Whats the benefit to .html URLs? Any?

Ive noticed a lot of sites that tend to to well (but also a lot that do horribly) in the SERPs have url structures that end with .html (or the like). Is there any benefit to this? Are they just serving a static html page versus a wordpress page for increase page speed or ...?

there is no benefit of .html over non .html link . moreover urls without .html are cleaner

The default setting for webservers is to use file extensions, such as .html, .php, etc.

When comparing myawesomeshop.com/items.php and myawesomeshop.com/items the difference is not too large, but I'd say it is still cleaner without the file extension.

However when you have something like myawesomeshop.com/items.php?category=coolstuff&sortby=newest, myawesomeshop.com/items/coolstuff/newest is better both for human reading and for SEO.

So generally doing URL rewriting is better than having raw URLs. This is of course only one factor, that is why you see both good and bad results.

No benefit, it is simply common. Just make sure you're using HTTPS...

-ThopHayt

OK, I didnt think there was any real advantage and I've never used the extensions on any of my client sites... but in this one particular niche, nearly every competitor website uses extension... got me second guessing myself for a sec lol. But almost all of the competitor sites are also very, incredibly dated... so, makes sense all around I guess. Thanks for the replies.

No advantage or advantage, in fact doesnt matter. You just need good content and proper navigation.