301 question

If I 301 redirect to page a from page b, after a year can i remove the 301, or will it need to be set up permanently?

You can remove the redirect as and when u like..

However, the consequence of this will be page A will lose the link equity and the PR that was flowing in through the backlinks of page B

I understand, it needs to be a permanent thing really then. Unless you contact all of your back links and tell them to amend your URL because you have changed your domain. Then, I suppose, it is the only time that the 301 can be removed without losing important link juice.

Thank you for the help.

You can also try doing a 302 redirect (permanent change in document location) rather than a 301 as you go through the migration.

302 is a temporary redirection and not a permanent one...

besides, 302 between 2 domains is strictly against the Google quality guidelines

??

302s are temporary redirects.

Don't know about you but people, in general, don't have control over most of their backlinks. So, if you were to 301 a page and then remove that a year later, I don't think you can safely say that the lost link juice can all be regained so easily.

My bad with the 302 - thanks for pointing it out.

seogoat, you already got your answer.
Just to add something more.
You redirect page B to page A. When search engines will recognize the redirection as the permanent one, then page B will automatically removed.

I think we it is needless to do anything on a removed page.
Don't know whether I am right wrong, but it's my personal feeling.