Do you choose PA/DA over PR when purchasing expiring domains?

[nicenike]

Hey guys,

So a lot has been said about private blog network. I have but only 1 question: Do you choose PA/DA over PR when purchasing expiring domains or PR is most critical?

Thanks a lot!

[KeithR]

That's a really good answer!  I have seen some REALLY confusing metrics on the web, and in particular one site that claims to calculate link juice -

<cite class="_jd">www.ecreativeim.com/pagerank-link-juice-calculator.php</cite>‎ The calculations done by this tool indicate that almost no link juice is passed without PR! I beg to differ  - what do you say?KeithPS: Love the tools you guys design!

[Dr-Pete]

Obviously, we at Moz have some bias toward PA/DA, but I think there's a lot of danger in focusing on any one metric when buying a domain. For example, PA/DA look more at the strength of your link profile than certain spam factors, so we may miss if a domain has been penalized or devalued (something we're actively working on). The raw strength of a link profile, even without mitigating circumstance can be misleading, too - for example, if the domain isn't relevant to the new use then buying an repurposing it could result in a site with substantially lower value than the original.

The biggest issue with (toolbar) PR is that it's often out of date. It can also be gamed. Shady domain sellers can do things like mass 301-redirects that make a domain look stronger for a while (until the toolbar PR gets updated) but disappear as soon as they pull the plug - usually after you've written the check.

Long story short, it depends a lot on your use case, and I'd strongly recommend against relying on just one metric.