.html .htm or no extension GoDaddy vs other hosts

[REIMktg]

Yes - I did Google this and became lost.

Two questions:

1. Sold a site hosted on GoDaddy. Site pages are indexed as sitename.com/sub-page . (this works on GoDaddy without the extension) Buyers host would not recognize unless I changed all sub pages to "sitename.com/sub-page.htm". Then it worked. Site is back linked to urls's without the extension. Is there a fix to this or make the buyer go to GoDaddy?

2. SEO - is it better to have the extension or not especially when targeting long tail's? Is it better or more effective without or with the extension.

Thank you in advance for any help - it is appreciated.

 

[cziffra]

Yes - I did Google this and became lost.

Two questions:

1. Sold a site hosted on GoDaddy. Site pages are indexed as sitename.com/sub-page . (this works on GoDaddy without the extension) Buyers host would not recognize unless I changed all sub pages to "sitename.com/sub-page.htm". Then it worked. Site is back linked to urls's without the extension. Is there a fix to this or make the buyer go to GoDaddy?

Did you have a .htaccess file at GoDaddy that didn't get transferred to the new host? Extensions are usually removed by using rewrites in a .htaccess file. Here is an article on how this works: Removing file extension via .htaccess - Web Development Blog

2. SEO - is it better to have the extension or not especially when targeting long tail's? Is it better or more effective without or with the extension.

I've personally never seen anything to indicate that it matters for SEO. I prefer no extension because the URLs are shorter and cleaner, but I doubt it matters much if at all for SEO. Just look at the results for some of the queries you do. You will probably see a mixture of URLs with extensions such as .html, .php, .asp, etc. along with no extension and even some sites that use URL parameters.

 

[REIMktg]

Thank you very much cziffra.

Your link had all I needed to know - then using the info in it I knew to Google the htaccess file and found even more information - but your link had it all.

Thank you very much you saved me a lot of trouble and I appreciate it. I did not need anything messing up the closing of the sale of this website.

Thank you again.

 

[imkazu]

as long as you keep one version (whether its /index.html or /, it shouldn't matter too much) .... its a bad idea to serve up your homepage to both thought,

i'd use .htaccess to 301 redirect it ... personally, i like the shorter version as well / (without ext)