Permanent Redirect - Singular Page, Same domain

[UKSEOconsultant]

Hi,

We have changed the structure of our site and we now have two identical index files;

www.example.com/index.html
www.example.com/index1.html

Index1.html is no longer needed, but;

Index1 has a PR4, Index has PR2 so we want to transfer the PR of Index1 to the Index page via a 301 redirect (this will also solve the problem of the exisiting incoming links and search engine listings that currently point to index1).

The question is;

Can this be done by adding code to the index1 html file OR would we need to modify the .htaccess file? (we don't really want to touch the .htaccess file for fear of messing things up).

Many thanks!

[caveman]

Modifying the .htaccess file is the way to go. We do it to our sites all the time. You're right in thinking that you need to be careful, but a simple 301 instruction should be no issue ... and you absolutely don't want to leave the duplicate pages in place.

[UKSEOconsultant]

Thanks Caveman,

The hosting company is saying that they are unwilling to make the 301 redirect through the IIS panel so I've been looking at other alternatives.

Would it work if we put this code on the page that we want dorecting?

<%@ Language=VBScript %>
<%
Response.Status="301 Moved Permanently" Response.AddHeader "Location", " [domain.com...]
>

Many thanks, Lee