain]

My front page was recently dropped from the INK database. I have contacted positiontech (no solution), I have contacted INKTOMI (no answers), the best I could get is that "maybe" INK is reading one of my regular pages as my index page. The rep I talked to said to define what is my homepage for the seach engines. Is this done on a special robots.txt file? Or is this done on the server somehow (Unix - Red Hat).
Does anyone know what I would have to do to define that front page for the INK bot (and all bots for that matter).
I would apprecate any bit of holp or even a road sign in the right direction.

[claus]

well, the front page is usually the one located at www.example.com/

-if your front page is on an address that's deeper inside the folder structure, then that might be what the rep was referring to.

Anyway, it sounds absurd to me - servers and SE's do know how what is the web root of a system, even if it's buried in a lot of /fhsl/hesl/~hsdjk/ -stuff.

Robots.txt is not useful in this respect.

/claus

[jimbeetle]

Hi kanetrain,

It's something that should not have to be done under normal circumstances but the rep probably means setting your index page in the .htaccess file.

A simple entry:

DirectoryIndex default.htm

Substitute whatever the filename is for your homepage.

Some tips - For simple (most) situations the .htaccess is located in your root folder. Type -la in the file mask box of whichever FTP program you use to 'unhide' the current file (if it exists). Use ASCII to upload the file.

Jim

[kanetrain]

Thanks for the help. It's weird. I think the rep was just clawing for something. My site is as clean as can be...no hidden text, no overstuffing of keywords, no problems anywhere. Suddenly, my front page was dropped completely from the INK database (and I am paying for inclusion). Neither INK or Positiontech can tell me why or how. I am still not included and nobody has answers.
Actually I am technically "included." If you search for my exact url like this [mysitehere.com...] then my index page will show up as the very last result. That's the only one it shows up for though and it used to be top position for all of my keywords. It's so weird and nobody has any answers.
INK claims that there are no penalties assesed, but there are. And I know it. My index.htm page is my front page (that's where you go when you go to www.mysitehere.com.

Has anyone else heard of something like this happening before to them? I honestly have no idea what in the world happened, but I am scared for INK to hit Yahoo. It's going to kill me, and I have no way to figure out why in the world I was blacklisted.