Converting from static to dynamic

I am redeveloping a site which is completely in html. There are 300-500 html pages on the site currently. I am redeveloping using php with a mysql database to add functionality and make updates less time consuming. The site has been online for a couple of years and is indexed by all the major search engines. The majority of visitors currently coming from search engines are coming from MSN and yahoo. I have been debating with my colleagues about the best way to approach the naming structure of the folders and pages on the site. My biggest concern is with renaming the pages to .php and changing the folders to be more relevant. Here is the question for all you experts out there...

What is the best way to convert the site to PHP pages and still get the major search engines to index the new pages?

Also... Any links to articles or advice on naming conventions for sub folders and pages.


Thanks in advance...

G

You can leave the pages named as .htm and have them parsed as PHP if you wish. It does load the server up a bit; but might still be OK if your traffic isn't high.

Alternatively, you can use ModRewrite to dynamically rename/access the new pages using the old names.

Both of these methods preserve your incoming links, pagerank, search engine indexing, and visitors bookmarks.


A complete redesign of page names and folder structure destroys all of that, but make it easier to go forward unconstrained by lecagy code and conventions.


Your call.

I would use a mambo content management system that has a SEF module whicih you can get as an addon from here:
[link]

the benefot is that you can create a virtual link structure for all your 500 pages and run all those page addresses from a database instead of htaccess.

the benefit is in allowing you to use exactly the sale links structure and naming conventions as you had done in your html site.

this will hopefully allow you to move over and not wreck your rankings