Dropped domain names still retain PR?

**V + E + R + T** · 03-02-2005, 07:54 PM

Back in 2000, I unwillingly let one of my precious domain names drop to a competitor. Five years later (still wanting it back), the redemption period is now nearing, and I want to catch it before he renews it.

If I am able to catch the domain name, will the PR and backlinks still be retained?

**eSology** · 03-02-2005, 08:00 PM

Originally Posted by V + E + R + T

Back in 2000, I unwillingly let one of my precious domain names drop to a competitor. Five years later (still wanting it back), the redemption period is now nearing, and I want to catch it before he renews it.

If I am able to catch the domain name, will the PR and backlinks still be retained?

Most of the time the PR will get stripped. I have had a few that gained it back during the next update but it is a crap shoot.

**typeins** · 03-03-2005, 01:59 AM

They used to.. i wish they still did

**Stinos** · 03-06-2005, 09:52 AM

most of the time, the PR will disappear

**David G** · 03-06-2005, 10:41 AM

It's odd. I had a name with PR5 and the PR5 was retained for ages even though most all the links were gone long before it lost its high PR. Another name had a PR4 and within a few weeks dropped to PR0 even though many of the old links were still working at the time.

A big problem many domainers are not aware of is often times the links point to sub-pages. When you buy the name the subpages are gone. That means the links do not resolve. Eventually G spiders the name and sees the links do not resolve. That both drops the index ranking and also the page rank.

Another confusing issue is (from what I can tell) PR may not be the main factor in how well you rank in the SE index as there are other bigger factors involved such as title, keywords and content.