Value of URL Re-Directs? Please advise

Hello,

I'm currently working on a wedding site's SEO, and I have some important questions regarding 301 re-directs and their value to the site's SEO.

For the record, the site URL I use below is just an example and is not my client, nor the city they are located in.

I am currently trying to implement 301 re-directs server side with my developer, to ensure that the links have more of the keywords that are being searched for. Here's are three examples, so you can understand the trend:

Home Page: http://www.greatweddings.com REDIRECT TO http://www.greatweddings.com/boston
Beauty Page: http://www.greatweddings.com/category.php?currentSection=1 REDIRECT TO http://www.greatweddings.com/boston/beauty
Bridal Gowns: http://www.greatweddings.com/category.php?currentSection=2 REDIRECT TO http://www.greatweddings.com/boston/bridal-gowns

Will these re-directs have a great impact on helping my search rank better for boston wedding terms?

Thank you for any information you can share!

-F

As I understand it you are redirecting a URL to a new URL that has boston in the URL.

If you have the same page all you have achieved is to change the URL and as such it will give a very very minimal effect for SEO.

There are lots of things you can do to get better GEO Targetting, changing the URL is not something that will have a dramatic effect.

Presumably the page mentions Boston on it and in the title?

I think you might be focusing you attentions in the wrong area if geo targetting is important for you.

If the pages have existing links the redirect might blunt some of their impact.

Don't 301 redirect retain all of the link's current rank and links?

Thanks,

F

The site has just been updated with Boston terms and all titles and within the body copy as well (we are waiting to be indexed by the search engines).

You refer to a few other strategies to improve Geo targeting, can you please elaborate? I have set up a Local Business listing on Google and am not seeing it show up.

There is doubt about their ability to pass anchor text and relevance.