In a recent interview with Matt Cutts, a very interesting topic came to light.  In discussion, the topic of 301 redirects came up and how it relates to PageRank.  More specifically, is there a loss of PageRank if you use 301 redirects to change URLs?  Matt Cutts stated that he thought there probably would be some loss in these instances.

“Matt Cutts: That’s a good question, and I am not 100 percent sure about the answer. I can certainly see how there could be some loss of PageRank. I am not 100 percent sure whether the crawling and indexing team has implemented that sort of natural PageRank decay, so I will have to go and check on that specific case. (Note: in a follow on email, Matt confirmed that this is in fact the case. There is some loss of PR through a 301).”

What exactly are we talking about here?  Well, let’s just say you have a website such as: www.mywebsite.com/mineisthebestproductever.php, and you want to know if changing that URL via a 301 redirect to www.mywebsite.com/mine-is-the-best-product-ever.php will perhaps give you an advantage for keyword targeting.  In short, no, the benefit of spacing out the keyword within the URL will not outweigh the loss of PR over time. 

In many cases, you do not need to change your URL’s.  If you create content effectively on the correct page, there should be no reason to use 301 redirects within your existing site. 

A scenario where you may not be able to avoid utilizing 301 redirects is when you are creating a brand new website with SEO in mind.  In this situation, using 301 redirects is unavoidable because you will be creating new pages, deleting old ones and moving content around to fit your new website structure.  This is an acceptable use of 301’s because they are needed to restructure the site.  Any loss seen in PageRank, will be made up in the future IF you build your site correctly with SEO in mind.

Some tips to remember:

• Don’t change your URL’s for keyword purposes.
• Have a plan when creating content so you will not have to implement 301 redirects.
• Avoid using parameters in URL’s where possible.
• When redesigning your site, try not to change domains.

Changing URL’s for the sake of getting more keyword relevance or to move content is not worth it from an SEO standpoint.  Plan your content wisely and consult professionals when redesigning your website for the best possible results.

It is important to understand that when you are creating a mobile version of your website, you only want to capture the essential data that mobile searchers are looking for.  When people are looking for your website on a mobile device, they are looking for quick information that they need in a hurry.  Include the following on your mobile website:

• Abbreviated home page content
• Simplified contact form
• Phone number
• Map and address
• Main product or service information

Including only the important information will give users of all mobile devices a good user experience, regardless of the type of device.  Even smart phones have their limitations as to what types of content they can display properly.  It is especially important to have a good mobile website if your main site is comprised of Flash technology.  Currently no mobile device has the capability to display flash based websites.  A flash website appears to be broken when viewed on a mobile device, leaving the user with little options to get in contact with you, or view your services or products.

When conducting keyword research, it is important to have as much information as possible so you can pick the best word for the page you are trying to optimize.  There are a plethora of tools available and some of our favorites include WordTracker, KeywordDiscovery and the Free Google Keyword Tool.  These tools are great because they can show you some very important statistics about each keyword.  Some stats that they show include approximate search volume and the competitiveness of the keyword.  The one thing they don’t show you however, is trending.  For that we recommend that you take a look at Google’s Insights for Search.

Insights for Search allows you to compare up to 5 keywords and look at trending data from as far back as 2004.  It also displays significant news stories or events that happened during the time frame so you can see how these events played a role in the search data for the keywords. Trending data such as this can help you to choose a better keyword.  Perhaps when cross referencing your researched terms with Insights, you will notice that a highly searched term is actually decreasing in trending data.  This might cause you to evaluate a different term that is a rising search, which you may not have discovered from your other keyword research tools alone.

Insights for Search also allows you to see related search terms, regional interest and rising searches.  In my opinion, the rising searches section is the most interesting.  These are words that you should be focusing on because they are becoming popular very quickly.  When you see “breakout” listed instead of an actual percentage, it means that the search term has experienced a change in growth greater than 5000%.

The next time you are doing keyword research for a new page or blog, also consult Insights for Search to see what other keywords you might find.