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  4. Should I Remove URL extentions for SEO?

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Should I Remove URL extentions for SEO?

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  • hfranz
    hfranz last edited by Dec 14, 2011, 1:34 PM

    We are having a developer design our website with Magento. I noticed the main pages such as About Us have no file extention in the URL. But the product pages have a .html file extention. I was once told to remove the file extentions.

    Are there benefits to removing the .html file extension and if so, is there a way we can do this using Magento?

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • NickEubanks
      NickEubanks last edited by Dec 14, 2011, 2:49 PM Dec 14, 2011, 2:42 PM

      Hey here is an example of a Magento site where all pages (even statics like About-us) have been moved to the flat .html extension (example: http://www.topdjgear.com/about-topdjgear.html/)

      In my opinion it is best to present a uniform URL structure sitewide and generally flat HTML files are a good thing although I also have worked on very successful eCommerce sites that used no file extension.

      It is relatively easy in Magento to mod you static page to include the file extension, so in terms of lowest barrier, this is the route I would go.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • SparkplugDigital
        SparkplugDigital last edited by Dec 14, 2011, 2:49 PM Dec 14, 2011, 2:41 PM

        Yes, there is some benefit since shorter URLs tend to rank better. It also future-proofs your URL if you change to a different website platform in the future that is not HTML. The file extensions are unnecessary for search engines. If you decide to change it, make sure to 301 redirect the old URLs to the new URLs so that you retain credit for the inbound links pointing to the old URLs. (Source: the book Search Engine Optimization Secrets).

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