Moving website from .htm to .php/mysql

Anyone experienced decline in SERPs?

[The Cricketer]

I know that some people believe that mod_rewrite etc makes it easier to have a fully spidered website etc. Hwoever I'm more focused on a php site once fully spidered.

Does anyone out there have a well established php/mysql website which in the past they migrated from being static .htm/.html?

If there is, was there any negative affect on your search engine rankings compared to your static pages?

I realise that this may be a bit of a difficult question to answer as SE algorithms change a lot, but what I really need to know is - based on other's experience - should I expect a fall in traffic when comparing the established php/mysql website against the established static website?

[ogletree]

I can guarantee that if you change your files from .htm .php or any other ext you will see a drastic drop in se traffic. It is like starting over again. G will need to spider your whole site again. Sites with dynamic content tend to get spidered slower. I and several other members have changed our URL's from long dynamic? type URL's to all .html with mod_rewrite or aspi rewrite and have seen a big difference. It is a little work but it is much better to stay with .html ext. You can still have a PHP or any kind of backend you want. You can have only one text file and db with a 10K page site and as far as G knows your pages are all static.

On the other hand I have heard stories of doing the oposite and having no problems. I just would not want to risk it. If your site is over the hilltop (florida proof) then you can do whatever you want. No matter what you will see at least a week of se down time.

[neo_brown]

I have just made the change and have noticed a slight drop in traffic.
I did use mod rewrite and have redirected all of my old pages to the new URL's.

I think its too early for me to say whether this has really hurt me yet, will get back if I notice any drastic changes.

[PatrickDeese]

you can use htaccess to allow html/htm files to be parsed as PHP which means that you could replace your existing pages with the new PHP features that you want to use, yet your site's rankings from pre-existing links and indexing will not be affected.