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As far as SEO goes, buying backlinks is just a No-No, getting 500 high PR links in 7-14 days... when you previously didnt have even half that, Google aren't that stupid, at the end of the day, buying back links can potentially do a lot more harm than good

My advice would be not to delete both pages immediately to put a count down warning on each page, with regular updates, for example, THIS PAGE WILL NO LONGER BE ACTIVE IN 10 DAYS please come over to our new page to continue receiving information. then you leave like a final this page is closed post again redirecting to the new pages, and finally i would delete after a couple of weeks... I know it's extra work, but people don't always read their e-mails especially those who receive thousands a day, you will find all your active members will get the notice, and that's really the majority that matters, right?