"Index(ing)" Your Preffered URL

http://website.com
http://www.website.com
http://www.website.com/index.html

What do these three links have in common? They're all the same page! But not to search engines.....

Search engines see these three links as unique pages. Why? I have no idea. But it's true, and if you're not carefull, you could end up with some funky indexing.

Most web owners want the second example to show up as their main address. This is the easiest one to remember, and is the standard "home page" url. In order to avoid search engines from indexing your home page as one, two, or even three different url's, 301 re-directs are key. For a quick tutorial, visit http://www.tamingthebeast.net/articles3/spiders-301-redirect.htm
The first re-direct you need to create is
http://www.website.com/index.html to http://www.website.com
The second, redirect you'll need to create is http://www.website.com to http://www.website.com

Learning how to do 301 redirects is a little complicated, but it is ABSOLUTELY necessary if you want the search engines to index your website correctly, and therefore worth the effort.