hi - my main site is fairly large - over 2k pages. I built the site in straight html and have got to the stage where I need to be able to make changes to the ads and roll them out sitewide quickly and efficiently. I understand there are a few ways to do this and am thinking I will probably have to learn CSS. Do you have any recommendations on what I should use and how to go about this - ie CSS or PHP, and where might be the best places to find out how to get started going about this. Thanks, I really appreciate your input!
CSS and php are two different things. CSS is used to format/style the layout and php is a programming language and can be used for server side includes. If you just want to be able to change the ads, you can use php to insert the ads by calling the file. In basic terms, you put code on each page that calls the .php file and inserts the content into your page. That way, you only have to change the single file to make changes to every page that calls it. If you want to stick with static html, you could create a template in dreamweaver and have sections of each page that are all changed by editing a single file (asset). The drawback is that you would need to upload any and all pages that had changes to your server. With a php include, you only upload a single file to make changes. I would search for a tutorial on how to do a php call to insert your ads. You would be removing whatever ad code each page now has and replacing it with a single line of code.
You may try shtml extension. The following guildlines for your perusal. 1) create a html file for sitewide. Example, sitewide.html 2) use the included function <!--#include file="sitewide.html"--> Code (markup): 3) convert other pages of your site to shtml extention
If for example you wanted to be able to update the menu on all pages of your site at one time you could create a file which would include your menus html code. Name that file.. lets say "global_menu.inc" ( " It could be .php but I prefer the .inc extension so it doesn't have a chance to get spidered and indexed as a separate page ") Then include that file into all your pages or template ( where it would usually appear) with a line of code like... <?php include "global_menu.inc";?> Code (markup): Then from that time on you would only have to update/edit the "global_menu.inc" and upload to change the menus on all 2000 plus pages of your site. Considering you built the site in html you would have to use .htaccess to force the server to treat the .html pages as .php by inserting this code in your .htaccess file in your root directory. AddType application/x-httpd-php .html Code (markup): This will work only if you are running Apache and has the added benefit of not having to change your file names and thus not losing any PR you have gained. If your site is not running Apache then the method outlined by "zinruss" above is viable as well and can be used but when you change your file extension you will no longer have the same PR or serps unless you set-up 301 redirects to the new urls...