Difference between default.asp and index.asp

does this make a diff for SE

[zyshen]

hi all,
recently i start a new website. Along with the all the great stuff I read here at WW, I think there was someone mentioning that it is good to use directories. such as

/products/white-products/
instead of
/products/white-products/product-list.asp

my question is, somehow, my web host only recgonize default.asp not index.asp
will this make a difference for the SE?

[john_k]

will this make a difference for the SE?

No (unless you don't have a Default.asp!)

"Default.asp" is the out-of-the-box default page for IIS. I think that there are actually three default pages: Default.asp, Default.htm, and Index.html. So when only a directory is specified, IIS will look for these files in the order they are listed. You can add/remove file names and also change the order in the IIS control panel.

So when google requests the resource at "www.example.com/", your server will check that list and return "Default.asp". Since this doesn't involve a redirect, it doesn't really matter to Google what that file is called.

One caveat to all of that occurs if your default file happens to be "index.html" or "index.htm". Apparently Google DOES make an attempt to equate those to your root. So "www.example.com/" and "www.example.com/index.html" are one and the same to Google. I am inferring this from a recent thread concerning a Remove URL snafu with Google. It may be that not all processes at google will equate these.