Does 301 redirect of old filenames still work?

[optimind]

I have gone through several revisions of my site. We used to have only static pages in HTML. I had search-engine-optimization.html changed to seo-philippines.html changed to /seo-philippines/

I 301 redirected all of them whenever I change the filenames. This is in the course of 6 years worth of link building and I'm wondering if this has an effect because our rankings go down everytime we do this.

[RanjeetP]

Yes Wendy, the frequent changes in the file names will definitely have an impact in the rankings. Though, you are using a SE friendly redirect, it is STILL a new URL for the SE to index. Everytime it finds a redirect, it takes some time to understand and pass on the value.

When the value is passed, when through a 301 redirect, there is some link juice lost. Also, when you redirect A To B and then B To C, make sure you also redirect A To C. Do not have dual redirection on the old filenames, change everything when there is a change in filename, including the link building also (old links and new acquired).

I would still suggest to refrain from doing frequent changes to file names!

[optimind]

thanks. this is helpful. i did change twice since 2004 because of the redesign and more recently, the change in platform (changed to wordpress from static)