I know of a website with a '.html' trailing its URL for every page (instead of .htm). As a result, Google is crediting that website with many, if not all, of its own links. While it isn't unusual to see one or two internal links credited, Google has credited this website with almost 100 of these. It has helped that website substantially in rankings.

For example --- xyzcompany.com/books.html and its home page isn't just xyzcompany.com/ but instead it's xyzcompany.com/index.html

Anyone have a clue why Google is doing this? Or, I should ask, what difference does 'html' make to cause this? My website just adds .htm (automatically) to my webpages.

I didn't think that file extensions mattered to Google, however I can tell you that if you wish all of your own pages can be .html instead of .htm because there is no difference between the two file types. To change this, simply change the filename extension on your local hard drive, then FTP the files up to the webserver.

Note that your website's internal links would have to be modified to reflect the new filenames on all the webpages.

Thanks Jamie, it's somewhat tempting to try but whatever advantage it has, it's likely to be short-lived. I suppose a guy would run the chance of getting penalized too. Thanks for your imput. By the way, is there a better place on this forum to submit these general questions?

I sincerely doubt that there would be any penalization against you by the Google team, since .html is a valid file format. I believe that .html was the original extension for web pages, and .htm only came later when it was decided that a 3 letter version of the file extension was needed.

To be honest, that last part is speculation - anyone here want to date themselves and let us know the origins of the two file extensions?

I don't think we have a good General area setup yet, but I'm sure it's coming...