Changed Our Index Page.

site is listings are all messed up!

[textex]

300+ page site that we add one page of unique content to everyday.

Site has developed into a lot of sections, all with folders of sub sections.

The index page was offering only one product. One the 24th of August we decided to change the index page so that it offers all products offered by site. We moved the old content of the index page to its own folder and section.

On this day we also changed the linkage within the site so that the links poitning to the old index now pointed to the new index section. We also added an entire new section that got its own link on every page of the site.

Here is my issue....thanks for bearing with me so far...

Issue 1:
When we search for our http://www.example.com, we get no results.

However, when we search for site:http://www.example.com, we get all of the pages returned. Some of the pages with few inter-linking are shown as supplemental.

When we search the results of our pages returned, the old version the index page is listed!

Issue 2:
Also, when I search for http://www.examplee.com/innerpages/index.htm, no results are being returned. However, the page is returned when I remove the http:// and search for www.examplee.com/innerpages/index.htm.

Issue 3:
Unlike the above example, please note that the search for www.example.com is not returning any results. I can't seem to get the index page to stand alone no matter what I search for.

Input is appreciated.

[edited by: tedster at 3:14 am (utc) on Sep. 1, 2006]

[g1smd]

Your index pages should be indexed without the index.html part of the URL included.

You should be linking to, and indexed as, purely:

www.domain.com/
www.domain.com/folder/
www.domain.com/folder/another/ etc.

[textex]

So I should change all the links within the site from:

1- www.domain.com
2- www.domain.com/folder/index.htm
3- www.domain.com/folder/another/index.htm

to:

1- www.domain.com/ --someone told me I should always be linking to the home page w/o the slash since all incoming links are linked to the homepage w/o the slash
2- www.domain.com/folder/
3- www.domain.com/folder/another/

Also, some of our folders don't have index pages. Is this problematic?

Thanks!

[g1smd]

Yes, link to www.domain.com/ and to www.domain.com/folder/ etc. Always include the / in the link so that the server does not have to do that one extra redirect step.

You should have an index page in each folder with the navigation for that section of the site on it, and a link back to the root index page and to other section index pages. They help to channel the PageRank around your site.

[textex]

Google has all of the pages indexed as:

www.domain.com/folder/index.htm
www.domain.com/folder/another/index.htm

I am concerned the if I remove the index.htm that google (and the other engines) will have issues with the old links and the new links.

Is this a valid concern?