How to keep old html pages active simultaneously with wordpress

  • Hello.
    I am in the process of overhauling an existing static HTML website to use WordPress instead. The problem is I am terrified of destroying my existing organic search traffic, which is pretty OK at the moment. It has slowly declined over the years, hence the need to revamp the site and build up traffic again.

    So here’s the problem: I have tested out having WP installed, while keeping all my old .HTML files there. When I go to an “old” URL (static HTML page) the WordPress system kicks in and loads up its style and theme, and then somehow INCORPORATES the existing html page into it, resulting in a big messy page of weirdness and garbage.

    I tested commenting out the mod_rewrite portion of .htaccess but the results screw with the WP pages (disables permalinks and possibly more).

    Are there any experts that can recommend a course of action? A 301 redirect is not good enough as it is entirely possible that the “new” page won’t have the same SEO “juice” that the old page has.

    The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • Moderator Jan Dembowski

    (@jdembowski)

    Forum Moderator and Brute Squad

    So here’s the problem: I have tested out having WP installed, while keeping all my old .HTML files there. When I go to an “old” URL (static HTML page) the WordPress system kicks in and loads up its style and theme, and then somehow INCORPORATES the existing html page into it, resulting in a big messy page of weirdness and garbage.

    Generally speaking, it will not work. The two cannot co-exist on the same URL without tripping over each other.

    Try something different. Make your new WordPress site without the www. Prepare the new site and when you a have all of the content over on your new WordPress site then use .htaccess and mod_rewrite to send people from the old site to the new.

    After a while the search engines will figure it out and send people to the new site.

    Thread Starter LilGames

    (@lilgames)

    Hmm, that’s what I was afraid of. I have some pages that rank at #1, so with any changes in the new redirected page I risk losing ranking if I don’t preserve just the right things… I’m quite nervous to do it. (Have the new site almost complete on a .net variation of the domain, but will be moving it all to the .com for launch).

    • This reply was modified 6 years, 11 months ago by LilGames.
    Thread Starter LilGames

    (@lilgames)

    I just stumbled onto a solution. I wouldn’t recommend doing this for a huge quantity of pages, but for just a few, it’s workable:

    Let’s say the current/old page filename is: /my_page.html
    What you do is:
    1. Delete it (assuming you have a local copy)
    2. Create a directory/folder named “my_page.html”
    3. Upload the old file into that directory/folder.
    4. Rename the uploaded file to index.html
    5. Test it: https://www.yourdomain.com/my_page.html

    That’s pretty much it and it will live alongside a root WordPress installation.

    You’ll also need to update all relative file/image URLs in the HTML of that page since the page is now one level up, but that’s should be a simple find/replace!

    ***BUT*** I’m surprised nobody called me out on claiming that .html files cannot live alongside WordPress!!! It turns out that what I’m experiencing with WP combining its styling with my html files is because they are not .html, but .shtml! (Pages that use server-side includes). .html files work just fine.

    Mystery solved, and I have a solution for .shtml files (outlined above). I hope this helps others for what must be a very uncommon problem. ??

    • This reply was modified 6 years, 11 months ago by LilGames. Reason: Added additional discovery at bottom
Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • The topic ‘How to keep old html pages active simultaneously with wordpress’ is closed to new replies.

Tags