HTML to PHP

htaccess change resulted in rankings drop

[onebaldguy]

I have read several postings regarding the ability to send all HTM and HTML files through the PHP parser (essentially, we changed our .html files to .php files) I am not the tech guy, but our tech guy researched how to do it and after determining how to change the .htaccess fule, he implemented it on a test site.

We now have one PHP include on this site (on all pages) and since we have done this our rankings have dropped. I understand we could have simply moved lower in the rankings, but we operate 5 sties in the same category and all have stayed the same (or nearly the same), but this one really took a hit (and seems too coincidental to happen 7 days after the implementation - it had been ranking well for the past 18 months).

Google still indexes us, but we went from #7 to #80 and #10 to #140, etc. We also show backlinks (I do not know if the # of backlinks could have dropped since I did not record the # before we did this test, but we are still showing a good amount of them). Has anyone experienced this our do you have a possible explanation?

I will do this test once more on another site and keep track a list of all of the backlinks to see if that could be a factor. But in the meantime, I am trying to figure out things that could have affected us as a result of this PHP change.

[ThomasB]

I'm not quite sure, but did you do one of the following things?

domain.com/site.html
changed to
domain.com/site.php

or

domain.com/site.html
stayed
domain.com/site.html (PHP generated)

If it's the first one you might have lost backlinks to site.html.
If it's the second one your onsite optimisation might be a fact.

[onebaldguy]

I kept the same filename file.html (we just use PHP includes). So a loss of backlinks should not have happened.

We have VERY few other changes on the page (change in keyword density, etc.) So I am anxious to do more testing. If I find out what could have caused it, it could actually be beneficial, because I would know to do the opposite of whatever that was to help our rankings.

[jatar_k]

A change of
AddType application/x-httpd-php .html
isn't going to effect your rankings

Changing a single word on the page would have much more effect, if you changed a few other things on the site then look to them instead.

[dannyboy]

if the page is now PHP (dynamically generated), wouldn't the last modified date always change whenever the page is accessed? Could google look down on this, and penalize him? HTML pages are static, with dates that don't change. My comment is more of a question. Perhaps someone here can verify?

[ThomasB]

dannyboy, can't see a reason for that. Or why should they do it?

onebaldguy, then I'd say it's a normal loss in rankings due to filters/upcoming competitors, ... So I'd suggest you adding good content, try getting more relevant links and see your sites climbing in the SERPs. :)

[GoogleGuy]

Server-side stuff like PHP includes aren't really visible to a browser or bot, so I doubt that would cause a problem..

[lasko]

I swithced all my html pages to parse through php using .htaccess and have not had a single problem or ranking change.

I am pretty sure its something you have included that you didn't include before which has got indexed and upset your optimization. A few extra links here and there make a big difference.

I got carried away once on one of my sites and noticed the same so i had to rethink what I should and shouldn't include.

Or it could be just like many others here who have suffered with the new google algo.