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Melvinivitch

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SEO: Using .htaccess to redirect www-root directory to www/home/

I want to know if the following is terrible or not with respect to SEO:

I have a small-site, structured in a pretty standard way: each page has its own directory off of the www root directory. I have a navigation bar file (located at the www root) that I include via php-includes on each page. My directory structure makes the nav-bar's references nice and simple. I have these pages:
www/home/index.php
www/about/index.php
www/contact/index.php

My nav-bar file looks like this:
<a href="../home/index.php">Home</a>
<a href="../about/index.php">About</a>
<a href="../contact/index.php">Contact Us</a>

Then I just use a <?php include("../navBar.php"); ?> statement on each page to include my nav-bar.

But when someone navigates to http://www.mydomain.com/ , I need them to end up at www/home/index.php. So, at the root of the site (ie, the www directory), I have a .htaccess file that redirects to the home directory via the following line:
DirectoryIndex ./home/index.php

So what are the implications of that design with respect to search-engine friendliness?
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humeniuk
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In terms of SEO, the proper way to do it is to make sure that you are using a permanent/301 redirect to redirect to your desired home directory/page.
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Melvinivitch

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Ok, I'll do that.

Just curious, though - what are the ramifications of doing it the way I outlined above?
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humeniuk
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