301 redirection pointing to noindexed pages

[LosNomads]

I have rather an unusual situation where a recently launched affiliate site does not have any unique content as its all syndicated content. For that reason we are currently using the noindex,nofollow meta tags to keep the pages out of the search engines index until we create unique content for the pages.

The problem is that due to a very tight timeframe with rebranding, we are looking at 301 redirecting (on a page to page basis) another high authority legacy domain to this new site before we have had a chance to add unique content to it and remove the noindex,nofollow tags.

I would assume that any link authority normally passed through the 301 would be lost in this scenario but Im uncertain of what the broader impact might be. Has anyone dealt with a similar scenario?

I know this scenario is not ideal and I would rather wait until the unique content is up and noindex tags are removed before launching the 301 redirect of the legacy domain but there are a number of competing priorities at play outside of SEO.

[LynnPatchett]

Hi,

No direct experience but from a technical point of view the authority passed through the 301 would not be lost as such, just not of any use in ranking the new page since it is noindex. Once you allow it to be indexed it will start to appear in the search results and any extra push given by the 301 should be as expected. That being said, it might be an idea to noindex, follow the pages in question so any authority added can flow through your no indexed pages to your indexed pages. In that respect it is the nofollow rather than the noindex which is causing authority from the 301 to be wasted/lost.