SE Page Rank on switch from HTML to PHP

The scenario is an existing HTML static site which has built up a certain level
of prominence with various search engines. Pages have also been bookmarked by
many individuals who arrive direct to the site.

We now have the need to switch virtually every page type from HTML to PHP, and
have the following concerns:

1) Search engine page ranking will plummet in the short term.

2) Existing bookmarked pages will no longer be reachable.

We would value any opinion and/or advice on these issues.

Thanks in anticipation.

P.S. The site can be reached via: www.AlpsChalets.com

--
Ronnie MacGregor
Scotland

Ronnie at
dBASEdeveloper
dot co dot uk

www.dBASEdeveloper.co.uk

On 28 Sep 2008 in macromedia.dreamweaver, Ronnie MacGregor wrote:

1) Search engine page ranking will plummet in the short term.

2) Existing bookmarked pages will no longer be reachable.

We would value any opinion and/or advice on these issues.

You're on Apache, so you can use mod_rewrite to forward *.html to
*.php.

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mod/mod_rewrite.html

Make sure you include a "301" status code. That will tell the search
engines that the page has a new address:

http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec10.html

Talk to your hosting provider and find out whether mod_rewrite is
enabled, and whether you can use it in a .htaccess file.

While you're at it... I notice that the pages are of the form
/somename/somename.html (ie /Morzine/Morzine.htm). You might take this
opportunity to get the names shortened to just "somename", without
trailing slash or extension. So the URI for Morzine would be
http://chaletjacinthe.com/Morzine

http://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/URI

You can do this by enabling content negotiation, probably in .htaccess.
See MultiViews at:

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mod...gotiation.html

--
Joe Makowiec
http://makowiec.net/
Email: http://makowiec.net/contact.php

On Sun, 28 Sep 2008 10:16:27 +0000 (UTC)
Joe Makowiec said :

You're on Apache, so you can use mod_rewrite to forward *.html to
*.php.

..htaccess was the route I was headed. Can you provide re-assurance that going
down this road will not impact on existing SE page ranking ?

You can do this by enabling content negotiation

This is an interesting one which I will also pursue.

Thanks for your help.

--
Ronnie MacGregor
Scotland

Ronnie at
dBASEdeveloper
dot co dot uk

www.dBASEdeveloper.co.uk

On 29 Sep 2008 in macromedia.dreamweaver, Ronnie MacGregor wrote:

.htaccess was the route I was headed. Can you provide re-assurance
that going down this road will not impact on existing SE page
ranking ?

No. Only the search engine companies can do that.

If the forwards are 301s (Moved Permanently), the search engines should
find them and update. If you follow SEO at all, you know that search
engine placement changes constantly, and that it can change in a very
short period of time. So you may get a momentary blip. But experience
is that you should be OK.

--
Joe Makowiec
http://makowiec.net/
Email: http://makowiec.net/contact.php

Ronnie MacGregor wrote:

On Sun, 28 Sep 2008 10:16:27 +0000 (UTC)
Joe Makowiec said :

You're on Apache, so you can use mod_rewrite to forward *.html to
*.php.

..htaccess was the route I was headed. Can you provide re-assurance that going
down this road will not impact on existing SE page ranking ?

You can do this by enabling content negotiation

This is an interesting one which I will also pursue.

Thanks for your help.

Ronnie, I have recently had to change domain names, which was very
similar to what your doing. Whilst I am not on Apache, I did use IIS to
issue 301 redirects from the old pages to the new ones. Google is slowly
updating itself. Each time someone clicks on the old search results in
Google they get taken directly to the new domain, and Google
automatically updates itself with the new details due to the 301
permanent redirect. It will take a long time for all your links to get
updated, especially if you have a big site, but as long as each old link
gets redirected with a 301 you won't lose any traffic.

Dooza

--
Posting Guidelines
http://www.adobe.com/support/forums/guidelines.html
How To Ask Smart Questions
http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

..oO(Joe Makowiec)

On 28 Sep 2008 in macromedia.dreamweaver, Ronnie MacGregor wrote:

1) Search engine page ranking will plummet in the short term.

2) Existing bookmarked pages will no longer be reachable.

We would value any opinion and/or advice on these issues.

You're on Apache, so you can use mod_rewrite to forward *.html to
*.php.

If you need PHP on all those pages, simply let PHP handle the *.html
pages. Nothing easier than that.

Make sure you include a "301" status code. That will tell the search
engines that the page has a new address:

Do it properly and keep the old URIs. No redirects, no broken links.

While you're at it... I notice that the pages are of the form
/somename/somename.html (ie /Morzine/Morzine.htm). You might take this
opportunity to get the names shortened to just "somename", without
trailing slash or extension. So the URI for Morzine would be
http://chaletjacinthe.com/Morzine

http://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/URI

Full ACK. And with such URIs you can freely change the server-side
technology without having to touch or even redirect anything.

Micha