Search Engines and .asp files

If I change my home page from html format to asp format

[gatotoo]

I'm in the middle of a major website re-design that will add a lot of new features and interactivity. The website has been up since 1997 and is highly ranked in many search engines.

Question...If I change my home page from html format to asp format, keeping the content relatively the same, will my search engine rankings be adversely affected the next time the site is crawled?

Gary

[rmjvol]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld, gatotoo.

Most of us would agree that a file extension change as you describe will not hamper your promotion efforts. 2 things to think about however:

1)"...keeping the content relatively the same"
Any change to your content and/or code has the potential to alter your rankings. Less so for SE's like Google that put an emphasis on off page criteria.

2) You might see both index pages in the index for a short time. To minimize this, either use a permanent redirect or delete the old page & use a custom 404.

rmjvol

[gatotoo]

rmjvol:

If I permanently re-direct, might a search engine think I'm up to some "funny business", cloaking or such?

Thanks,

Gary

[Torben Lundsgaard]

2) I agree. Google will sort it out anyway though.

If have done this a lot with out using redirects or 404.