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J
jimleftwich
Inspiring
May 16, 2019
Question

Placement of Index File

  • May 16, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 1593 views

I've uploaded my local files to the remote server.  However, I can't get the site to appear in search engines.  In Google Chrome it doesn't show at all; in Bing it shows a list of the files.  I think my index file is not in the right place in the remote files, but I don't know where it's supposed to go.  Does it need to go right below the public_html at the top, or where?  I know the site works as I had it up in the past, then took the remote files down.  Any suggestions would be appreciated.  Jim

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2 replies

B i r n o u
B i r n o u
Legend
May 16, 2019

Jon is right but as you talk about public_html... does this mean that you see this folder on your tree ?

J
jimleftwichAuthor
Inspiring
May 16, 2019

Yes, I know my root folder is public_html.  I know that in the past when

I uploaded local files to remote, the index file wound up in the right

place.  What about if I delete the index file in the remote files, then

upload from local files just the index file?  Think it would go to the

right place?

Jim

Jon Fritz
Community Expert
Jon FritzCommunity Expert
Community Expert
May 16, 2019

All of your website's files need to be within the root folder on the server. The index page needs to be within that root folder level, something like...

public_html

     index.html

     pages

          page2.html

          page3.html

     images

          image1.html

          image2.html

If the index page is not in the root directory, it won't work....

public_html

     website <- or any other folder

          index.html

          pages

          images

If you've accidentally duplicated public_html in your local files (which is what Birnou is hinting at) it also won't work. You should not see "public_html" in your local Files window.

If you could post a screenshot of your Expanded Files window in DW, showing Local and Remote folder structures, that could help rule that out.

Jon Fritz
Community Expert
Jon FritzCommunity Expert
Community Expert
May 16, 2019

Ask your hosting company what your root folder is.

Normally it's going to be "htdocs", "public_html" or "www" but could technically be anything.

You also need to make sure you use a valid page name for your home page. The most common are index.html and default.html (or .php, .shtml, etc). If you named your home page "homepage.html" there's a high likelihood it won't work because the server won't recognize it as a valid name.

Once you know your root folder, and have your home page saved with a valid name, all you should need to do is upload it to the folder and the server does the rest. If the browser is still showing the files list (it really never should do that because Directory Browsing should be turned off) you'll need to talk to your hosting company because something isn't set up correctly at the server level.

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