Rewritten Indexed Pages Type Change

ihtml to html

[xcandyman]

Hi all

A Quick question here we are in the middle of a isapi rewrite on a site and are rewriting ihtml pages to appear as html because google is known to rank html page higher than other types. However some pages are already indexed as ihtml and if with rewrite to html will we be open to a duplicate content penalty when the search engines see we have a ihtml and a html page the same?

What do you suggest we do?

Thanks

[Pricey]

you could use htaccess to redirect to the html pages.

If you have both, some browsers will give you the option of which one to view. I also know that if you have an html page that has been changed to shtml, the click through will still work because thats what happened to some pages on my site. After a reindex Google just picked it up.

I would assume this would happen for ihtml but I can't be sure.

[pageoneresults]

Google is known to rank html page higher than other types.

Can you confirm for me where you acquired that information? The file extension in most cases has no bearing on ranking in Google or other SEs.

What do you suggest we do?

Rewrite the URIs to utilize the .htm extension. Set up 301 permanent redirects for old pages to new pages. Double check your work and make sure the server headers are returning the proper HTTP Status Codes.

P.S. You could also go one step further and perform Content Negotiation at the server level and eliminate all file extensions. This way you don't have to worry about future redirects when the underlying technology changes.

[edited by: pageoneresults at 5:44 pm (utc) on Oct. 28, 2003]

[agerhart]

Google is known to rank html page higher than other types

1) GoogleGuy has stated on numerous occasions that this is false. No weight is given to any extension or LTD.

2) Simple searching can show you how this statement is false. ASP, PHP, and other extensions outrank HTML filenames on a regular basis.

[xcandyman]

Thanks for all your comments, I have decided to keep the files as .ihtml because I feel it's not worth the risk of maybe getting a dupe content penalty.

Thanks Again

Steve