Changing Development Languages

how does changing development languages effect search engine placement?

[dpparekh]

My problem is I am currently running a website completely in ASP. I am looking to change that and move to either ASPX or CFM (coldfusion). My problem is I already have some pages on my site that were indexed in some of the major search engines. And if I change languages these pages with the new extensions, cfm or aspx, will not be indexed. So if a search engine has [mysite.com...] indexed, and if I change this file over to something.cfm, then when a user clicks on the link in the search engine this file will not work. Are there any tricks that I can use so that all the users who click on the link get with previously used langage get transfered to the new .aspx or .cfm page? What things do I need to consider when changing languages and how it will effect my search engine placement? Do I even need to worry about such a thing?

I will appriciate any help I can get. Thanks.

[DaveAtIFG]

how does changing development languages effect search engine placement?

The short answer is I don't know. :) I suspect that changing a file/page's extension will not mean starting over at most SEs, but there will be a "period of adjustment." If current pages are well ranked and spidered routinely, new pages (with the same content) should enjoy similar rankings after the "old page" is dropped and the "new page" is indexed. I would expect 2-3 months of turmoil. Perhaps someone who has done this will comment.

You could also setup server side redirects from old pages to new and avoid most of the turmoil, but as the site grows and changes, it would probably become a maintenance headache.