How it’s used:

Enter a line in your .htaccess file similar to the following:

DirectoryIndex  example.php

Special Notes:  This works with the Apache Web Server and does not work with IIS.  When editing the .htaccess file in a text editor, make sure “text wrapping” or “wrap text” is turned off.  Using “text wrapping” or “wrap text” will cause the .htaccess file to fail.

What it does:

Allows a developer to choose which file to use as the default file when a directory or a web site loads.

Why you should use this property:

Improve Search Engine Optimization:

• Allows a developer to give a meaningful name to a “default“ file.
• Allows a developer to inject keywords into the URL.

Compare the following URLs.

        http://thewidgeturl.com/index.html

        http://thewidgeturl.com/free_widget_downloads.html

The second URL allows the developer to inject keywords (free widget downloads) into the URL to improve search engine optimization.  The second URL’s file name is a better descriptor as compared to the file name, “index.html”.

Better site manageability:

By setting the DirectoryIndex property it allows a developer to control which file loads in a directory or which file is loaded when the web site’s root/homepage is accessed even if a hosting provider changes this property in the web server configuration files.

For example, your hosting provider may allow you to use a file named “index.php” to load when a directory or a web site is loaded.   Think of the following URL, http://thewidgeturl.com. In the root of the website is a file named index.php and this file loads as the homepage.  This works great, but, one day your hosting provider decides to change its policy and changes its web server configuration files to only load files named, index.html or index.htm when a directory or a web site loads.  Now, when a user visits your homepage, the web server looks for the files, index.html or index.htm, the files cannot be found and a 404 error is displayed to every visitor of your homepage – not good.

These are only two of the advantages of using the DirectoryIndex property in .htaccess.  For more information on .htaccess and the DirectoryIndex property visit the Apache website.

Check out all of our articles on search engine optimization and .htaccess

Using the DirectoryIndex property in .htaccess to improve search engine optimization and web site manageability

URL Rewriting with .htaccess and Apache to boost Search Engine Optimization

URL Rewriting with IIS (Internet Information Services)

Search Engine Optimization and 301/Permanent Redirects

 

Filed under: 129 Tips, Coding by admin
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129 Web Design & Marketing recently finished a site for a group of Maine Foreclosure Lawyers who are helping Maine residents keep their homes.

fightformyhome.net

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In one of our recent posts, we wrote about the importance of using URL rewriting. In the post we demonstrated URL rewriting using Apache, Linux, and htaccess. While Apache is a very popular and stable web server, it is important to consider using Microsoft’s web server — IIS (Internet Information Services).

To accomplish URL rewriting in IIS, there are a few options.

• ISAPI Modules.
  • One popular and mature ISAPI product to implement URL Rewriting is ISAPI_Rewrite from Helicon Tech
• Microsoft URL Rewrite module for IIS 7.
  • The URL Rewrite Module provides a rule-based rewriting mechanism for changing URL requests before they get processed by the web server.
• ASP.NET Routing.
  • ASP.NET Routing enables you to use URLs that do not have to map to a specific file in a Web site.
• Content Management Systems.
  • With the release of ektron’s CMS400.net version 7.6, URL Rewriting can be implemented directly through the Content Management System.

Implementing URL Rewriting is definitely worth the work to implement it. Check out some of the previous options for URL Rewriting for IIS.

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129 Web Design & Marketing recently launched the new website for DiscountSimple.com.  A website that works hand-and-hand with many national retailers to bring shoppers to their e-commerce store fronts.

discountsimple.com

The website was created using:

PHP
XHTML
CSS
JavaScript
.htaccess
MySQL
RSS
XML

The website employs URL rewriting and PHP templates.

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URL Rewriting has been around for over a decade and can be seen at your favorite blog or a popular e-commerce website. However, in the last few years it has been widely used as it can be a great boon to Search Engine Optimization. Whether you want to “clean up” a URL or you want to boost search engine rankings by injecting keywords into a URL, URL rewriting is a simple process with .htaccess.

URL rewriting example:

URL rewriting is a great way to give a URL more meaning. Let’s say you have a page with a list of items that are for sale and this list is created dynamically via records from a database. When a user clicks on the link of an item they are brought to a page that has more detail about the item (think of the eBay search listings). Many times the URL will look something like this:

http://someurl.com/sale/index.php?item=iPod-shuffle

With URL rewriting you could turn that ugly link into:

http://someurl.com/sale/product/iPod-shuffle/

or

http://someurl.com/sale/product/iPod-shuffle.htm

Why use URL rewriting:

Using one of the latter examples instead of the original will be a boost to your search ranking because a search engine thinks it sees a static link instead of a dynamic link (which can weigh less in search engine algorithms). Moreover, you are taking important information about the page out of the query string and injecting it into the page section or directory section of the URL.

How do you accomplish URL rewriting?

Here’s a quick example on how to accomplish URL rewriting with .htaccess and Apache using the example above:

Example .htaccess file

Options –MultiViews
Options +FollowSymLinks

RewriteEngine on
RewriteBase /sale/
RewriteRule product/(.*)/ index.aspx?item=$1
RewriteRule product /(.*) index.php?item=$1

This above code will turn URL “A” into URL “B”.

URL A: http://someurl.com/sale/index.php?item=iPod-shuffle

URL B: http://someurl.com/sale/product/iPod-shuffle/

Note, that in this example, the .htaccess file needs to be placed in the /sale directory.

Good luck with URL Rewriting.  Please contact us with any questions or comments.

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