Google Friendly Redirect?

Noob not sure how to proceed

[jretzer]

I've got a link manager that I'm currently using where the main program is called index.php. I get lots of people going to it directly as well as quite a bit of search traffic to it from Google.

I want to go to a different one (for a variety of reasons). But the main program on this one is called directory.php

If people type in www.example.com/linkdirectory as they are used to doing, they will get nothing, since the new xecutable file is directory.php

Is there a google preferred way to bounce people to the new file name?

Thanks.

[edited by: ciml at 8:23 am (utc) on May 9, 2005]
[edit reason] Examplified [/edit]

[g1smd]

Use a 301 redirect from one to the other.

If using Apache, change the DirectoryIndex entry to reflect the new filename too.

It is always best to link to an index page using just the folder name followed by a trailing / on the URL - don't mention the actual filename at all, let the server decide what it is called, find it and serve it.

[mrMister]

I 301 redirect will cause problems with search engines temporarily after you introduce it so it's not the best solution.

Reconfigure your web server so that directory.php is a default document (in the same way that index.php is).