Index Files

Hi, been a while since I was last on here, but struggling to find information regarding what I need, so help with this would be appreciated.

Obviously I know the basics, create a site, upload and publish to host. Simples.

however, in the folder can I create subfolders, for example I will call them NEW and NEWER.

Then, can I upload single files (pages) from a template without creating the index? For example NewPage.html and publish that to the NEW folder, reachable from the main site? I presume the search bar would read examplesite.com/NEW/NewPage.html (Please note this is not an actual site, it is purely for the question)


and from that would search engines crawl and index that single page?

In a previous web life I used to create the site, and then create mini sites in the subfolders, so I always had an index page for single pages.

I intend the main site to link to these single pages, and the single pages to link back so all are accessible? I just want the main page to be as streamlined as possible?



thanks.

Yes. I have done what you are proposing with the slight exception of the naming of the files.

In my case, I made 4 different, independent small sites that linked between each other. The 'main' site (page) was uploaded to public_html as per normal, the other sites were uploaded to public_html/name1, public_html/name2 etc. Each site had an index.html and a public_html_files folder. Although I didn't set any seo strategies (or even have a site description), the sub folder sites were indeed indexed by the search engine bots.

Hi chrism, thanks for the quick response.

The way you describe it is, I think, the way I described the mini-sites, all within their own folders inside the main upload folder. just to clarify what you are suggesting, is to have an index file for all the single pages, but set no seo or named files within the index page (a blank index page?)

sorry if I am being a bit dumb here, but I understand the thinking.

thanks

If you have a main site then ensure its first page is always index.htm(l).
Sub-sites need not have this luxury and can be published into a sub-folder (e.g., subfolder01).

Linking from the main site would have a URL of "subfolder01/page01.htm(l)", assuming you know your structure, you do not need the full URL.
Sub-site to sub-site links are a little trickier. To got to Page 5 on the third sub-site from another sub-site would require "../subfolder03/page05.htm(l)"; the ".." means go up a level (to main) and navigate from there.

This is why I ignore subfolders and publish everything into one level, ensuring no page filename is duplicated. Far simpler as all links are then "page01.htm(l)", "page05.htm(l)", ...
... the ",htm(l)" part is essential as Link to only will display those pages in the current design.

Acorn

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Acorn

If you have a main site then ensure its first page is always index.htm(l).
Sub-sites need not have this luxury and can be published into a sub-folder (e.g., subfolder01).

Linking from the main site would have a URL of "subfolder01/page01.htm(l)", assuming you know your structure, you do not need the full URL.
Sub-site to sub-site links are a little trickier. To got to Page 5 on the third sub-site from another sub-site would require "../subfolder03/page05.htm(l)"; the ".." means go up a level (to main) and navigate from there.

This is why I ignore subfolders and publish everything into one level, ensuring no page filename is duplicated. Far simpler as all links are then "page01.htm(l)", "page05.htm(l)", ...
... the ",htm(l)" part is essential as Link to only will display those pages in the current design.

Acorn

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Hi Acorn,

I believe I have got my head round this,

Ive got a ton of pages to upload, I just wanted the site to be minimal, so..

Uploaded a test site (5 pages),

I then created a few subfolders, then a single page so now the browser reads as examplesite.com/subfolder/pagename.html

I guess I will find out about the second part (Google finding pages) as they are not the biggest thing. what I was doing was trying to find a quick way for me to upload files as I write them without continually loading up big files (even though I can just publish changes). I guess this fear comes from the ol'serif days when suddenly it would corrupt the site and bloat when finding changes.

anyway I have it working, so now just to do it for real on the actual website1

Thanks for replies, helpful here as always :)

If you have lots of pages, splitting into sub-site design files is the safest and most productive approach.

@Xara - site hierarchy soon please.

Acorn

I didn't do the sub-sub folder as I didn't see a reason to do so. I also left each sub folder with it's own index.html, so my links weren't as long.

Main site - mysite.com
Sub site - mysite.com/part1
Sub site - mysite.com/part2
Sub site - mysite.com/completely-different-name

No need to have the file name in the sub/external as browsers automatically pick index.html. If you were linking to Microsoft you wouldn't make the ink microsoft.com/index.html.

Something to consider re using this sub-folder method is that presumably you're going to have a common navbar. Unfortunately using Chris's example above:

Main site - mysite.com/index.htm
Sub site - mysite.com/part1/index.htm
Sub site - mysite.com/part2/index.htm

Each sub-folder will contain it's own index_htm_files folder with their own mouse-off/mouse-over images. These are not common across the total site but unique to each subfolder even though they're identical.

A way to avoid this is to create a dedicated navbar page to load into a placeholder on all the sub-folder pages:

Sub site - navbar/index.htm

The browser will cache the content. This also has the advantage of allowing a single amendment to the navbar sub-folder to go across all subfolders rather than needing to amend each one individually.

Egg, I must confess that I never take navbars into consideration as I never use them, I find them unweildly and more trouble than they're worth. However, I do note that others have said using layers for sub menus more than a single layer deep cause the wheels to fall off the whole thing.

Same applies to the mouseover layer...I'm not really sure what it does, which is a terrible thing to say and I'm so ashamed I'm going to have another Cherry Brandy.

Taking Egg's approach further, I decouple my NavBars from the page entirely and embed with things like:

Quote:

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<object type="text/html" data="index_htm_files/menubar embed.htm" width="100%" height="100%"><iframe src="index_htm_files/menubar embed.htm" width="100%" height="100%" style="border:none;"> I'd give up!</iframe></object>

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The inner IFRAME is just for IE/Edge. The OBJECT does a cleaner job in newer browsers.
The NavBar page does not have (need) HTML, HEAD or BODY tags.

Doing it like this allows simple text editor changes.

Acorn