Is index.html necessary?

Apart from "home" page?

[martinibuster]

1)It was my understanding that servers will by default seek the "index" page within any directory.

2)It was my understanding that a clean directory structure resembled:
/products/widgets/index.html.

Yet Adobe's web site uses a directory structure like this:
/products/photoshop/newfeatures.html

My questions: Does using about.html or bluewidget.html place additional strain on the server?
Does it slow a server's ability to fetch your page?

Does the above practice leave open a remote possibility that your server may not find your page?

Thanks!

[PsychoTekk]

if you change the default-index-page via .htaccess
(for example "DirectoryIndex index.php"),
the loading time won't be affected that much because it's just a line
in a file that will be read by the server anyway (if the .htaccess file exists).

<added>
you can also do this
"DirectoryIndex index.php index2.html"
in case index.php is not found, index2.html will be fetched

[richlowe]

Both IIS and Apache (and presumably the other, less known server systems) have the ability to change the default document. and no, it does not effect load time in any significant way. There is no downside to changing the default document, unless you have someone who has indexed or hardcoded index.html or whatever. In that case, you might want to redirect that traffic to the new document.

Richard Lowe

[Gene]

There may be one good reason for using index.html or default.html

Some servers are configured such that if you enter a URL ending with only the subdirectory's name, and there isn't an index.html file in that directory, then the browser will display a file listing of the entire contents of that directory for all the world to see!

You might want to give it a test on your site.

[papabaer]

Good point Gene! I've seen plenty examples of that... Not a pretty sight for some sites! ;)

[dcheney]

On a related side note: I'd strongly suggest having a default file (index.html or whatever) for each directory. If I get a 404 following a link on a search engine, first thing I'm going to try is to strip off the filename to see if I can find the same info (assuming they renamed the file).

[PsychoTekk]

Some servers are configured such that if you enter a URL ending with only the subdirectory's name...

that's exactly what DirectoryIndex in .htaccess does: it defines the default
directory file(s) to fetch. most servers use index.html as default, it's just that
one can change the name of the defaultfile and name additional files that will be
fetched if the first file does not exist

[SmallTime]

Some naming strategies may be more related to corporate culture and organization than seo or server performance. One might also think about keyword/theme issues - blue_widgets.html might be more helpful than index.html, but not sure how it would affect page rank inheritance.
You can turn indexing off, which may be desirable in some circumstances (frustrating those who chop urls if you don't have a default page, but good if you would rather folks navigated otherwise)

[martinibuster]

Gene,
You hit it on the head! I learned that in Dreamweaver 101 but forgot it. Thanks!

[Reflect]

Some servers are configured such that if you enter a URL ending with only the
subdirectory's name, and there isn't an index.html file in that directory, then the browser will display a file listing of the entire contents of that directory for all the world to see!

If you can do this on your site have the host "disable directory browsing" or do it from your control panel if on Windows platform.

Brian

[volatilegx]

Some servers are configured such that if you enter a URL ending with only the
subdirectory's name, and there isn't an index.html file in that directory, then the browser will display a file listing of the entire contents of that directory for all the world to see!

You can turn off this behaviour by putting this line in a .htaccess file (Apache server):

Options -Indexes

[Purple Martin]

What about using an index.htm file that auto-redirects to the homepage - is that OK? Obvously it would use JavaScript and the onLoad event, so you'd also need a link for people to click if they have JavaScript turned off, but there are more issues here:

1. Do SEs dislike this practise?

2. Should I put my meta tags in index.htm or in the homepage it redirects to?