Your favorite page formats while designing web pages

[bermuda]

Hi,

It might not be that important or a determining factor in the success of a website but I just liked to know if you prefer naming your pages in what formats, like htm, html, php, aspx or other ones?

Is there any advantage in using a special format, for example, are php ending page names better than aspx ones or not that important?

Thank You.

[masm50]

The file extension of a page tends to show how the site was built (although they can be "faked" by mod_rewrite and other tools).

If a site has .htm or .html files then it is most likely a static site with each page stored on the server individually. This is how traditionally sites were built, and is still good for small sites that have content that rarely needs changing.

.php means that the site uses PHP scripting in its pages. This may be as simple as having a standard menu which is the same for each page and so can be simply included, or it can mean a database driven site that dynamically creates pages or portions of them.

.asp or .aspx means basically the same as .php although the website would have been developed in Microsoft's ASP or ASP .Net rather than the open source PHP.

Modern search engines don't really care what file extension your pages are using, but some do not like dynamically created URLs (ones with "?" (questions marks) in them), as the spiders can be caught in an endless loop. For this reason, many web developers use mod-rewrite rules as well as other methods to make the urls look prettier and more simple by removing the ? and often exchanging numbers for keywords to help with their SEO.

Hope that helps,

-Tim

[bermuda]

I see, thank you Tim for your reply and for the great, simple to understand information and points.

[paul.b]

simple html and css as they can be easily read by search engines.

[bbmm1980]

I think.
simple html and simple color and strong content is very important.