How to move entire site with long URLs to Wordpress?

Hi,

I want to move an old static site with .PHP pages into Wordpress entirely.
The site has established and I don't want to use redirection. I want to preserve the old URLs.

Long URLs look something like this:
http://www.mysite.com/travelguides/thailand/bangkok-things-to-do.php

So, basically there are no more than 2-3 levels of folders and the pages are 2-3 levels down.

Can I move the site by preserving the URLs? Can this be done simply with 'permalinks' in Wordpress by simply creating new posts and giving them the old URLs?

E.g. create a new "Bangkok Things to Do" post and save its URL as:
http://www.mysite.com/travelguides/thailand/bangkok-things-to-do.php

Or... "bangkok-things-to-do.php" under the folders "travelguides/thailand"?

Many thanks to whoever helps!

 

you can use link shortener, something like bitly.

 

No, that is not good. Must move the entire site "as is". Also, the bit.ly influences Google Analytics results as well.

Permalinks allows the URLs to be moved?

 

I think yes. Did you try to use it?

 

Write all link tempaltes which you need to move. For example:

travelguides/thailand/bangkok-things-to-do.php -> [section]/[country]/[article name].php

Then, i'll recommend a solution for you.

 

I have hundreds, like 500+ on an old static HTML site.
It has decent link juice and a logical structure that I don't want to mix up.

Can I simply create posts (putting the text and images there) and then simply "save as" the "old URL"?

Some of my URLs contain codes like 0542369abc.htm, which makes sense in my mind (in organizing the articles, the structure etc.).
And there are hundreds of interconnecting URLs like this, which I have to just "move".

One other thing is that all my URLs end in page.php, but I see Wordpress usually cuts the extension like: page/
Yes, all my pages are .php for the sake of being able to install more scripts.

Not sure if that is redirection or Wordpress just "forgets" the extension or what...