I currently have a fairly well established PR4 Google indexed website where the pages are made up from Dreamweaver templates and editable regions. Having read-up on CSS recently and feeling moderately confident, I would like to do the switch and rework the pages so that I drop the messy DW code e.g. editable regions, tables, comments, etc. and go for a more spider-friendly CSS structure. It should also help speed up the loading of my pages. I do have some problems/reservations that I need to overcome though; Firstly, I would like to maintain the template functionality that I have already. It is so good being able to change the template, and for this to automatically update the "bunch" chosen. But, from what I've read, I would need to either use PHP include, or SSI which would mean that the extensions on my already indexed pages would change from .htm/.html to .php or .xhtml - and I'm not prepared to compromise difficulties/ loss of business from pages not being found on Google or inward links giving 404 errors. The CSS overhaul is intended to enhance not cripple! I understand that I can 301 page1.htm to page1.php/page1.xhtml but this isn't really a good solution for me, especially as quite a few of the inbound linking pages have been hand written and will not update the new location automatically, like you would get from Google. As some of these hand coded pages are fairly old it would be problematic trying to get them changed - so I'll have to rule this option out. The pages must be as they are. Secondly, is it really worth it? I'm thinking that:- a) it will give me an opportunity to update the aging keywords, titles, descriptions and content on pages which I haven't seen for a while ;-), which *always* need attention - when you get round to them!; b) it will give me some CSS coding practice, which is always a good thing Alternatively, I can wait and only use CSS on new projects but it just seems a shame not to boost a not-so-bad website into a cleaner, quicker, leaner one! Any advice would be welcomed! R BTW - I have been lurking for a couple of months now, and having read so many peoples useful posts I thought it was my time to ask a question that I couldn't find a direct answer for. This truly is a great resource for promotion and coding.
You're facing the issues of any attempt to update a site. First, limit yourself to using modern practise on new documents until you feel comfortable with the new paradigm. Then move on to the older or less visited pages to guage the problems. A complete refactoring of the site of the site may not be feasible. Well formed question, btw. rep++ cheers, gary
though includes would help riteon, but it is not necessary to use it. You can do a site-wide find & replace command in dreamweaver and you would do fine. no need to change file names etc