1

Is there any difference at all in terms of loading speed if we have a fully cached PHP generated site (by for example, using CloudFlare rules "Cache everything") and a HTML page?

Cloudflare allows us to cache the generated HTML content of a PHP generated page, so wouldn't that load exactly the same way as a cached HTML page?

Is there any SEO / Speed advantage in creating a whole page in HTML vs creating it in PHP and then caching it?

It seems to me that it is quite trendy to go full HTML with things like Ghost CMS for blogs, Netlify and so on, but... is it really worth the effort if we can just cache the generated HTML code in the same way and make use of a CDN in the same way?

I'm thinking on building a FAQs page and I'm considering different options (fully HTML generated pre-deploy vs PHP)

Improve this question
2
  • A PHP page generates HTML so there is, effectively, no difference between a PHP page once built and a HTML page.
    – Dave
    Feb 10 '20 at 19:07
  • So it will make no different from the cache / CDN point of view, right?
    – Steve
    Feb 10 '20 at 22:31
2

It depends if your PHP content is really dynamic or not (like, it has a lot for before-render queries to multiple databases or so), but usually there's no substantial difference. Usually what weights more in a website are images (you should compress, gzip and cache those, for sure), scripts and styles. Those last two you may also want to minify and/or uglify, so it occupies even less server -and user- bandwidth.

There are no advantages on the SEO using PHP over HTML or the other way around, but if you include in-page SEO like micro-formatting or meta-tags.

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.