How do you make my blog page your "Home Page"? 
Author: L Fiers
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Hey Incomedia and users,
In advanced setting there is a "Blog" tool. I used that and that is where I will be adding my videos and blogs and so on but I want that to be my home page. In map creation it is listed as follows: Home Page which has a "house icon" on it, page 1, page 2, page 3. That's the default. Then because of my blog which I named "Underground Music", it is listed under "Special Pages". How can I change the default "Home Page" with the house icon on it to be my "Underground Music" special page? I want my "Underground Music" blog page to be my home page but I cannot find out how to do this.
Could someone please help me do this, that'd be great!
Thanks in advance! I eagerly await your replies. All help is appreciated! 
Posted on the
Hello Tibi,
Here I have a PDF-file in which I have written the steps you have to make.
For I'm using a Dutch version of WebSiteX5 some words are in Dutch, but the figures will probably clarify it.
Regards,
Kees
Author
Thank you Kees. Unfortunately I have having trouble opening this file you have sent. I don't have the tool to view or unzip "zipx" files to see this. Also, if I do follow your ifo for re-directing, will it effect google indexing? I hope it will be fine. Thanks.
Tibi,
can you open this file with Winrar or Winzip?
Otherwise give me your e-mailadress, so I can send you the file by mail.
Kees
Author
WinRar is perfect for me as I have the software. I can open it. Thanks very much Kees! I will read it and if I have more questions I will let you.
Author
Hi Kees,
I can't double click on "Underground Music" because nothing happens. That page is made by using "Blog" from step 4 in "Advanced Setting" so this is not possible to do. Any other ideas that you can help me with?
Author
Maybe I am misunderstanding. In your picture, one of your "Underground Music" is different from the other. There is one that is in the special pages that has a different logo but then there the second one that is right underneath "home page" that has a normal default logo... Do I have to rename one of them as the same name as my special pages one instead of having the exact same one?
You need to double click the upper page "Underground Music" (see attachment)
It is not necessary to give the name "Undergroud Music", you can give any name.
The "Underground Music" in the Special pages is the blog.
I do not understand how you get a page with the same icon (booklet) as in the special pages. It seems a copy of the blog. Can you explain that?
You have to at a page under Homepage. This is the page I mean you have to doubleclick.
I understand the upper page with the booklet icon.
This is an alias. You have to delete this.
Great job in turning the Home page into a Normal/Blogpage Kees.
Just be aware that some code does not get to the index file this way It good in some case give problems.
Then more coding is needed.
BR André
Author
Andre E:
"Just be aware that some code does not get to the index file this way It good in some case give problems.
Then more coding is needed."
See this is what I am worried about. I do not want any problems especially with Google indexing... Can you or someone please tell me if it okay to do this and it will not give me probems? And what exactly do you mean "some codes does not get to tge index file in this way" Also what do you mean "more coding is needed"?
Please help. I really need my blog page as my homepage without problems. I don't understand why Incomedia haven't added this to be automatically changed like more other web software. It would be a great feature.
Okay I look forward to more information. Will this way cause trouble with Google indexing?
Please help Incomedia and anyone who can. Thanks.
Hello Tibi,
another method is given in the attachment. Now the index-file is not changed.
regards,
Kees
Author
Thank you very much Kees. Will doing this effect Google indexing and ranking or will it be okay and safe?
Tibi,
The new option of Kees is better, set the index file back as it was in the home page properties.
The Homepage itself can be renamed to your blog name. This way your index file will be filled with correct information, and your website will work correct.
BR André
Author
Thank you everyone especially Andre and Kees! Can you please tell me, is this second method good and safe for Google indexing? This is very important for me to rank my website well with Google so please let me know.
Is it better to do this second method as Kees suggested or to re-direct with .htaccess on my server? Or is it the same? Some people say different things so it's really confusing. I would really like to know. Thanks.
Hello Tibi,
Personally I would do a permanent 301 redirect with the .htaccess file if I was hoping to get the best Google ranking.
Bear in mind too that a JavaScript redirect requires two calls to the server, whereas redirection via .htaccess can be done immediately. Page load times matter a great deal for SEO so I would be concerned about that if I was really fussy.
But I would be interested to hear what the others think.
Kind regards,
Paul
Author
Thanks Paul. Yeah, you're actually the reason I ask this question because I have actually seen your other posts and you're always recommending to redicrect via .htaccess as opposed to methods like Kees suggested so this is why I ask. So basically, a permanent 301 redirect with the .htaccess file is better for google ranking and is faster too?
Is the fact that it's fast and it's direct and doesn't go through two calls to the server the reason it is better and ranks better for google indexing? What are the other benifits of doing it via .htaccess as opposed to using HTML code?
Thanks again.
Tibi,
I agree with Paul, it's certainly faster, redirecting is not my first choice as well, not only for loading but also sometimes explorers / firewalls gives warning about redirecting / rerouting, and this can set users to a more carefull approach or in worst case no visit at all.
But it is very difficult to know for us to have an idea about how far the skills are from users, this makes ik sometimes easyer to only stick to X5 options....
Author
Andre E: Wow, it really seems like .hpaccess is the best option then. I have never done any configurations with .htaccess... But I have heard plenty of it and realize it is a file which you can configure many things on your server such as what the true home page is and much more. Hopefully it isn't difficult to do t make my blog page my home page via .hpaccess...
Any other good tips that I should know of?
No htacces is a file of your host, so it's standard, but still every hosts has his limits on it.
Check the f.a.q. at your host for more details on htacces or google....
Or maybe even better ask Paul! ( but I'm sure he will also point to your Host in some cases ... :) )
Author
This is a link I found on my host's website. I am guessing this is what you are all talking about?
https://my.bluehost.com/cgi/help/184
Author
Or is this the way to do this?
https://my.bluehost.com/cgi/help/2224
One link is specific for changing the default start page, the other for other option of htacces and also for change of default start up. Just start to work with it and findout yourself, It's the bast way to learn.
You can test by uploading to test page / folder ..... te see whats happening.