Duplicate content issue

[digitalkiddie]

Hello,

I got duplicate content issue on my home page :

examplesite.com
examplesite.com/index.html

Those page urls are with duplicate content.

If  in index.html i use 301 redirect like that :

Header( "HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently" );
Header( "Location: http://examplesite.com" );
?>

would i loose any page authority  ?

sorry for the newbie question

[irvingw]

It must be done! You need to figure out which page has more PR by using Google PR Tool and SeoMoz PA Tool and I would 301 redirect the page with less PA/PR into the page with the higher PA/PR. If both pages are relatively equal, i would drop the index.html if all pages that link to the home page internally will also drop the index.html from their link. Also, you need to review what your best external links out there and see which version of the home page they are linking to to make this decision. The combined PR/PA of the two home pages should be greater then any one individual home page but a 301 doesn't always carry over all the page juice.