Another 301 redirect question - penalty?

[Prime85]

Good Morning,

We have 2 sites have images and minimal text on them.

The images have links that point to a 3^rd site that facilitates eCommerce.

Question: If we 301 redirect these sites permanently to yet a 4^th site…

1)      Does it violate any G’s guidelines

2)      Should we delete the links embedded in the images (as they point to the 3^rd site)

Thanks

[ninjaprecision]

So you have 2 sites that "point" (do you mean link?) to a 3rd site (your store) and you want to redirect all three of them to a 4th site?

[Prime85]

The 2 sites contain multiple links, pointing to various items in the 3^rd site.

We’re considering deleting all of these links and 301-redirecting these 2 sites to a 4^th (new) site.

[ninjaprecision]

Without knowing the whole story it's hard to know 100% what Google would make of this. However, I don't really see anything that would be considered a violation. Are you not concerned with what happens to the 3rd site from here on in?

[ScottJames13]

If you have Google Webmaster Tools installed on you old domain then you can inform Google that you're moving domains, and then you can do a 301 redirect.

If you're doing a 301 redirect with no preservation of the entire site, this means that every page on the site will redirect to your 4th site,  then it won't matter if you delete the links in the images as the pages those links will now forward to your 4th site.

Or you can have the 301 redirect preserve you requests, this means that a user asking for /best-shoes.html on your old site will still see best-shoes on your new site.

[Prime85]

Thanks to you both.  Great info...