Wow, you are very quickly and easily making me much better at what I do:) Thanks for that.

I actually just updated the code a couple days ago by adding the Expires code and fixing the redirect. Maybe the previous double 301 redirect could be the culprit? Or - something I mentioned in another question - there were a ton of 404s because of a blog that wasn't redirected to the /blog subdirectory correctly, which I fixed recently. Could something like that cause the server to work to hard and return a 500 server error?

I'll definitely check out the logs and Pingdom.

Great information and advice.

Paul - Thanks for a new way to check and understand all this.

So, if I was able to visit the page just fine normally, and after setting the user agent to Googlebot, then I should be good? I never saw a 500 server error while visiting the page, just in Webmaster Tools. It was dated 2 days ago, but there have been other server error warnings over the past month or two in GWT, so maybe it is a resolved issue.

Can you suggest a method to confirm the overall proper functioning of the .htaccess code? Is there a tool you use to validate your .htaccess code? I checked response headers in Firebug and found all 200 OKs and 304s for images (from the expires header I assume) so to my amateur viewpoint, it looks good. I just don't want to tank the site unwittingly. Obviously not.

Google Webmaster Tools is showing the following message:

_Googlebot couldn't access the contents of this URL because the server had an internal error when trying to process the request. These errors tend to be with the server itself, not with the request.  _

Before I contact the person who manages the server and hosting (essentially asking if the error is on his end) is there a chance I could have created an issue with an incorrect 301 redirect or other code added to .htaccess incorrectly?

Here is the 301 redirect code I am using in .htaccess:

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /([^/.]+/)*(index.html|default.asp)\ HTTP/

RewriteRule ^(([^/.]+/)*)(index|default) http://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^(www.example.com)?$ [NC]

RewriteRule (.*) http://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Could adding the following code after that in the .htaccess potentially cause any issues?

BEGIN EXPIRES

<ifmodule mod_expires.c="">ExpiresActive On
ExpiresDefault "access plus 10 days"
ExpiresByType text/css "access plus 1 week"
ExpiresByType text/plain "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType image/gif "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType image/png "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType image/jpeg "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/x-javascript "access plus 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/javascript "access plus 1 week"
ExpiresByType application/x-icon "access plus 1 year"</ifmodule>

END EXPIRES

(Edit) I'd like to add that there is a Wordpress blog on the site too at www.example.com/blog with the following code in it's .htaccess:

BEGIN WordPress

<ifmodule mod_rewrite.c="">RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /blog/
RewriteRule ^index.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /blog/index.php [L]</ifmodule>

END WordPress

Thanks

In case this is helpful to anyone else reading this post, here is the code I am now using in the .htaccess, which seems to have eradicated the double redirect (thanks to help from phranque and lucy24 at webmasterworld):

RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /([^/.]+/)*(index.html|default.asp)\ HTTP/

RewriteRule ^(([^/.]+/)*)(index|default) http://www.site.com/$1 [R=301,L]

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^(www.site.com)?$ [NC]

RewriteRule (.*) http://www.site.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Cyrus - Thanks. A familiar face - I've seen it attached to many an article that I've read;)

While I have you here, maybe you can answer another question related to the situation that has me slightly nervous:

I've read warnings about creating a loop with a 301 redirect - and I keep being pointed to default.asp in Open Site Explorer (with the message that the url I entered - www.site.com- redirects to /default.asp) but any redirect checkers I've used don't show that. Would it be obvious if I didn't implement it correctly? It looks fine in the browser.

Would a rel canonical tag in addition to a 301 redirect be a good idea?

Could the code I used explain why Open Site Explorer won't let me view link data for www.site.com, but shows me www.site.com/default.asp instead? And within that data it shows an incoming link from www.site.com as a 301 redirect. But when I check it in a browser or redirect checker, it shows www.site.com as the final destination. My head hurts.

Edit: (This is what OSE says "The URL you've entered redirects to another URL. We're showing results for www.site.com/default.asp since it is likely to have more accurate link metrics. See data for www.site.com instead?")

I don't have access to the control panel and the person who does never did the redirect when I asked so i just did it myself with .htaccess. So did you say I should change it to your code and that will handle everything, including the double redirect?

(Edited out a question that I figured out the answer to.)

So you are saying I should use the following exact code instead of the code I have:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www.domain.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.domain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

And that will take care of the default.asp and index.html as well? And it won't redirect to the www in between, thus creating 2 redirects, correct?

If you don't mind explaining, what's the working difference between the first code I tried (below) and the above code that makes the above code work?

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www..* [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*) http://www.%{HTTP_HOST}/$1 [R=301,L]

I didn't build the site, nor do I have anything to do with the hosting, but I do have FTP access. I can't remember how or why but I came to the conclusion that it's ASP Classic. Is there a quick way for me to double check? All the files end in .asp if that helps.

I would like to politely add (and first say that I do appreciate anyone's attempt at a helpful response) that it's a very delicate matter to be giving answers without 100% certainty or valid first-hand experience. At least we as a community should be careful to include somewhat of a disclaimer should our answers be anything less than certain. I, for one, do not want to steer anyone down a dangerous path. I do understand it's my responsibility to gauge the accuracy of an answer before I implement it. Think of the potential consequences to someone else if they implement bad/incorrect advice on a site - ouch!

Are your slideshows at the top of the page? Read this tweet (from the czar himself) which says there was a refresh Feb. 6th of the page layout algorithm. Cutts: https://twitter.com/mattcutts/status/432940645200588800

It targets ads above the fold, but seems to indicate that lack of written content within easy viewing reach can also be undesirable.

Read more about the algorithm here: http://insidesearch.blogspot.com/2012/01/page-layout-algorithm-improvement.html

Other possibilities may be that the text in your slideshows isn't html, or you don't have alt tags for the images, or the slideshow slows down the site, or that's all you really have for content on the site? Some slideshows are just not SEO-friendly, aside from algorithms and the case that they are generally not user-directed, and hence not user-friendly.

Good luck! Sounds like the the kind of haystack I find myself rummaging through as we speak;)

Wow, you are very quickly and easily making me much better at what I do:) Thanks for that.

I actually just updated the code a couple days ago by adding the Expires code and fixing the redirect. Maybe the previous double 301 redirect could be the culprit? Or - something I mentioned in another question - there were a ton of 404s because of a blog that wasn't redirected to the /blog subdirectory correctly, which I fixed recently. Could something like that cause the server to work to hard and return a 500 server error?

I'll definitely check out the logs and Pingdom.

Great information and advice.