: If there is a time delay before a redirect, is link juice affected? If a redirect happens with the following code: <?php $delay = 5; //seconds sleep($delay); header('HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently');

@Caterina187

301 Redirects can affect link value and rankings might dance a little - just make sure you did the proper optimization of the new domain. I don't think users will bother with the redirect as long as the content is there. How about putting the notice on the new domain instead? delay that might affect page speed and their attention.

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@Berumen354

Although John Muller has confirmed that no PageRank(RIP) is lost, Moz has claimed that there is some studies that confirmed the contrary. Either way, in my opinion, it is safer to assume that some “link juice” is lost.

The delay won’t really matters because clients wait for the server response and then fetch response content. 301 will be the response, In which case “link flow” will not be disrupted. Technically in the SEO world this is not worth trying, even if you want to deceive Google.

If you want to do this to let users know in 5 seconds that you page has moved, use JavaScript to redirect. It is healthier.

After Question Clarification

If the content stays the same between the old and the new domain, I would recommend to leave the content up, take advantage of well supported cross-domain canocalisation and create a canonical tag making reference to the new domain. I would also create a Pop-Up window or a top sliding window message to display a notification text with a link to the new page/domain. Then, wait until Google Index the new domain or De-Index the old domain entirely, and implement the 301.

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