caveman - 5:02 pm on Oct 19, 2006 (gmt 0)

I dunno where this is coming from lately but it doesn't matter what extension your filenames are. .php, .htm, .html, .asp, .whatever. It's all fine.

As for the links to the homepage, remember that from the SE's viewpoints, example.com/ and example.com/index.php are different URL's, so if you have links to different 'versions' of your homepage, you are making the SE's pick a best or "canonical" version and you are also splitting the juice flowing to the homepage across different URL's.

Pick the one most likely to be linked to from the outside ... usually "http://www.example.com" or "http://www.example.com/" (even the "/'s" are technically different) and point all links to that one version. Then 301 redirect all other versions to the chosen URL, and you're set. :)