One of my sites had a PR4 and its subpages had PR3. I recently went and changed all the file extensions from .html to .php Now the front page still has the PR4 ranking, but all the subpages have zero PR. Is this typical?
Yes, if you change the file extension it is the same as changing the name of the file. You should 301 redirect all the old files to the new ones. A url rewrite should be able to do this assuming that you have changed page1.htm to page1.php3 and kept the page1 part the same.
yes, changing the extention is basically creating a new page, which in google's eyes is brand new, hence has no PR. As said above, redirect your old pages to your new ones and the PR should pass on.
Note that PR may not pass untill the next PR update though. Might be a better move going back to HTML pages and adding a .htaccess directive to parse them through the PHP engine.
i think some PR will still be lost as all inner relations on the website will also be changed from html to php. even when you make redirect google will still open html page first and take it as refferer to php page... though for users it is unnoticed google will see that for sure. But you will get you PR back anyway as you got it once. Good luck.
Thanks. I just went and switched them all back to HTML. I saw a drop in my listings in the SERPs and it's just not worth it. All the new pages I add, I'll make sure they are PHP. I just wanted to be able to apply the CO-OP php code to the pages. I think there is a way to do it in HTML anyway.
has it actually affected your serps? if it hasnt then why bother messing about with 301's the PR will pick itself up again providing all incoming links are to the root not specific pages.
I thought Google really hates redirecting? Unless we're talking about different "redirect" here. Let me know.
Add the following to your .htaccess and you your site will treate html files as php: AddHandler application/x-httpd-php .htm .html
Sorry about losing your PR. That is why I keep file names the same once a site has been established. The redirect will help transfer the PR to the new page.