You can reduce the number of HTTP requests to speed up your site, such as css sprite images. I'm wondering does reducing the number of php includes/requires also speed up your site or reduce server load? For example, I have a index.php with <?php include './file.php'; ?> If instead I copy and paste the code from file.php and just put it into index.php, thus removing the include code, would it reduce the server load? This might make things less organized, but if it does reduce server load I might need to do that. For a small to medium sized site, I assume there might not be a difference, but how about for high traffic sites?

Thanks in advance.