301 from /index.html to /

Forum Moderators: phranque

Message Too Old, No Replies

301 from /index.html to /

301 redirect - check for 404's

longen

3:45 pm on Sep 29, 2006 (gmt 0)

Recent many of us, to prevent duplicate data problems, have redirected /index.htm and /index.html to domain.com/

I've found that where i have other html pages with "index" in the url - such as "/abc-index.htm" - all those pages have gone 404 because they are redirected to "/abc-"
The "index" part gets stripped out by the 301 redirect.

You need to check your server logs, or run a link checker, if you think you might have 404's from this condition.

Quadrille

6:17 pm on Oct 1, 2006 (gmt 0)

That only happens if your 301 is not specific enough; if you are redirecting one specific URL, the 301 must say so, and no others will be affected.

In practice, you rarely need to 301 from "index.htm" to "/" ... just be sure all your internal links do not mention index.htm

Search and replace /index.htm with / ... that will sort out the problem without needing a 301, and without touching others.

Check your site with xenu for any navigation errors.

But it's always good to have a user-friendly 404 page.