301's and PageRank

[lafmm]

A connection of mine asked this question on LinkedIn - thanks for the help -

What are the SEO implications of undoing a 301 redirect? Specifically, once the redirect is dropped, is accumulated PageRank transferred to the original URL or is lost all together?

For illustrative purpose only: My personal blog (jimlim.COM) which carries both English and Korean content is frequently visited by a small, but loyal audience based primarily in the US and in Korea. I happen to own jimlim.CO.KR (“.co.kr” = Korean top-level domain), which for the past two years has redirected users and crawlers to jimlim.COM. Throughout this time, hundreds of Korean sites (.co.kr) have linked to jimlim.CO.KR, which thanks to the implemented 301 redirect, has actually boosted the PageRank of jimlim.COM.

Feeling confident in my grasp of the Korean language, I’ve decided to undo the 301 redirect (that redirected jimlim.CO.KR to jimlim.COM) and launch a separate version of my blog on jimlim.CO.KR, which will display content exclusively in Korean. Here’s my question: Once I undo the 301 redirect, what exactly happens to the accumulated PageRank (generated by the redirected inbound links stemming from the “hundreds of Korean sites” mentioned above)? Is this link equity lost or is it merely transferred to jimlim.CO.KR? Your thoughts?

[beu]

Good question lafmm! I would consider leaving the redirect in place and offering users the option to choose a version at the new domain. Thought being relevancy, English sites with inbound links pointing to the previous English version wouldn't be relevant to a new version in Korean. You might also consider returning different pages based on user-agent language settings or geo but if you go that route remember not to treat robots differently than other users.

[metasynman]

beu's got a great point. I think Cutts even touched on this in a discussion on subdomains (although this wouldn't technically be a subdomain).

Basically if you create a Korean translated (or separate?) version under the main .com domain, you'll be essentially adding traffic to one domain rather than splitting it in two. By creating jimlim.com/kr, you're housing all new multi-lingual content as well as catering to a new user group, all under one umbrella. This will effectively help boost your rankings and link value for the site that's already doing well, instead of starting over with a new domain.

edit: As a side note, I probably wouldn't call your folder /kr... that was just an example. Using the Korean word for the Korean language would be better for search juice in that language. I have a client who has an entire Spanish-translated version of his site, but all the URL's and filenames are still in English. It was pretty easy to tell him what to fix first.

[root123]

Visiting this post I've learned a lot....Thanks to all of you!!!!!

[Chris Boggs]

This is really a decision you could go either way, since the content is technically different. In order to establish a strong following in Korea, I think I would actually keep the two separate domains. You will not lose the link equity to the .co.kr, but you are going to have to start anew by promoting the .com english version and getting links to it. But hey, you work for SEW so find some nice pages on the main site to drop links to it, if he/she is that good of a friend.