301 Redirects and Link Equity

[triggerfinger]

Imagine a website:

It ranks #1 for "Limegreen Widgets", but the landing page is terrible, and doesn't convert so well.

We have a better landing page with back-end software integrated, but it's located at a different URL. We cannot integrate this into the current landing page due to technical issues.

The instinct is to 301 Redirect the current (poorly performing) landing page to the new optimized landing page.

The objective is to remain #1 for the term. Does implementing this Redirect put us at danger for a ranking drop? If so, is there any method we can use to avoid this?

[triggerfinger]

So I can 301 the old page to the new page, and replace my internal links with links to the new page? Our hopes would be that the new page gets the same ranking.
Anyone have experience as to whether this would negatively affect ranking?

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

Forget 301 in this scenario, instead link to the desired page from the existing page. This will create a "double listing" effect in serps when the current page is returned assuming you have equally good content on both. You'll also want to make sure the desired page is benefiting from the same prominence within your internal link structure.

If you say the desired page is better this is how you'd tell google it's better.