Ways to prevent redirect in MediaWiki Main Page - if interested.
In MediaWiki websites, when you search by using the domain name in address bar of browsers, it always uses a redirect to reach the Main Page.
For example, when you search for - https://en.wikipedia.org/ it redirects you to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page .
The same is true for MediaWiki official website too which redirects to "https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki"
Is there any way to circumvent this redirection, as redirection is bad for SEO.
SEO is a black art, mostly full of myths that aren't true. I'm doubtful that (HTTP) redirection is actually bad for SEO.
That said its probably possible to a hack something together using apache redirect rules so Mediawiki sees the right page but you don't actually get redirected there.
I agree with the "black art" comment.
I shall try your suggestion with the .htaccess.
Keeping the thread open for a while, to see if anyone else wants to drop any other idea.