Page Rank for Directory vs. File

Will Page Rank Split?

[riospace]

Will it split my Page Rank if I have some internal and external links that point to a particular directory (example.com/directory/) and some links that point to the actual file (example.com/directory/index.html)? I unfortunately have this linking inconsistency throughout my site at the moment and I was worried about diluting my Page Ranks.

[trinorthlighting]

You need to do a 301 redirect to either the directory or to the directory/index.html

Otherwise, google will see it as two different pages and slam you in the duplicate content filter or make both pages supplemental.

[F_Rose]

We had 2 url's pointing to the same page w/o a 301 redirect and Google put both pages into supplemental.

We have finally 301 redirected our pages, now how do we get Google to index our supplemental page and get us into thier regular index?

[trinorthlighting]

It will take some time. Sometimes pages in the supplemental index will stay there for up to a year.

[F_Rose]

Don't get it..

If my page has gone supplemental, thier is no way of getting it into Google's reg. database?

[trinorthlighting]

It has been suggested by google to get more links to get a page out of the supplemental. Try internal links first. It will just take time.

[F_Rose]

We've got internal links within our site..

We are now working on getting quality links to our supplemental pages.

Hope that helps..

[edited by: F_Rose at 3:33 pm (utc) on Nov. 15, 2006]

[edited by: tedster at 4:40 pm (utc) on Nov. 15, 2006]

[riospace]

I placed the following code in my .htaccess file. Will this solve my problem with some links pointing to example.com/directory/ and some pointing to example.com/directory/index.html as far as Page Rank goes? I hope so. This code confuses me as to how it will work with Page Rank and search engines in general. I have the understanding that the following code will take care of all of the problems with split directory and file links. Do I still need to have all the links pointing to either the directory or the file or is it true that it does not matter with this code?

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /([^/]*/)*index\.(html?Šphp)\ HTTP/
RewriteRule ^(([^/]*/)*)index\.(html?Šphp)$ [www\.example\.com...] [R=301,L]

[Halfdeck]

This is one of the reasons why I prefer /directory/keyword.html to /directory/keyword/.

[g1smd]

Every folder should have an index page for users that "back up a few levels" to quickly get to another part of your site.

[g1smd]

Yes, that .htaccess code works for all index pages in all folders. It "corrects" for index.html and index.htm and index.php to all redirect to "/".

Your measure of success is for the "/" URL to return to the main index within a few months.

The named files will likely remain as Supplemental URLs for a year. They will not be classed as duplicate content. You cannot remove them. Just enjoy the fact that for some searches your site will return two results in the SERPs, increasing the chance that someone visits your site.

I am aware of a site where "/" (normal result) ranks at #1 and "/index.html" (supplemental) ranks at #5.