Homepage Vs /index.php

**Wooly Worcester** · 10-14-2011 07:57 PM

Hello, sorry about this. A very basic question and I can't get my head around it.

I have a website with the following urls:

mysite.com

mysite.com/index.php

The content is exactly the same, what is the difference? Are they two separate pages? When carrying out SEO which one should I point to?

Thanks in advance.

**fastreplies** · 10-14-2011 08:10 PM

If root of your site doesn't have index.html in it then index.php is taking over and displays you home page.

Algo reads both .html and .php as the same in this case thus as far as SEO is concerned you don't need to use /index.php to point to your home page.

fastreplies

**wasaweb** · 10-14-2011 08:33 PM

I'd stick with one version, either just domain-name or domain-name/index.php, and add <link rel="canonical" href=" ... "> in the <head> ... </head>, so that the page is canonicalized. Otherwise, search engines sometimes look for both versions of the page (especially if there are links to both versions).

**fastreplies** · 10-14-2011 10:00 PM

Originally Posted by wasaweb

Otherwise, search engines sometimes look for both versions of the page (especially if there are links to both versions).

Use your logic.

There is no 2 versions if there is no index.html present.
In this case adding /index.php is like adding another Doctor to Dr. Goodman/Doctor.

Does it make any sense to you?

fastreplies

**wasaweb** · 10-14-2011 10:14 PM

Version was not a well-chosen word, but both domain-name and domain-name/index.html used to turn up on my Google WMT / Yahoo Site Explorer as separate URIs, each with incoming links, before canonicalization. Let's put it this way: even if makes no difference practically, surely there is no harm in making one URI canonical, just to be on the safe side.

**fastreplies** · 10-14-2011 10:26 PM

Originally Posted by wasaweb

even if makes no difference practically, surely there is no harm in making one URI canonical, just to be on the safe side.

Granted, you can do that but the question is if that somehow might harm SERP
and from my own experiences it doesn't. Better yet Algo grabs both versions of
Code and places in SERP sometimes 4 - 6 pages apart. What's wrong with that?

fastreplies

**wasaweb** · 10-14-2011 10:40 PM

Would it not be better to have one result higher up in the SERPs by combining incoming links to two URIs into one, rather than having two results lower down?

**fastreplies** · 10-14-2011 11:49 PM

Originally Posted by wasaweb

Would it not be better to have one result higher up in the SERPs by combining incoming links to two URIs into one, rather than having two results lower down?

Nonsense and I have fact to prove it.
Google for: coolest web directories and look for www.qoolest.com on page #1

Now, you are looking at index.php page.
Any questions?

fastreplies

**ascotech** · 10-15-2011 12:37 AM

it looks like fastreplies won this round.

good job fastrepleis.

**wasaweb** · 10-15-2011 12:48 AM

For canonicalization, the file extension, such as php or html, doesn't matter.

It is merely a question of pointing out to search engines which of the multiple URIs pointing to the same file ought to be seen as canonical. Let's say there is a page called index.extension, which is what someone sees when he or she types in domain-name or domain-name/index.extension. As mentioned earlier, search engines sometimes treat domain-name and domain-name/index.extension as two separate URIs (despite the fact that they point to the same file), as evidenced in Google WMT and Yahoo! Site Explorer backlinks data.

By, for example, adding <link rel="canonical" href="domain-name"> in index.extension file, which makes domain-name the canonical URI, then that combines incoming links to both domain-name and domain-name/index.extension for domain-name, and it also reduces the possibility of duplicate results appearing in SERPs.

Arguably, canonicalization is much more important for sites that use session IDs or parameters on their pages heavily, but I'd maintain that there's no harm in doing it for the home page.