html to php - problems?

[MJMoore]

Having just discovered the joys of SSI, I'm in the process of changing the pages of one of my sites. Obviously the pages are now all changing from .html to .php - my query is, will this affect the search engines at all? Will they see them as new pages, or does it ignore the type of page?

[Fallen Angel]

There's an article on it here: http://www.seologic.com/faq/url-redirect-script.php - though that's more about changing domains. I'm not sure how much it would affect your ranking per se, but I'm guessing until the SE's crawl your site again your SE listing's are going to be broken links and visitors aren't going to find much there. Somewhere like SEO Chat would be good to check out, and there's one of the big SEO forums that's really good, whose name escapes me at the moment (must get my damned bookmarks tidied up!). The best way though would be to use a 301 permanent redirect - there's a post about it here - www.master-web.org/forums/index.php/topic,57.0.html

[MJMoore]

The best way though would be to use a 301 permanent redirect - there's a post about it here - www.master-web.org/forums/index.php/topic,57.0.html

Thank you - that seems to have worked wonders!

[Tailslide]

What I do is to add a line of code to my .htaccess file so I can keep my .php pages as .html instead.

Code:

AddType application/x-httpd-php .htm .html .shtml

Always backup your current site before messing with the .htaccess file though - it could all go horribly wrong if you're not careful!

[MJMoore]

Always backup your current site before messing with the .htaccess file though - it could all go horribly wrong if you're not careful!

Now you tell me! 
If I ever touch one of them, I'll check in here first. :)  Thankfully all seems ok with this one.

[Fallen Angel]

Damn! Felt sure I'd put that on that post! Edited now though in big red letters.