Ramifications of a redirect to new file names?

Renaming some folders - how will spider react to 301 redirect?

[Breezy]

I am in the middle of redesigning our site and we need to rename some of the folders and files in the directory.

However, we are really well indexed in Google and I don't want to rock the boat and risk getting dropped. If I do a 301 redirect to any new folder/file names, will that work o.k. and not confuse the spider?

If I do a redirect, I can't keep it out there forever, right? So would I also submit the new URLs and keep checking to see what the status is? I'm not sure of the process after files are renamed and a redirect is implemented.

[WebGuerrilla]

You don't need to submit the new url. Just setup the 301's and let Google figure it out. The redirect will notifiy Googlebot that the page has been permanatly moved.

If you have external links that point to any of these pages, you will want to leave the redirects in place indefinitely.

If there are no external links, you only need them until the new url's get indexed.

[Breezy]

Thanks, Web Gurerilla!

LB

[Robert Charlton]

>>If there are no external links, you only need them until the new url's get indexed.<<

WG - If I read your post correctly, are you suggesting that redirects be put on all old pages that were dropped? I've not bothered on some old pages that I know have no external incoming links.

Does the 301 help purge these from Google's index?... or would Google drop these when they don't get spidered?

I'm assuming correct form to get rid of these pages would be something like:

PermanentRedirect /oldpage.html http:*//www.domain.com/