changing file extension on home page

[iain]

I may have to change the name of my home page file from index.htm to index.cfm. The site is already on the search engines. Will that give me a problem when the spider visits?

[smiley]

Hi,
Yes it will cause the spiders and your visitors to see a 404 error page.
The solution is to use a customised 404 page. Most servers provide access to these - either a 404.shtml or in some cases a /errorpages/404.html. Ask your tech support at your server for what they provide.
Save your index page as the above with a short message - We have recently updated our website. The page you are viewing has been relocated. Please use one of these helpful links to find what you are looking for.
Your ranking will drop initially but with relative content etc. you will climb back.

[adore]

Originally Posted by iain

I may have to change the name of my home page file from index.htm to index.cfm. The site is already on the search engines. Will that give me a problem when the spider visits?

It depends. If you used 'index.htm' in urls when getting inbound links from other sites and directories, then you may have some problems (e.g. with having the same PR on new homepage). If you short version of url - without page name, then it's OK - you don't need to change anything.

[kikkertm]

This post http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=16421 might be helpful to you.

[iain]

Thanks guys. It's only the home page I'm worried about and the actions that spiders will take. All the submissions and links are to the domain url (no index.xxx file). So despite smiley's comment - I should be ok, right?[/quote]

[kikkertm]

In that case you should be fine.