General Support: Adding .html extension rather than .jpg

panjabi,

The current code in the SVN trunk removes the .jpg and adds a trailing slash for better SEO purposes. If you would like to try it out, I would recommend downloading and installing r549 from the SVN trunk.

Hi panjabi,

You might be fine with just the 2 files, but it would probably be better to overwrite all of the files (except your plog-config.php and .htaccess files).

Regarding the redirects, you could probably add that to your .htaccess file (I'll have to look into it a little more to make sure I get the mod_rewrite code worked out).

Regarding the .html, it can be done, but what does it matter if it's .html or an implied index.html or index.php? As far as I know, SEO only cares that it's a static file (which a trailing slash implies a static index.html or index.php file). I very well could be wrong so let me know your thoughts on the matter (would that mean to have the collection and album pages have an .html extension as well?).

Using "-" in the urls instead of a "_" is only a matter of aesthetics as far as I know. However, I think it is going to be an option in a future release of Plogger.

Hi panjabi,

Regarding the 301 redirect mod_rewrite rule, I think I have a solution for you. Open your .htaccess file the Plogger created for you and look for the following code:
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f
RewriteRule ^.*$ - [S=2]
RewriteRule feed/$ plog-rss.php?path=%{REQUEST_URI} [L]

And change it to read:
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f
RewriteRule ^.*$ - [S=3]
RewriteRule ^(.*)\.jpg$ $1/ [R=301,L]
RewriteRule feed/$ plog-rss.php?path=%{REQUEST_URI} [L]

That should redirect all of your old ".jpg" file extensions to the new "/" extension using a 301 redirect.


Regarding ".html" vs. "/", I still think it doesn't really matter. I found this great article trying to explain it, and basically it says just pick one way of writing URLs and stick with it and your rank should remain the same whichever way you go with. Personally, I like the cleanness of the trailing slash instead of the .html, but maybe that's just me. Also, if you want to change it over to .html, it should probably be done for collections and albums too (not just the image pages) to keep all of your URLs consistent.


Regarding the "-" vs "_", I understand your point now. I did a quick search and came up with this article. Fascinating read and you learn something new every day! :D I'll see what can be done about changing these over.

Posted By: panjabiThanks for the mod_rewrite code, works brilliantly.

Glad it works for you! :D

Posted By: panjabiI suppose the trailing slash vs .html doesnt really matter.

Who knows, it still might show up later on as an option. It doesn't really matter, but people may prefer one over the other for some reason. It will probably be low on the list, but it may be added at some point.

Posted By: panjabiMatt Cutts is a Google employ and his tips on SEO are taken as gospel for most. So the "-" vs "_" is definitely something worth looking into.

Yep, I think this should definitely be changed over. It should be fairly easy for any new pictures, it's just converting the old path names that will take some doing in the upgrade script.