Subdirectory with no index - can it hurt me in Google?

[cdog863]

Hi,

I was wondering if it can hurt google indexing if i have a sub-directory with no index.

EX: sub-dir/file.html works, but a 404 on sub-dir/.

does anyone have any ideas/experience with this?

[Bewenched]

I have seen in my server logs that google and yahoo will deliberately hit a directory looking for a default page. What I usually do is either 301 redirect to another page, or give it what it's looking for .. a list of the pages in that directory.

Not sure if not having it would cause any problem, I just hate seeing 404's in the logs.