aakk9999 - 5:22 pm on Apr 25, 2011 (gmt 0)

I've read that Google might give less trust to a site that has an excessive number of redirects.

My take was always that this referred to internal 301 redirects (where the internal link on the site executes 301), but that having a mass of external 301 redirects is fine.

In some cases it's an indication of major revamping, which could be a long-term negative mark against a site.

I disagree. I do not think that many 301's that are implemented because of major revamping result in long-term negative mark against a site. Where the revamped site dropped substantially, it would be more with the revamped site changing structure / not executing URL migration properly and hence losing link juice / dropping content that was ranking previously or that supported other pages that ranked etc. Where the structure of the site has improved followed by revamping / redesign then I only ever saw positive effect despite redirecting 2000+ "old style" URLs.