?Will Changing *.htm to new*.htm un-index Me?

I want to change the name of an already indexed page, will I lose rank?

[nuevojefe]

I currently have a page.... "www.mysite.com/page1.htm" I would like to change the page1.htm to whatever.htm. Now if I simply copy all of page1.htm and make whatever.htm an exact duplicate what would happen. I am placing #19 on google for an important key-phrase, I want to stay indexed and I know once I am re-indexed I will rise greatly. So Is it best to leave page1.htm in the original format with a link to whatever.htm, and let the engine decide which page to serve for that key-phrase? Or is it better to erase the content from page one, and simply place a link to whatever.htm on page one so that whatever.htm gets spidered? Please help, I know index time is coming for google soon....

Appreciate any knowledgable responses!

Jeff

[deejay]

Basically in changing the name of the page you are deleting the original page and putting up a new 'unrelated' page, at least from the search engine's POV; that is to say the search engines won't recognise the new page as a replacement for the old.

I don't think it would be very wise to have the pages identical, but if the page you want to remove is a significant doorway page for you, then I would:

1 leave the first page up,
2 move the strong content to the new page,
3 put 'similar' content in the existing page, with a link to the new page.

The search engines will present results based on the info they currently have, so people will come to your existing page.

When the search engines re-spider you, they will update content for the existing page and index the new page... making the new page your doorway.

Once the important spiders have been visiting, you can get rid of the first page.

of course... it'd be nice if you could get all the spiders to show up on the same day. :)

[deejay]

uurrghh... that wasn't my best bit of explanation. I'm gonna go find some coffee.

[jdMorgan]

nuevojefe,

...Or you could just rename the page and use a server redirect to "point" all requests for
oldpage.html to newpage.html using a permanent external redirect. The search engines will follow
a permanent redirect (in almost all cases - although some have reported problems, I've never had
any trouble) and replace the old page with your new page. As long as you leave the external
redirect in place, requests for oldpage.html will "magically" land on (redirect to) newpage.html,
and the visitors address bar will get updated (which is what is meant by an external redirect - it
is visible externally, meaning to the visitor's browser). To make sure the search engines update
and index the new page, your server must specify a permanent redirect, and return a response code
of 301.

Anyway, all that taken together, you must accomplish a "permanent external redirect". How to do
this varies by server type.

For more information, use the wmw site search and look for ".htaccess mod_rewrite
redirect" or similar terms. Note that this is for Apache Server. You can do similar things on other
servers using various methods to accomplish the redirection, such as .asp on IIS servers. This may
sound complex, but it may in fact be simpler than copying pages and having to watch for all the
spiders to "get it".

Jim