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.
]]>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. ??
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