The correct way to go from PHP site to HTML site?
-
I have a website fully coded in PHP and I am doing a re-design over to an HTML site. I searched through the Q&A and there were some conflicting answers. Some said you will need to 301 all the pages. Others said to use the .htaccess to parse all the files as html.
What is the correct way I should go about this?
Thanks in advance!
-
Hi James,
As Cocoonfxmedia noted, it depends a good deal on your CMS situation.
For SEO purposes, there's no difference between PHP and HTML - search engines don't encounter PHP code, it occurs on the server and then the server sends the search crawler the HTML output.
I'd have to see the site in question to understand what would have to happen from a SEO standpoint to ensure things carry over smoothly, but in general I'd recommend focusing on ensuring that any page URLs that are linked to from other websites (Open Site Explorer is a good way to check on this) are 301 redirected to their best replacement URLs on the new site.
301 redirecting every single URL is not necessary. I'd focus on the URLs that have links from external websites. Search engines will adjust properly for the other pages, dropping the old URLs once they get a 404 error and finding/indexing the new pages from the top-level pages.
Best,
Mike -
"I personally think you can keep the PHP. The only reason I can see changing to HTML site is if you don't have a CMS system running"
The new site is already coded in HTML though - Is there just some code I can add to .htaccess to tell spiders that all PHP are not HTML?
Obviously I will need to change any internal/external links to the new extension. I want to make sure I cover all my bases and do this properly.
-
I personally think you can keep the PHP. The only reason I can see changing to HTML site is if you don't have a CMS system running. I would 301 redirect the old pages to the new.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Best Way to Handle Multi-Language Sites
In the last year we've made a few significant changes to the structure of our site - namely adding translations for a few languages. We have historically been gaining in organic search by about 10% each month, but in the last two months we've leveled out and seen a slight dip. I am wondering if this has something to do with the addition of the second language, and namely if there's a chance we've been penalized due to duplicate content. We have almost all pages / content on the site translated by a translator, but the way the development works the site will grab the english version if a translation hasn't been added - potentially adding some duplicate content? The URL structure remains the same, other than the addiion of the language - site.com/our-tour vs site.com/de/our-tour We also haven't translated the tour name itself, so that remains the same. Just wondering if anyone has any feedback on best practices here or things I should be looking out for. Thanks in Advance.
On-Page Optimization | | mkgreyound1 -
Should Ecommerce Site Give Registration Option to Customers?
Hi All, Should Ecommerce Site Give Registration Option to Customers? What are then advantages and disadvantages? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | Arnold31 -
Classified ads site and thin content + titles
Hello, i have two questions. Issue 1 is that we are a classified ads site. I started thinking, analyzing why im not ranking even tho i have a lot more content than others and my backlink profile is also better. Googling the advertisements i see that 95% of it is duplicate content. People usually who advertise, add the same add to 10 maybe 30 sites. For google this is duplicate content. Any ideas what to do? I can manually edit ads, to write a bit of unique content, but that is not a long term startegy. Question 2: My titles are all the same - Unique Name - Keyword im trying to rank for. There is around 1000 of such pages. Should i mix the titles up or it is still better to have 1 keyword which will help me to rank?
On-Page Optimization | | advertisingcloud0 -
Linking to External Site In Nav Bar
Hi, we are a celebrity site but also own a separate sports site with its own URL. We have a link to that site in our Nav bar. Are we being penalized by having that link? thanks
On-Page Optimization | | Uinterview0 -
SEO HTML: Header tags
A few of quick SEO questions regarding header tags: More than one tag per page. If there is more than one tag on a page: are both taken into consideration and what if they contain the same keyword? Eg on the page: http://en.emilea.be/childrens-clothes/molo/boys/cardigans-and-sweaters/ MoloBoysCardigans & sweaters ... Molo childrens clothes Is the 2nd considered when indexing the page? Since both tags contain the same keyword (but in different context) is this a SEO plus or minus? Nested tags inside header tags. I presume the nested tags are omitted, but if there is no white space between the tags are these concatenated? <span tag='molo'>Molo<span tag='boys'>Boys<span tag='cardigans-and-sweaters'>Cardigans & sweaters</span tag='cardigans-and-sweaters'></span tag='boys'></span tag='molo'> How is the above header processed? MoloBoysCardigans & sweaters
On-Page Optimization | | Webxtrakt
or
2) Molo Boys Cardigans & sweaters Order of header tags.
How important is the order of header tags and how do they influence the following content. F.ex. if the top part of the page contains multiple tags and the middle part contains 1-2 tags. Does this affect the importance of the tags and would it be better to use tags above? Thanks in advance.0 -
Site Cleanup Operation
Hi, I hope you can help, I have been asked to look at a friends site that is simply shocking, but somehow ranks for its main target keywords, mainly because they are easy. But going through the site he has like 350 links on his menus that are all follow so I need to change them to nofollow, but should anything else normally be marked such as no index etc on a menu link. Also upon doing a Moz scan there are something like 250 missing meta descriptions from old blog posts. When I looked closer they had been using the blog section for posting relevant news headlines, but thats it, So he has 250 useless, low quality blog posts. My question is, what should I really do with them, ie delete, redirect, canonical etc. Any help is much appreciated. Thanks Paul
On-Page Optimization | | propertyhunter0 -
The Best Way to Market a Blog Post?
So . . . I've written a beautiful blog (or video or podcast or whatever . . . just take my word for it that it will be nominated for an Oscar, Webby, or Pulitzer very soon). What's the best way to get the word out about it? Let me rephrase that. I know I should tweet, post on Facebook, social networks etc cetera. My real question is, should I link to the home page (which is where my blog is located . . . it would show up there) or should I link to the specific page of the full blog post? Seems to me, linking to the blog post directly gives me a better chance at tracking the success of the article in generating interest and traffic, but I was assuming linking to the home page helped pump up the importance of my overall site? I still consider myself an SEO Noob so be sure to speak slowly and not use big words. Consider drawing pictures.
On-Page Optimization | | damon12120 -
Trouble with Old Site Name
Trying to figure out what is causing a site to show up under a former name in Google. The name of the client is Fortenberry Legal. They changed from Fortenberry Law Group over a year ago. I can't find any code on the site that uses the old name. For some reason, it still shows up as "Fortenberry Law Group" in Google. When I search for "Fortenberry Law Group," that shows up in Google with a full set of site links. When I search under the new name (Fortenberry Legal), that also shows up in Google but without the site links. Any thought on what could be causing this?
On-Page Optimization | | Falconberg0