Redirects & it's affect on SEs

[ep2002]

Hi all,

My programmer & I need to get rid of the .phtml pages another programmer had me create & make new .php pages.

He wants to:

"use the 404 SCRIPT (PHP file) that will do following.. based on REQUEST to non existing PHTML file it should get corresponding PHP file.. for example.. if requested was recommended_links.phtml then it'll get into recommended_links.php .. and so on.. for any PHTML file.. so SEs will think that PHTML files still exist"

Does anyone understand this & will I be penalized by the SEs?

Thanks & I hope everyone had a great Christmas :)

Michelle

[Danny]

I can't answer your question whether or not you'll be penalized. I'd think not, but again, I have no certainty.

I'd like to offer another tip of advice: why not use .htaccess with mod_rewire? Have the server rename all the .php files 'on the fly.'

Its the same thing that's used on Daniweb to make the forums and threads more SE friendly. (I.e. thread23849.html)

More information at: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/mod/mod_rewrite.html

[Dani]

I don't recommend using mod_rewrite because this will create duplicate content, which google doesn't like. For example, the .php page and the .phtml page will both bring up the exact same content, and this could cause problems. Instead, I would use .htaccess to create 301 Permanent Redirects. These are used when content has moved locations (to a new filename, for example). It tells the search engines that upon reaching the old URL to redirect without penalty to the new URL.