How to redirect index.htm (IIS server, windows hosting) to index.php (Apache server, Linux Hosting) ?

[GovindIRC]

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[FedeEinhorn]

You will need to put a 301 redirect to the new page, and within the new page set the canonical tag to that page.

Be careful on setting the canonical tag. If your Website will serve that page when you go to example.com, the canonical of the index should be that domain (without the index.php), otherwise, example.com and example.com/index.php will have duplicate content.

As a plus, point your "Home" links to the domain and not to the index.php, that is:

Home NOT Home.

Hope that helps!

[GovindIRC]

This post is deleted!

[FedeEinhorn]

Use htaccess to put permanent redirects on specific pages / domains:

<code>Redirect 301 /index.html http://www.yoursite.com/index.php

OR BETTER YET:</code> 

<code>Redirect 301 /index.html http://www.yoursite.com/</code>

[GovindIRC]

This post is deleted!

[FedeEinhorn]

1. In internet services manager, right click on the file or folder you wish to redirect.
2. Select "a redirection to a URL".
3. Enter the redirection page.
4. Check "The exact url entered above", and the "A permanent redirection for this resource".
5. Click "Apply".

More info here: http://www.iis.net/configreference/system.webserver/httpredirect

[GovindIRC]

This post is deleted!

[Cyrus-Shepard]

If you don't have the authority to access IIS, then your options are indeed limited.

But, it may not matter. If it's the homepage root, your homepage may get all the credit for the link equity (including pagerank) instead of the individual file.

For example, depending on how people link to you, the authority may actually life on example.com instead of example.com/index.htm.

If it were me, I'd likely place both a meta refresh and a canonical tag in the .htm file

You may want to add a 10 second delay to the meta refresh, with a message to the user that they are being redirected (you can Google how to do this). This will help prevent Google from interpreting the meta refresh as a sneaky redirect.

Not a perfect solution, but perhaps the best under the circumstances!