Much will depend on the URLs and links (whether on your site or external links) to those pages. If they are all named index.html, in their own folders, and you link to them like http://mysite.com/directory/, then you won’t really have to worry about it.

Chances are, though, that you probably have several pages in one directory with different file names. In this case, you’ll want to change all the links on your site to the new URLs, as well as add a 301 redirect for each new address via htaccess. The 301 will automatically redirect people and search engines from your old links to your new ones, and also tells search engines that your page has moved permanently to the new address, keeping the same ranking those pages had before.

Since I haven’t written an article on 301 redirects, here’s the first result I found in Google that will explain it: How to Redirect a Web Page Using a 301 Redirect.

Important note: If your site already has an .htaccess file and you’re using an FTP program, you might not see the .htaccess file, depending on your FTP program’s settings. If you can’t figure out the settings but you have access to the files via a control panel on your host’s site, this is a safe way to see if one exists. Before you upload an .htaccess file via FTP, make absolutely certain you’re not overwriting an existing one, because it can mess some things up on your site.

I hope this helps!

I just finished viewing your PHP (Server side instructions) and interested in converting all my .html files to .php files. Would you know how this going to effect my site? Will everyone looking for my .com site still be able to view it? Is there anything i will need to do to not lose traffic?

Thanks,

Kittyf64

I wonder if you had the old code and the new code opened at the same time, then accidentally ran the old code through the validator? I don’t think I’ve ever done that specifically, but there have been times when I’ve edited a file, refreshed, wondered why my changes weren’t showing up, then realized I was editing or refreshing the wrong file.

Your problem is due to an unfinished </div>, here:

<div class="lblock">

		<div class="tl"><div class="tr">
		<div class="title">Links</div>
		</div></div>
		<div class="content">...</div>
        </div

Also, you might want to run that page through the markup validator again, because it shows other errors, including more </div>s than <div>s. Also, since your doctype says you’re using html, you need to remove the space and slash from your favicon tag, and change the <br />s to <br>.

I’m so sorry for the late response, and for the fact that I won’t be able to figure it out right now. I’ve been up all night (it’s 5am now), and am just now about to go to bed.

I did take a quick peek, and can tell you that your main content is overlapping the areas you say aren’t working. It’s not that they’re not working; it’s that the main content div is acting as a barrier between the forms and your cursor. I’ll check out the code tomorrow, but before I do, I assume you ran your HTML and CSS through the appropriate validators to make sure it’s not caused by an error?

HTML Validator
CSS validator

It is I clabby. I have an issue I am not able to resolve. I’ve recently revamped my website, TheRabidReader.com. I’ve tested it in IE and FF and ran it through an online emulator for MAC and it works fine. However, I’ve recently had a user contact me who uses Google Chrome, which I didn’t think I’d have an issue with, they say that the left index does not work. I checked it myself by downloading chrome and it doesn’t. Specifically the login and the skinchange is in the left side index in the HarryandSeverus skin and just the login in the DracoluvsHarry skin. I’m not sure what’s wrong as I ran both the skins with the issue through CSS and HTML validator and they checked out fine. Is chrome not using the Web standards, cause I thought they were compliant and didn’t bother to check?

Your advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Clabby is the Original Birdcat

No worries on the link. I quoted you without making your post public, so you and I are the only two who have seen it. I actually didn’t realize you would see it, as it was the first time I had done that, so it took me a while to figure out which post you were referring to.

Old school can work for that, although there is a way to use one php page instead of several different pages to handle all of your images that way. Perhaps I should create a tutorial on that soon…

Thanks for that idea, Sarah.

P.S. – Just try to make me throw away my rotary dial phone!

** Thanks for quoting …. would also appreciate removal of link from Nov 27th at 4:55pm that I included.