directory vs. /index.html page

[todd@idestdesign.com]

Hello,

I have question about the following information from "http://www.seo-uncovered.com/links/internal.htm" -

"Search engines see http://www.seo-uncovered.com/ and http://www.seo-uncovered.com/index.htm as different pages. Most external links will be to the first one, so use that link instead of index.htm for all internal and external links to your index page. This way the points won't be devided between the pages".

Question - is this true?

If so, then the same goes for all internal pages. So, for instance, Google currently shows www.company.com/product#1 as the indexed "page", therefore, I would be diluting PageRank if my internal links were using www.company.com/product#1/index.html - correct?

thanks,
TW

[jocelyn]

[QUOTE=todd@idestdesign.com]If so, then the same goes for all internal pages. So, for instance, Google currently shows www.company.com/product#1 as the indexed "page", therefore, I would be diluting PageRank if my internal links were using www.company.com/product#1/index.html - correct?[/QUOTE]
This would be correct yes.
You don't link to index.html ... you link to the domain or directory.

[seo guy]

Thats a great question Todd, and yes it is true that there is a difference between domain.com and domain.com/index.whatever

So you should use an absolute link where possible when linking to your homepage from your internal pages, that way your internal and external links match up.

However usually for your internal pages such as www.company.com/product#1/index.html it really doesnt matter which you choose be they absolute or reletive because the only one linking to those page is you from other pages, so the only thing to consider is consistency, I like reletive just because its less code on the page albiet very little, but if you pick one or the other you should be fine

[todd@idestdesign.com]

Thanks JOC and SEOGUY for the replies.

However, SEO GUY - what you said sort of confused me, as it conflicts with JOCs more straightforward answer. I don't mean to beat a dead horse here - I am just making sure that what I am thinking is FULLY correct or wrong.
(And, I am new to the forum and don't see yet how to insert a quote, so sorry about the format below....).

SEOGUY - you wrote - "However usually for your internal pages such as www.company.com/product#1/index.html it really doesnt matter...."

Really??

So, not to repeat myself - but if Google has www.company.com/product#1 as the indexed URL for that product page, but I am using www.company.com/product#1/index.html for internal links to that page, you are saying that you don’t think that I am diluting PR for www.company.com/product#1 by doing that?

You also wrote - "because the only one linking to those page is you from other pages"

That comment seems wrong to me because it does not take into account the sites who are linked to those pages. And, I would think it does matter from this angle as well, because these sites could link using either www.company.com/product#1 or www.company.com/product#1/index.html to link to that product page - again, splitting PR.

Thanks in advance for any reply.

TW

[eCommando]

For links to product pages, i usually use the actual file name.
But for the home page for domain, I use just the domain name without the actual name.

[disgust]

whatever you use, always be consistant

if you want to use http://domain.com, that's fine, but make sure you use it ALL the time

[Cyber-SEO]

Also remember that google is case sensative, at one point i had a page called "Something_something.html" which was cashed by google. Then i added a backlink to that page on all my pages but linking to it like this: something_something.html when the page got cashed i had to versions one called "Something_something.html" and the other called "something_something.html"