Need some pointers

html as php? no-index/no-follow?

[natural]

I have done a few searches of WW, looking for information on this first question, and will search for answers on the second one also, but figured i would post them both, since i'm here.

I would like to maintain the ranking on some pages that have a .html extensions, although I am moving the sites over to .php. Rather than do the 301 redirect, I would simply like for files that end in .html to act like .php pages. I thought that I read that it is possible here, is that true? If so, how is it accomplished?

Also, what is the easiest way to keep robots from indexing/following pages in specific directories? Also, when you do that, does Google give any type of a penalty, or does it raise any red flags? I want to do a no-index/no-follow in order to keep all of my PR on-site. the links go to external URL's (they're mine, so i'm not shorting anybody or anything like that).

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Nat.

[natural]

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

is that the only line that i need in my .htaccess file to make .html act like .php? it seems to work, but are there any drawbacks to this approach?

thanks.

still digging for the best no-index/no-follow.

[Slade]

Do a search for robots.txt here, or through google. Also, look on Google's page for webmasters for info on robots.txt.

[natural]

slade, thanks. i know about robots.txt (although i don't use it very often). i was looking for something on-page, in the code, that i could use to specify a noindex or nofollow just for that page, then i could replicate the page template without having to figure out how to specify particular pages in robots.txt

i found a meta tag that seems like it will work. do robots actually obey noindex or nofollow in meta tags, or do they ignore them? does anyone know?

thanks.