TopDogger
Junior Poster in Training
87 posts since Aug 2005
Reputation Points: 15
Solved Threads: 5
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The file extension will not affect a new site, but it will affect an existing site that has already been indexed. The old page URLs in the search engines will generate 404 status codes (Page Not Found) unless you use a 301 redirect to redirect the old pages to the new pages.
If you leave the file names the same and only change the extensions, you should be able to add the following to the .htaccess file to take care of the redirection. This will only work on an Apache web server.
RewriteRule ^(.*)\.html$ /$1.php [R=301,L]
Test it with a few pages to make sure it is working correctly. If you enter an old URL with the .html extension, you should see it change to the new .php page in your browser's address window.
TopDogger
Junior Poster in Training
87 posts since Aug 2005
Reputation Points: 15
Solved Threads: 5
Skill Endorsements: 0