index.html as homepage - is this possible?

Hi,

Thanks for being our customer!

The index.html file is generated automatically after exporting from Nicepage to HTML. The index file has the same content as the homepage. Nicepage generates the index file because some hosting providers require it. Unfortunately, it is not possible to disable the generating of the index file. We also removed the possibility of naming pages as index.

The index file is needed for reaching a site in this way: yoursite.com. Without the index file, it is impossible. So, basically, the index page is the homepage.

Let us know if you have any further questions!
...................................................
Sincerely,
Paul C.
Nicepage Support Team

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Hello,

"Nicepage generates the index file because some hosting providers require it."

I have never found a provider that doesn't require an index.html or index.htm file.

I think I may have been misunderstood. I understand fully what an index file is and why we need it. I don't want to remove the index.html file that is generated. And I understand that the index file has the same content as the homepage.

What I want to do is set the index file as the homepage and eliminate the need for 2 identical HTML files. Having 2 identical files as the homepage is not standard practice, and bad for SEO. And to be honest, I have never used an editor that forces me to use anything other than index as the homepage. (For example, the default homepage in WordPress is index.html)

index.html = homepage has been standard practice for years and I would really like to understand why exactly Nicepage uses this non-standard approach. Is there a reason behind this?

Please consider this as a feature request: Give users the option to name their homepage index.html. From what I can see here in the forum, it seems that I am not the only one who would like to see this.

Nicepage has a lot of great and unique features! Just some of the "best practice" things need to be thought about.

Thank you for considering this!

Hi,

Thank you for your comments, we will take them into our consideration. Feel free to contact us if you have any further questions!
...................................................
Sincerely,
Paul C.
Nicepage Support Team

Please subscribe to our YouTube channel: http://youtube.com/nicepage?sub_confirmation=1
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I personally think that Nicepage is handling this backward. The industry standard is that the home page is index.html.In my experience, home pages named home.html is a canned, cookie-cutter, web hosting way of thinking. I personally think index.html should be the default and Nicepage users should have two options (1) to use home.html instead of index.html or (2) have the software generate home.html in addition to the default index.html. I feel that software that has so much customization should not be so limiting on such an important page of a website.

I personally think that Nicepage is handling this backward. The industry standard is that the home page is index.html.In my experience, home pages named home.html is a canned, cookie-cutter, web hosting way of thinking. I personally think index.html should be the default and Nicepage users should have two options (1) to use home.html instead of index.html or (2) have the software generate home.html in addition to the default index.html. I feel that software that has so much customization should not be so limiting on such an important page of a website.

NicePage manages and creates both files. However, there are people/users who don't like this. Maybe they would like to rewrite the rules of the Internet? Having both files is the only correct solution to be able to run the site on different hosting systems. If someone doesn't like this they can safely go through ftp and delete what they don't need. Creating unnecessary discussions only wastes time.

Maybe they would like to rewrite the rules of the internet?

? Hmmm. I can only share my own personal experience: I have been building websites since 1996, and I have never (not even once) had a client or a project where the homepage was named something other than index.html, index.php, index.htm, etc. If one googles this topic, one will find lots of information as to why this has been the standard naming convention for a domains homepage since the beginning.

Here are just a few of the reasons why this is so:
1. index.html is the default file that the server delivers if no filename is included in the URL. So if a person types "www.mycompany.com", without adding xxx.html to the end of the URL, the server will automatically deliver the index.html file. Any other name would mean that the URL would have to be "www.mycompany.com/xxx.html". Ever wonder why a company just writes "visit www.mycompany.com" in their advertising, leaving off the "xxx.html" at the end?

Of course a web server can be configured to recognize any file you want as the default for that site. That being the case, it's still a good idea to stick with index.html or index.htm because it is immediately recognized on most servers without any additional configuration needed.

2.Having 2 homepages with different filenames is bad for SEO. Of course, Nicepage provides an index.html file when exporting. But it also provides a homepage with another name. AND the link to your company logo in the navigation is linked to the page name, and not to index.html. So even if you advertise your site with "www.mycompany.com", which would deliver index.html, as soon as a visitor clicks on your logo in the navi, the page retrieves a homepage file with a completely different name. So any SEO you build will get messed up. When a page is indexed by a search engine, 2 identical homepages with different filenames is considered duplicate content and the 2 will effectively be competing against each other. There is a lot of info about this on the web.

3.Ever wondered why WordPress uses index.php as its default homepage? Because it's the standard, has been for years.

Creating unnecessary discussions only wastes time.

Who's time are we wasting? Not to sure what is meant here. If you mean that it's irrelevant, I have to disagree. This is so basic, and I hope that it will be addressed by the developers.

Side note: I wonder what nicepage.com uses as it's default homepage name? It seems that that most of their URLs are using a default filename. That way, they can write URLs like "nicepage.com/features"

Last edited 12 December 2022 by rocket77