do I redirect sinclairsgully.com/index.html to sinclairsgully.com/index.php?
Just as ‘sinclairsgully.com/’ currently lands at and runs from ‘sinclairsgully.com/index.html’ automatically, WordPress .htaccess will automatically direct ‘sinclairsgully.com/’ to ‘sinclairsgully.com/index.php’ without having to specify the file in the browser address bar.
# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress
https://codex.wordpress.org/htaccess
2 will this redirect keep Google page rank…
3 regarding the other pages do I need to keep the same page titles i.e. about us.html to about us.php or could I change this to about our winery.php?
WordPress uses slugs for URLs — oursite.com/about-us/ — and then page titles can either match or be different…but I do not know the precise answers as to how search engines index URLs and/or the screen-displayed titles of their respective pages. In my own case, I occasionally edit page titles but never change URL slugs and I have always assumed that is fine. Overall, here is far more than I happen to know on this subject:
http://www.internetmarketingninjas.com/blog/search-engine-optimization/301-redirects/
hi thanks for your email. I am a bit wary htaccess file and would prefer to use the plugin redirection to redirect. I know the index.html url but I am not sure what I would put in to redirect i.e. sinclairsgully.com/index.php or simply sinclairsgully.com/ or does it make a difference? Thanks again for your response. ciao
I am a bit wary htaccess file and would prefer to use the plugin redirection to redirect.
The choice is yours, of course, but htaccess adds no overheard and is the best way overall. And, I would suspect a redirect plugin is going to write htaccess anyway. And probably the best way to cover all of that is by using the BulletProof Security plugin since you need to be “hardening WordPress” anyway.
https://www.google.com/search?q=hardening+wordpress
I know the index.html url but I am not sure what I would put in to redirect i.e. sinclairsgully.com/index.php or simply sinclairsgully.com/ or does it make a difference?
The next-to-last line of WordPress .htaccess simply sends your domain to where WordPress begins.
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
