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301 Redirect With A Message And Delay
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Hello,
I'd like to sell a site I own. I'd like the site to be redirected to the buyers site with a 301 redirect. But I'd like the viewer to be informed that the site was purchased by this company and they will be redirect in 5 seconds.I'd like for the redirect to be a complete 301 and pass as much linklove as possible.
Are you familiar with how to do this?
Thanks,
Tyler
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Like Mr. Barth says, 301 redirects occur on the server level, before a page is even served up to the end user, and so presenting an alternate isn't possible this way.
You could use the meta refresh tag, or another server side technology like php or asp to accomplish this. Do this and the link juice is gone, though. To address that issue, you should use a rel canonical tag to tell robots that the buyers site is the canonical version of your domain, and assign all value there.
EDIT: To be clear, I'm recommending you both forward the request AND use rel canonical.
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I believe that is commonly done with the meta refresh tag. From http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/redirection:
Meta Refresh
Meta refreshes are a type of redirect that is executed on the page level rather than the server level (They are usually slower and not a recommended SEO technique). They are most commonly associated with a 5 second count down with text "If you are not redirected in 5 seconds, click here". Meta refreshes do pass some link juice but are not recommended as an SEO tactic due to usability and the loss of link juice passed.
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