Changing from index.html to index.shtml

[Bluesuit]

Do i need to use a 301 redirect if I change my index.html file to index.shtml? or will the search engines automatically pick up the new index file and preserve my ranking etc.? All my other files have remained the same - it's just the index name that has changed.

Bluesuit

[robinev]

Yes, but make sure you check with your host to verify that the extension change is necessary.

Apache servers (which is what most hosts use) can be configured to serve SSI files without the ".shtml" extension. If your host's server is configured for the feature, the server will treat any ".html" file as an SSI file if its user execute bit is set [chmod u+x file.html]. (All of the files on my site are SSI [for now], but they use the standard ".html" extensions.)

You could find out if it works on your server by setting the execute bit on a test file that has a standard ".html" extension and that has <!--#include ... commands. Try to open it to see if the server parses the file for the includes.

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[rlrouse]

If you use .htaccess to force the server to parse HTML files for SSI, you don't have to rename any files at all or use any redirects, and its very easy to do. Just add these lines to your .htaccess file:

Options Includes
AddType text/html .html
AddHandler server-parsed .html

I use SSI on every page of all of my sites, and they all end with the .html extension.

[jestep]

I agree, we did this with our server to make it parse html as php. It saves a lot of work, and you dont loose any pages in the SE index. Definately the best way to do it.

[Bluesuit]

Many thanks for all your replies. That's very helpful.

Bluesuit

[robinev]

But if the server is set up with the "X-bit hack", it can be a useful alternative to the .htaccess parse instruction.

(I've been using both lately. I use the X-bit to identify SSI, but use the .htaccess parse instruction for some php-include test files.)

Among other things, the X-bit hack allows the user to tell the server to send "last-modified" with some (or all) SSI files. That's not something it normally does (as I understand it).