Remove URL tool - index.html

[ModernM]

I just realized the reason my home page doesn't pull up may be due to the fact that google has my site indexed on both index.html and / . The odd thing is that index.html has not existed for months.

When I tried to use the remove URL tool in webmaster tools, it changes the URL to domain.com/ instead of domain.com/index.html. Any ideas?

Cal

[TheMadScientist]

If you use Apache:

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

From jdMorgan, Post #5 in this thread:
Redirect index.html to Root Directory [webmasterworld.com]

[ModernM]

Thanks, the redirect is in place. I more worried about how long it will take for this to be fixed on google. Any idea on how long it will take? Is it just a matter of google bot hitting that page again? Looking at the logs it has tried to hit it about every 2 weeks, each time getting a 404.

Cal

[TheMadScientist]

No, there could be a number of contributing factors. It could be most of your inbound links were directed to /index.html, and all you need is the redirect to 'kick-in' and pass the weight from the links to recover.

It could be a duplicate content issue, which would be resolved in the same manner.

It could also be some other factor not having anything to do with /index.html being indexed. My guess is, it is not a duplicate content issue if it is one of the preceding possibilities, because index.html does not exist.

Is the new page you are serving your root page from indexed also? If so, you should redirect it also:

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

The above would redirect index.htm, index.html & index.php.

Chances are the, unless the issue is loss of inbound links due to index.html being 404ed there is something else to find.

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[edited by: TheMadScientist at 3:56 am (utc) on April 16, 2008]

[ModernM]

I have confirmed it is not inbound links. I have also confirmed it is a duplicate content issue. If I search domain.com/index.html, the site comes up in the index.

Cal

[TheMadScientist]

Interesting.
If that is it, the redirect should clear it up.

I think I remember reading in a thread a while ago where Google was getting better at 'picking a page' to rank as long as the duplicate content was within a single domain.

When you say your 'home page doesn't pull up' what type of search are you doing? Is it a site: ? or do you mean it is not anywhere in any results for any search?

[edited by: TheMadScientist at 4:42 am (utc) on April 16, 2008]

[ModernM]

It will pull up if I use the site: operator. It will not pull up if I search content on the page or the title of the page.

[TheMadScientist]

Thanks, I hope it clears thing up for you.

[Hissingsid]

Hi,

What is the difference between:

[R=permanent,L]

and

[R=301,L]

on Apache 1.3.20?

When I check both forms in a HTTP header checker they both return:

HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently

Cheers

Sid

[TheMadScientist]

The number of characters used in your .htaccess file.

[Hissingsid]

Thanks for that, very helpful.

Sid