Multiple 301 redirects

Question

I have a scenario, where I am doing a site migration but the requirement is to show some message on the new site that "We have moved to a new site".

Here's 2 options I could think of:

1. Add parameter to the new URL i.e. https://old.example/product1 -> 301 -> https://new.example/product1?migrated

     +--------------------------------+
     |                                |
     |  https://old.example/product1  |
     |                                |
     +--------------+-----------------+
                    |
              301 Redirect
                    |
+-------------------v---------------------+
|                                         |
|  https://new.example/product1?migrated  |
|                                         |
+-----------------------------------------+

2. Add the parameter, then do another redirect to the actual page with two 301s i.e. https://old.example/product1 -> 301 -> https://new.example/product1?migrated -> 301 -> https://new.example/product1 and we will inject a cookie that the user is coming from an old domain.

     +--------------------------------+
     |                                |
     |  https://old.example/product1  |
     |                                |
     +--------------+-----------------+
                    |
              301 Redirect
                    |
+-------------------v---------------------+
|                                         |
|  https://new.example/product1?migrated  |
|                                         |
+-------------------+---------------------+
                    |
                    |
    +---------------v------------------+
    |                                  |
    |   Inject a cookie that the       |
    |   traffic is from old.example    |
    |   by understanding the           |
    |   parameter                      |
    |                                  |
    +----------------+-----------------+
                     |
               301 Redirect
                     |
     +---------------v-----------------+
     |                                 |
     |  https://new.example/product1   |
     |                                 |
     +---------------------------------+

3. Take leverage of the referrer header. Unfortunately, browsers do not carry this header to the new site.

My questions are:

1. How Google going to index new URL if we add ?migarted parameter to the URL? What is the impact SEO wise?
2. If I go with option 2, where I will have 301s twice. How much the site will be penalised, SEO-wise?
3. Any suggestions to handle such scenario?

Answer 1

Nothing is slowing down a google search link to https://new.example/product1 which is the one you want to promote in search engines.

The hard limit for browsers is 5 301s. Link shorteners, twitter, or google may use up one of them, and if going from twitter to a link shortener you may lose 2 of them. That gives a budget of three.

A lower number of 301s is better each one makes the browser request a page that does not arrive.

The benefit of option 1 is it is better for the user.

The benefit of option 2 is it does not create a duplicate URL.

A third option is https://new.example.com/product1#updated-url ... as the hash tag, "#" would not be considered a different URL by search engines.

Answer 2

Personally, I vote for option 1: "Add parameter to the new URL". Also, I would like to add some important tasks you need to take in addition, I believe you knew it, but take it as a friendly REMINDER:

• add a canonical tag to each page's URL (on top of your option 1)
• submit the change of address in Google Seach Console
• Be certain that all of the URL from the OLD domain is 301 redirected to the NEW domain's similar/proper pages.