Best way to temporarily change index page

DirectoryIndex or 302 entry

[jimbeetle]

I'm currently designing a site that will have multiple sections for different flavors of widgets. Sections will go up one at a time.

After the first section is ready and until additional sections go up, I'd like visitors to go directly to "orange-widget/index.htm".

What's the best way to handle this in .htaccess, by DirectoryIndex or by a 302 entry?

Thanks,

Jim

[DaveAtIFG]

Obviously it will make no difference to users but SE's must always be considered. If you expect to add new sections weekly over a month or two, the 302 would probably be a better choice, in effect telling SEs don't index this yet, although it's not clear that's how they will react... If you expect the project to take substantially longer and rankings during the project are important while building, a 301 would be better I think.

IMHO, a much better overall approach would be to put up "all-widgets-home-page" and the "orange-widget/index.htm" section at the same time so site rankings and PR can be built as the project progresses. Design the home page to be expandable as sections are added, or consider a temporary home page. May not be an option though.

DirectoryIndex will return a 200 code and every time you point it to a different page or section, you'll be starting over with the SEs.

[jimbeetle]

Thanks DaveAtIFG,

Those are exactly the pitfalls I was worried about. Guess I'll have to go with the "all-widgets-home-page" and the "orange-widget/index.htm" route in order not to confuse any of the SEs. It's more different content to build upfront but I can always move pieces to the orange widgets section as I add other section blurbs on the home page. And it give me some deep linking options starting out also.

Jim