I'm transferring an old site to a new design/structure. It was html, now php. So to maintain the SEO and for incoming links which would be a better solution?
I think you misunderstood or maybe I did not explain it correct, the domain is staying the same. I'm just switching to an updated design/php structure.
Basically if all the pages are named the same (they are), and I rewrite the extension to read .html, I won't need redirects because they all appear as .html pages even though they are actually php pages. (in other words if you click an old link posted somewhere that has the URL "http://www.example.com/about.html" it will now take you to "http://www.example.com/about.html"; however what you are really viewing is: "http://www.example.com/about.php")
Otherwise, I can remove the php extension and then use redirects to redirect to the new pages...
You'll also want to set up a domain forwarding from your domain control panel.
Basically if all the pages are named the same (they are), and I rewrite the extension to read .html, I won't need redirects because they all appear as .html pages even though they are actually php pages. (in other words if you click an old link posted somewhere that has the URL "http://www.example.com/about.html" it will now take you to "http://www.example.com/about.html"; however what you are really viewing is: "http://www.example.com/about.php")
Otherwise, I can remove the php extension and then use redirects to redirect to the new pages...