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Cheers guys. Was hoping for some obscure reason why it would be ok to go with the weird and wonderful names in this instance. Hoping to get some keyword association is a bit too much of a hit and hope I think. Just going to have to be the dull one, as always, in the project and keep things on the straight and narrow. Alex.

Thank you for the clarification David. We know Google has the ability to consider code in it's algorithms. If you create a website, then use that same exact code and template to build other sites and modify the content a bit, Google can recognize the links are generated from the same code and devalue them. Google desires links to be independent and using the same code among multiple sites is a signal sites could be related. I have never heard of it applying to a general platform such as WordPress. In fact, my guess is most of the links to WordPress.com are from WordPress sites. The same would be true of any CMS software creator, forum creators, template creators, etc. I could only speculate and would enjoy to see or hear about any testing that may have been performed on this topic.

As Ben and RDK shared, your transition plan is solid. Is there a way (the above plan or any other) to make sure ranking will not be hurt If you have links, there will always be some loss of DA during the transition. Approximately 90% of the link value will transfer with the 301, but there is some degradation. This can be minimized by changing any links you control to the new site. This includes social media pages, signatures, etc. Another recommendation I make to anyone moving sites is to create a link building campaign 30 days after the site move to generate links to the new site. These links will help offset any minor loss from the move. If the move is done properly, you can be back to your old rankings or better within 60 days after the move. What entries should I add to the sitemap.xml: new pages only or new pages and the pages from the old site? A sitemap should include all pages on the new site you wish to be included in the index. One final note. Since you are changing URLs during this move, think out the new URLs carefully. Try to build URLs which will last 20 years. Try to account for any foreseeable changes. One example is to remove technology extensions from URLS. Instead of mysite.com/products.html use mysite.com/products.

I'd also consider page load time. Do you have people that put 40 pictures in one post? Then you may not want 30 posts displaying, as that could really bog down page load time. My forum usually has only a couple of pictures per post, if any, but I do sometimes get ones that have 20-40 pictures.

That sounds like a good question for the help desk, as they will want to know if there's a possible bug. Email them at help@seomoz.org with this information and they'll take a look at it.

It will be labor intense. I suggest starting by claiming all listings in one place under one new login. Try to claim by postcard to be more legit. Otherwise you may just have to get reconsidered by going to the google places forum. Also another strategy is try a suite # if you can't get or register the main addy.

Thanks bootleg - appreciate the external links. Guy

If i m not mistaken #1 will apply. it will fully resolve

Thanks Keri!

I'd only move it to a subdirectory if I could somehow link it (or integrate it to some level) from the main domain/site as well. If not, you could keep it on the new domain and link to that domain from the old one with a proper anchor to give it a boost, and since it's topic related it will indeed give it a boost.

Ok, it sounds like there is more going on here then just seo. You have to consider your brand, what's best for your customers, and the over all branding of your website. However, this is an seo question so I will give an seo answer. If I were you, I would target the product pages. In a page you have much more "on page optimization" options. You can use: Tile Tags, proper Urls, H1 tags.... you get the point.  If you try to use one page to taget to many products, you are going to dilute your on page optimization. If your home page has more authority, use it to target more competitive keywords, and maybe just one or two products... and then you can  link to your other products.

Gianluca, Yes - sorry, It's a wordpress blog. But the main site isn't. So will this plug-in generate the sitemap for the wholesite (i.e from the root downwards?) Thanks

Well... what about the links in the footer of the home page? I don't like them, but that would help your "home page" issue. Or, without giving up with the IP detection, still offer the opportunity to choose the territorial version using a selector?

This is exactly what we do as well, or if the product is obsolete always keep the page and use it to suggest relevant products.

Mmm... it is not the webmaster that does the 301... it is your server that does it. I mean: the inbound link send to your old url page search engines bot (and users) follow that link and arrive to your site your server sees that a visit is directed to the old url the server then apply the rule you gave him via .htaccess (for instance) and redirect the visit to the new url of the page In this "transfer" a little bit of pagerank seems getting lost, that is why is alway better to ask to the owner of the site where the backlink is to update the link itself, if possible.