Will a 301 redirect pass pagerank to new URL in the same domain?

[freelistfool]

I'm planning on redesigning one of my sites and moving it from static html pages to JSP pages. As a result all of my URLs will change. If I use a 301 redirect will that pass the links an pagerank from the old pages to the new ones?

I'm planning to move the site just one or two pages at a time to the new URLs and watch the effects, but I'd like to know what I'm in for before I start the move.

[tedster]

Yes, in most cases Google will pass on PR and other kinds of backlink influence to the new URL. In my experience it can be very fast (a few days) to very slow, and my guess is that the time involved seems to be a trust related factor. If you're staying on the same domain, it usually goes well.

I've also noticed that PR seems to pass through a single redirect step, but not through a chain of multiple redirects. Can't be 100% about this, but it makes sense to ensure there's only one redirect step. Complicated chains can be created, for instance, if you also use a no-www to with-www redirect and don't think your code through from this angle.

[jd01]

If you can redirect, you can usually rewrite…

How about:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ([^.]+)\.html$ /$1.jsp [L]

Store everything that is not a dot as a 'BackReference', then serve the information 'transparently' from the new .jsp location to the old .html location.

Then your 'cool URLs don't change' (on Apache anyway).
Justin

BTW: The answer to your question is 'Yes' and what Tedster said about not stacking redirects.

[freelistfool]

Thanks. Your advice will make me a lot less nervous about the move.