2-stage 301 redirects

[Usearch]

Dear colleagues, I have quite an unusual situation with one of my client's websites, and I could use an advise from someone who experienced the same circumstances: They are currently planning on launching a new site under the same domain (by September), when several key current pages are intended to be replaced with new equivalent pages under new URLs. So far it's pretty simple, BUT - due to a merger with another company they will be migrating their entire website to a different domain within a year. My question is - what would be the optimal solution for redirects? We are considering a 301 from the current pages to the new pages under the same domain, and once the new domain is activated - aside from defining 301 redirects from the new pages under the same domain to the new domain, we will cancel the original 301 from the old pages to the new pages on the same domain, and instead define new 301 for those pages to the new domain. What do you think? Is there a better solution - like using 302 redirects for the first stage? Has anyone tried such a procedure? Your input will be highly appreciated! Thanks in advance, Omer

[firstconversion]

Pretty standard. Just 301

[ShaMenz]

...or use simple rewrites (without a redirect statement) until you are ready to move the site and then apply 301 redirects as normal. Such rewrites simply serve the alternative page content when a request is made for the target URL.

Sha

[Usearch]

Thanks Sha, that's a new perspective

Do you mean URL rewrites? Like the mechanism used to implement friendly URLs?

[ShaMenz]

Yes, sorry...I tend to refer to them as "simple" rewrites because a lot of people get confused by the difference

Sha

[Usearch]

Great, thanks!

Have you had any experience with this process? My client is anxious about a sandbox effect on the final domain so I'm trying to be as safe as possible.

[ShaMenz]

URL rewrites effectively change nothing from the SE point of view - the URL stays the same in the browser & the server just loads the alternative page content.

By the same token, just using 301's for both stages as Stephen suggested is not going to create a problem for the domain either, UNLESS there is already a chain of 301 redirects behind the existing domain.

If your client is super concerned about adding more than one 301 redirect, they might know something that you don't. Matt Cutts talked about chaining 301's together in this webmaster video.

Hope that helps,

Sha

[Usearch]

Thanks Sha! that was incredibly useful