Changing Site Structure and Platform

5 replies
How can I change a site structure from .htm to wordpress and retain the same page addresses?

I would like to change a site to Wordpress but I need to keep the same page names for the pages.

Basically, all I need to add is .htm from the old page name to the address of the page in Wordpress, but wordpress won't let me. It changes the . to a dash.

Any ideas?

The pages already have links to them, so if I change the addresses - then it will effect the ranking.
#changing #platform #site #structure
  • Profile picture of the author CyberAlien
    Take a look here: WordPress › Support » Page Extension .htm

    There is some example htaccess code for it but most recommend using 301 redirects which is easy with this plugin: WordPress › Redirection « WordPress Plugins
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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    Just change your permalinks to this or similar. Leave out the category if your posts don't have that now.

    /%postname%.htm

    or
    /%category%/%postname%.htm
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    • Profile picture of the author kenmorgan
      Just a note that if you use /%postname%.htm/ it only works for Wordpress posts, not pages. So you would need to make all your pages into Wordpress posts. Or use the redirect method for any you want to make into Wordpress pages.
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Originally Posted by sbucciarel View Post

      Just change your permalinks to this or similar. Leave out the category if your posts don't have that now.

      /%postname%.htm

      or
      /%category%/%postname%.htm
      The last time I ported a straight html site to WP, this is exactly what I did.

      I set up the categories to match the sub-directories on the html site. The stuff I put on pages weren't a problem, as it was just the privacy, disclosures, tos, etc. where I didn't care about links.

      It worked seamlessly. The only 404s I got were from sections I deliberately left out. If I were to do it now, I'd have a custom 404 page to explain the absence.
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  • Profile picture of the author rooze
    Originally Posted by Easy Cash View Post


    Basically, all I need to add is .htm from the old page name to the address of the page in Wordpress, but wordpress won't let me.
    Hi Gerry,

    You need to do more than that I'm afraid. Just adding .htm won't retain the full file path including sub-directories, so you'll end up with 'page not found' coming from your external back-links. You can't easily use WP Permalinks to do this, you either need to use a WP Plugin or hand-code 301 redirects into a HTACCESS file.
    The plugin is easier. There are a couple SEO plugins which allow you to create your Meta tags and assign a 301 to each new page and post. The one recommended above probably works fine too, though I haven't used it myself.

    Cheers
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