Whichever you choose to build with, if you hope for Google search traffic, be sure that your site is completely responsive to a wide variety of devices - especially mobiles with max 400ish pixel width.
Mobile friendliness is a huge factor.
RE: Html vs PHP - PHP full scripts or inclusive, can adapt rendering to the visitors' devices, but at the cost of server resources. You'll feel it when the scrapers come knocking.
I developed my platforms as HTML shells that dynamically include JavaScript. Lower load on the server and with even the wimpiest of mobiles packing more power than some older desktops, the client's end can unpack and render the pages. It's tricky though, but not impossible, to maintain synchronized dependencies. Also, while Google is very capable of rendering even the most dynamically nested JS pages, other "search engines" are not - including Bing, which is useless in delving into anything beyond what's on the main de facto "HTML" page.
Also, don't waste your time on problematic traffic. Decide which countries you want to monetize and firewall the rest out. MOST traffic to content rich sites are scrapers and brutes. So firewall webhosts, proxies, and data centers that are notorious for hosting malicious players. Yes, some babies will go out with the bathwater. Pay attention to your server logs.
