Canonical URLs

[GregW]

If you put an index.php file in a folder, you can view that page by visiting either:

www.site.com/folder/
www.site.com/folder/index.php

Is this a bad thing? Even if you only link to that page across the site with www.site.com/folder/, can this cause any problems?

If so, what methods can you use for redirecting one URL like this to another?

[Trikkur]

This is a good question. I've always assumed that it was fine, but I know that's not the best way I should of gone about it. Does anyone have any evidence of this mattering?

[CK]

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^.*/index.php
RewriteRule ^(.*)index.php$ /$1 [R=301,L]

That should do it.

The reason for this is so you tell google what instance of the page should be used since there are techinically two versions of the page which are accessible. Although most don't bother, it is good idea so you don't have to worry about the index.php from ever getting indexed. It's no different than your homepage. You dont want to have more than one version of your homepage indexed, likewise you don't want to have more than one version of any page on your site indexed.

[Unknown Webmaster]

Edit: What Kaus said

I have read numerous accounts of people having had problems because you could access the same page at more than one URL. Most of it seems to have been caused by people linking to different addresses for the same page - but it is some time ago, so it may not happen any more. However, I think it is best to make sure that your pages can only be accessed at 1 URL and have the other ones redirect to that.

This should be fairly easy to do with .htaccess, however, I'm not good friends with that thing, so I hope that someone else chips in with the code.

[CK]

Most of it seems to have been caused by people linking to different addresses for the same page - but it is some time ago, so it may not happen any more.

I don't think thats true. I think if the files are still accessible in different formats then you run the risk of google choosing which way it indexs the page.

[Trikkur]

TY Kaus

[GregW]

Thanks Cheryle, that's perfect!

[Ozpoker]

This has botherred me for sometime - but if I use your code Kaus and have a multi-level site it defaults back to the top level.

So if you got xxx.com/index.php and xxx.com/abc/index.php, how do you get that to default to both main domains over multi-levels?




....and really, shouldn't Google be clever enough now to know that xxx.com/index.php is the same as xxx.com/ ?

[sipka]

....and really, shouldn't Google be clever enough now to know that xxx.com/index.php is the same as xxx.com/ ?

Not really, as you could have there index.html, index.php etc. and each could have different content it is just your server's setting that which version is the default, so it is better to tell explicitly to google with a 301 redirect that index.php equals the site root and Google has to take it as the "/", so you can avoid duplicate content and link juice and PR pass correctly to the "/" and it is not divided to 2 instances of the same page.

[CK]

This has botherred me for sometime - but if I use your code Kaus and have a multi-level site it defaults back to the top level.

So if you got xxx.com/index.php and xxx.com/abc/index.php, how do you get that to default to both main domains over multi-levels?

Thats a totally different rule than your other one. This is the rule to rewrite your page to www or non www and will also play into how you want the last bit indexed..either / or /index.php

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^example.com
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Theone that I posted works to redirect the index.php to the parent file only. Try it..youll see what I mean and for information on what the symbols do if you want to understand it better there is a good description here

Redirect incomming links with .htaccess to prevent duplicate content penalties - enarion.net

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^.*/index.php
RewriteRule ^(.*)index.php$ /$1 [R=301,L]

....and really, shouldn't Google be clever enough now to know that xxx.com/index.php is the same as xxx.com/ ?

As far as google knowing its the same ...well its not the same. Those are two totally different urls which access the same information.