I've implemented a simple mod-rewrite rule that internally rewrites urls without a file extension (that are not directories) to .php files and removed the .php extension from all our internal links. I've also updated the sitemap with the extensionless urls. However, the urls in Google's index obviously still have the extension.
- Will Google crawl the site or download the sitemap and update its index automatically with the extensionless urls?
- Should I be implementing a 301 redirect from .php to extensionless urls? At the moment, both url's will resolve to the same page which could be seen as duplicate content.
- Should I get a list of all the urls in Google's index which have extensions and submit a request to have them deleted via Webmaster Tools?