I'm trying to get Drupal and FCKeditor to work together so they syntax highlight my <code> tags, but right now FCKeditor is simply escaping them.

Is there a big SEO advantage to using <code> tags over plain text?

There's no need to leave the page "published." As long as the 301 redirect is in place, the new page (which should have identical content to the old page) will be seen as the new destination for the old page, and will get re-indexed.

For those that are creating the redirect on the page (as opposed to in your .htaccess file), you'll want to make sure you leave the page up, as the page itself contains the redirect. If you take the page down prematurely, anyone that follows a backlink pointing to that page will receive a 404 Page Not Found.

I'm using a Drupal site. I'll typically 301 redirect an old page to a new page via my .htaccess file, but then leave the old page "published" until the new one redirects. Is this necessary, or can I "unpublish" it right after I put the 301 redirect in place?

As soon as the new page is indexed, you can take the old page down. I would leave the redirect in place, however (since you've redirecting via .htaccess), at least until the old page has been removed from the index. The longer you leave it, the longer you'll get traffic from backlinks pointing to the old URL.

If I'm 301 redirecting an old page to a new location (ie. a new page), when can I take the old page down? Do I need to only wait for the new page to be indexed, or until the new one is indexed and the old one removed?

In other words, when can I take the old page down? I'm doing the 301 redirect via .htaccess, btw.

Thanks for the heads up Asterix. Will be sure to keep an eye out for this one. Unbelievable.

I got a letter in the mail recently that looks like a total scam to me. I'm wondering if anyone here can confirm, or if you've gotten a similar letter - please comment.

The letter came surface mail and is from ICLS.net. According to their website, they are the "Internet Corporation Listing Service." I didn't actually visit the website - I got this from the Google SERPs. They claim: "ICLS.NET is a search engine ranking and submission services firm. Our goal is to improve your rankings on search engines."

Hahaha! Don't make me laugh. They tried to get me to purchase a search engine listing for one of my domain names. Guess what? Search engine listings don't exist/ work anymore!

Just to save the next person the trouble, if you get a letter from ICLS.net, shred and recycle it immediately.

They wanted me to order their "internet listing" service for two of my domain names, with the claim that "with payment you will become a customer and receive domain name submission to 25 established search engines, quarterly search engine position and ranking reports for eight keyword/ phrase listings from 25 major search engines."

Here's the problem ICLS: There are only 3 major search engines that make up 99% of searches (Google, Yahoo, MSN). Here's the other problem - it does you 0% good to list with them.

ICLS.net wanted $65/ year/ domain name for this service. Don't fall for it folks!!