Don't lose SE indexed pages

Redirect

[SeoPromoter]

Hello!

I have a site in html, it has 65 indexed pages in Google. We will redesign the site changing the pages extension from html to php.

For example, index.htm ---> index.php.
index.htm is indexed in google while index.php isn't.

Is there any way to make this chamge without losing the indexed pages? Is there any way to tell the SE which pages should visit without be banned (using redirection).

Thanks, Facundo

[JohnCanyon]

You could just make .htm executable by .php.

To accomplish this you will need access to either .htaccess or php.conf (if you are using apache 2).

for .htaccess you can add the following.
<Files *.htm>
AcceptPathInfo on
SetOutputFilter PHP
SetInputFilter PHP
</Files>

php.conf
<Files *.htm>
SetOutputFilter PHP
SetInputFilter PHP
LimitRequestBody 524288
</Files>

J

[netmarketingsolution]

That trick smell cloaking?!.
instead is not. Use it carefully.

[frobn_1]

Here is another way that will get php to execute in a html file. It will work on most servers but not all.
Put in .htaccess

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

You can also use a rewrite rule

I am not sure that this is correct, perhaps someone else can verify it.

RewriteRule (.*)\.html$ $1\.php

[TymArtist]

I'm actually in the process of redesigning my site in the exact same way, with the exact same problem - i want everything .php rather than .html, but i don't want to end up with page not found errors for the listings in google amongst other search engines.

do you feel that redirects in .htaccess is considered cloaking or frowned upon by the directories and search engines, even if it is just a temporary solution?

[frobn_1]

do you feel that redirects in .htaccess is considered cloaking or frowned upon by the directories and search engines, even if it is just a temporary solution?

RewriteRules are not cloaking and are not redirects as they do not redirect the page, they only change the url name. Cloaking is used to redirect search engines to a different page. RewriteRules are commonly used to make dynamic urls user friendly. I have never had problems with them and I haven't heard of any problems with search engines.