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If you are interested in installing a WordPress on to an MS IIS Server, due to the nature of shared server solution, sometime it can be impossible to get server root access, in order to enable a page for example index.php to be displayed as default as opposed to index.asp

For : MS-IIS/7.0 and the Web.Config file.

Alternatively: MS-IIS/6.0 or below using RDC server access.

Log in to your MS-IIS then
1) Select website on left navigation menu.
2) Right click on directory e.g. “articles” and select Properties.
3) Select Document tab.
4) Click on Add and type “index.php” into dialogue box, done.

This will enable .php pages to load as a default content page. With regard to the Web.Config file, as far as I am aware this only works in IIS7 with the ‘go live’ version of the rewrite functionality this should be included with all 2008 server setups from now on.

SEO Programmer
Vipul

If you have ever come across a dynamic website, you may have noticed not many of them use SEO friendly URLs. You will see URLs like this:

http://www.domain-name.com/friendlyurl.php?id=6&cat=productname

These URLs are complex and not very user friendly and although search engines can crawl these dynamic pages they are, in most cases, not relevant to the pages they display. They can also pose a security risk as hackers can perform front door query string injection attacks on the site. SEO friendly URLs contain human-readable and easy-to-remember names such as:

http://www.domain-name/friendlyurl.php

these seo friendly URLs can be accomplished by using mod_rewrite for Apache or ISAPI filters for IIS, depending on which server platform you are using. The implementation of Apache mod_rewrite is fairly simple to do by placing the code in a .htaccess file on the root of the server. For example, the above URLs would have the mod_rewrite rule of:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^([^/\.]+)/([^/\.]+)/?$ / friendlyurl.php? ?id=6&cat=productname [L]

This tells the Apache server to read the URL and remove the query string (everything after the?) from the URL. This is all done server-side so the search engines only read the friendly version of the URL allowing for better website usability, relevance and page validation.

Using the same method on an IIS server will not work as IIS servers do not support mod_rewrite, but they do have the next best thing “ISAPI filter” plug-ins. These filters are DLL (dynamic link libraries) written in c# or vb.net and can be applied to all windows based server platforms using the “internet services manager”. These filters can perform the same functions as .htaccess for example mod_rewrite, 301 redirects etc.

I personally like using ISAPI filters as I find them easy to use and implement. The only downside to using these filters is quite a lot of them are commercial, whereas using mod_rewrite on Apache is free and open source.

Adam Wood
SEO Programmer