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Possible Duplicate:
SEO - Changing file extension

Hi,

Is SEO effected when URL changes from .php to not including .php? For example, if you change a URL from http://www.example.com/about.php to http://www.example.com/about, do you lose the earlier SEO impact?

I am replacing an older website, and want to keep the URL the same for SEO purposes. The problem is that the older URL includes .php at the end.

I'm replacing the website with a new wordpress site, and when I add the (.php) to the URL, the formatting is disrupted. I can create a URL that is the same, but I can't add the .php at the end.

Does anyone know how I could add .php to the URL without having the format be interrupted?

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[trollmode?]SEO is a myth...[/trollmode?] – Anonymous May 25 '11 at 22:46
myth or not, it is certainly OT here – Anonymous May 25 '11 at 22:48

migrated from stackoverflow.com May 25 '11 at 22:54

marked as duplicate by John Conde♦ May 25 '11 at 22:58

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1 Answer

up vote 2 down vote

Do a .htaccess 301 redirect:

redirect 301 /about.php http://www.example.com/about

This'll tell browsers to update their bookmarks, inform search engines of changes, and just generally get things moving to the new url.

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Update cookies?! Uhm, don't believe – Anonymous May 25 '11 at 22:49
Whoops, *bookmarks – Anonymous May 25 '11 at 22:50
Fixed, thanks for pointing that out – Anonymous May 25 '11 at 22:50
or more generally: RewriteRule ^(.*)\.php http://www.example.com/$1 [L,QSA,R=301] – HorusKol May 25 '11 at 23:42