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Quick question: do PHP files rank well?

by abo28
4 replies
  • SEO
    • |
So... do PHP files have chances to rank well at the search engines, if they are created using the basic SEO principles (keyword density etc.)? I mean, do the search engines index and rank PHP pages just like the static html pages?

I'm asking this because I'm planning to create a large site (50+ pages) and it would be more convenient for me to make those pages dynamic (using PHP), not static (HTML). But I would also like to rank well at the search engines...

Thank you!
#files #pages #php #question #quick #rank
  • Profile picture of the author Juturna
    Should be the same...
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    • Profile picture of the author paulgl
      php pages can and are static as well.

      All my static pages are php. Makes updating
      a breeze.

      You mean pages created on the fly. They can be either
      php, asp, even html pages can be created on the fly using php
      or something else.

      If you mean even urls with ?= whatever,...
      Google readily indexes such stuff, but always caution on a user
      being able to tell what a page is about by looking at the url.
      Much better user experience.

      Look at the warriorforum. It probably uses php to create the threads in html.
      The php might even be generated by something else. It saves a lot
      of server requests and data.

      Paul
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      If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

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  • Profile picture of the author RichardHK
    Just converted two sites from html pages to php (to accommodate commenting system on some pages) and all pages and sites indexing (and ranking) remained unchanged. Been monitoring closely to ensure this would be the case using Market Samurai rank tool. All pages are doing their usual jig up and down with no discernable change since switching to php.

    I had several old html pages hanging around in the Google site: index, and used the Webmaster tools crawler access commands to delete these. Everything php for some time now.
    Signature

    Richard, Hong Kong
    Business Consulting

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  • Profile picture of the author JamesM
    Some SEOs recommend rewriting PHP file extensions to .html, but there's no direct benefit - PHP files rank exactly the same as any other common extension. The benefit of rewriting you page extensions comes if/when you come to change the technology that your site uses - if you always use a .htm extension then it's technology agnostic.

    If you're never going to change your technology (for instance if the site will always be a Wordpress installation) then don't sweat it.

    That having been said, you should consider rewriting the querystring portion of any dynamic URLs for both human legibility and SEO (think of the 'inurl:' operator).
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