PHP & SEO

[web_india]

I am in process of finalising a SEO deal. The site has all pages done in php. So far, I have always optimized for .htm but reading some threads here which suggest that .php is not a problem with search engines (am to optimize here especially for google & lycos here), I am considering that whether I should work on optimizing php pages instead. I do not know php myself but the site is of a php programmer so if possible, we two would work accordingly.
So, what are the suggestions - shall I tell the prospect that we'll be changing the site pages to .htm for better spider food or we can work with .php as would normally focus on other thinggs like link pop etc. ?
If php is OK, then what special things should be kept in mind from SEO viewpoint ?

[Nick_W]

.php pages are no different to .html

Providing the pages don't have long query strings in the url then it's no different from optimizing any other pages....

Nick

[fathom]

don't forget though that Tags are not elements and do not have an absolute close.

E.g.

<meta name="description" content="your statement. /">

[andreasfriedrich]

@fathom

Iīm not sure what you are trying to point out.

As for tags not being elements you are certainly right. But this has nothing to do with "not having an absolute close". The term element is defined as

a document structuring unit declared in the DTD

in [w3.org ].

The meta element is declared in [w3.org ]. Therefore the meta element is an element indeed.

Elements consist of a start tag, attributes as defined in the elementīs ATTLIST, content and an end tag. An element may be defined as being empty in which case there is no content and in HTML no end tag. In order to conform to the XML spec empty elements must either have an end tag or the start tag must end with /> in XHTML ([w3.org ]).