Would changing my index page to .asp extension hurt rankings?

My index page is currently a .htm file... I need to change it to a .asp file in order to use some tracking code I'm installing.
Will this have any effect on my rankings?
Thanks guys.

It would be much easier to just let your web server parse .htm as .asp. Your host should be able to help you with this.

As for your question, it would not hurt your ranking if you permanetly redirect from the old pages to the new.

I disagree.

Google will spider your new internal .asp pages as new pages and will take a dance or two to recover the old PR.


P.S.: Requiem, thanks by not fully quote the previous message

You are wrong. With a permanet redirect there will be no loss of PR (not even temporary), it will take some time before you see it in the toolbar (but that is a different matter).

A permanent redirect works by telling googlebot "Hey, the stuff that used to be here are now over there".

...and then Googlebot says "Ok. Wait a week or two and the database guys will update the PR of your new pages." You can tell whatever you want but google can hear whatever he want.

Or do you are the only and one who can insert a new document (with new filename) into the Google database redirecting your pages?

Obviuosly, requiem, you don't understand what PageRank really is.

Hello Mauricio

There is no need to get rude.

If document A has page rank 5, and we change it's name to B and tell our webserver to redirect (permanently) every request for A to B then it is no problem for Google. It does however take some time before the little green bar on the Google tool bar to show the correct value. When the A url is in the index, the server will redirect to B, and after the next update the B url will be in the index and the true PR will be correct. There is no time for you to be damage by the change in the URL. You don't lose any backlinks, and you won't get hurt at all. If you however set a temporary redirect, then the PR and backlinks will not flow trough and you would be in problem.

So Mauricio when your write "...will take a dance or two to recover the old PR" you are dead wrong.

Why not use .htaccess to take away the extensions...

Just a thought.

Well... as Callenb will change the extensions, he will see for himself an important decrease of Google referers until the new pages reach the old pagerank on the Google index and you, requiem, can do anything you want on your site and play with redirects or .htaccess or anything you want.

For your information, PageRank isn't owned by pages or severs but a relevance measure of a www document into the Google database.

Good point Mauricio.