Site Redesigns

[PKfanSteph]

I would like to redesign my site but would like some feedback before I start.

On my main page now are a lot of links to specialized sections, polls, outside links and the most frequently requested articles. But some have said it's too many links for one page. Would it be best to have just the top level generalized links to subsections on the main page with everything else on another page? This would mean more clicks for the user to find what they want but might look better. What does everyone think?

Also, is changing page extensions from .html to .shtml or .php a good idea? Is there a good, nearly fool-proof way to do this without messing up search engines or people already linking to the pages?

Thanks!

[thehittmann]

I think have the most visitied pages linked to and then link to the rest from a site map also on that page.
There is no way you can keep a search engine happy when you change file names. you can redirect but its best if you email as many possible people that link to you and ask them to point to the new pages. Then submit the new links to the SE's and hopefully it works out ok for you.

[encyclo]

If you want to be search-engine safe, don't ever change the URLs! If you want to use server-side includes (SSI), add this to .htaccess (if you are using Apache):

AddHandler server-parsed .html

If you want to use PHP, add this:

AddType application/x-httpd-php .html

That will mean that files with the .html extension will be parsed for SSI or PHP respectively.