I am wondering if it as good idea to set up a website that has only one actual page, but includes different pieces depending on $_GET variables. What are the pros and cons of setting up website this way? Would it be a better idea to have multiple physical pages pages and include the header and the style sheets? And lastly, what effect would doing a single base page have on search engine rankings?

Hey,

I made this website years ago using this method.

http://colan-church.org/

It is easy because you just change the template file when you want to edit the menu for example.

Cons, unless you set up a per page settings file, all the meta data will be the same for each page which is no good for search engines.

Also, when you design the page in say Dreamweaver you cannot use style sheets as they would be included in the main file, not in the include file.

I would use it for simplicity. It's just as good as including the header/footer per page but without having to add more code.

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