.htaccess prevent subdirectory browsing and update URL in browser

Question

I'm trying to prevent browsing of files in a subdirectory by displaying a specific page, at the same time as preventing duplicate content on two URLs.

I have several files in a subdirectory, for example:

www.example.com/subfolderA/pageone.html

www.example.com/subfolderA/pagetwo.html

www.example.com/subfolderA/pagethree.html etc

I do not want users to access the subdirectory itself ( www.example.com/subfolderA/ ) and see a list of all the files. Instead I would like them to be directed to a specific page (that isn't necessarily called "index.html"), let's say pageone.html .

I have put the following in a .htaccess file within that subdirectory:

DirectoryIndex pageone.html

Whilst this prevents browsing of files and shows my desired page, it results in duplicate pages appearing in search engines.

www.example.com/subfolderA/ and www.example.com/subfolderA/pageone.html

How can I also ensure that the subdirectory itself doesn't get indexed by the search engines - ie always update the URL in the browser to www.example.com/subfolderA/pageone.html ?

Also is this the best solution to meet my requirement?

Any help appreciated.

Thanks.

Answer 1

To remove duplicate pages you can have this rule in /subfolderA/.htaccess :

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /subfolderA/

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} (/subfolderA)/?[?\s] [NC]
RewriteRule ^$ %1/pageone.html [L,R=301]