Index.php OR .php - Which is better for urls

[openspan]

I was wondering.  When I build links should I build them using "index.php" OR ".php" at the end?  Does one have any more value than the other from an SEO standpoint

Example:

www.mywebsite.com\hotdogs\index.php

or

www.mywebsite.com\hotdogs.php

[DiamondJewelryEmpire]

The shorter the better! By including keywords inside of the link will help crawlers to better understand whats that particular url about.

Good Luck

[SEMPassion]

I would recommend www.mywebsite.com/hotdogs/.

[moldybacon]

I would use hotdogs.html, not that it makes much difference, but I personally prefer it so it doesn't look like an auto-generated page. If your planing on having a lot of hotdog related content I would defiantly go with /hotdogs for it all.

[Dr-Pete]

I lean toward this one, too, but Google has no particular bias against dynamic pages. SEOs use to warn against using "dynamic" URLs, because they tended to include a lot of parameters and create duplicate content, but there's plenty of evidence that ".php" pages are perfectly fine.

To me, it boils down to:

(1) As TraxNYC said, all else being equal, shorter is better

(2) It looks a bit friendlier to search visitors (and easier to read)

(3) It doesn't instantly reveal your underlying platform (and pose a security risk)

[moldybacon]

What do you mean by (3) it doesn't reveal your underlying platform? I don't think URL structure would be of much concern here, especially if you where experienced in exploiting websites? Maybe I'm wrong, not to sure what you are referring too.

In regards to you leaning towards this one, surely posting it as a directory /hotdogs/ implies that it is that, a directory and not a just a page about hotdogs? I'm digging a bit to deep into this, as I'm sure it won't make that much of a difference, but I'm just saying, it seems more logical to have it .php or .html