The Tale of Two Domains - Which One Would You Choose to Buy?

A good domain for a private blog network doesn't need to have lots of links pointing towards it to be of value. Here's an example why:
Domain 1:
PR = 2
DA = 26
Linking root domains = 42
Linking C Class blocks = 11
Domain 2:
PR = NA as it expired a long time ago and has dropped out of the Google index
DA = 11
Linking root domains = 1
Linking C Class blocks = 1

So which one would you rather have for your private blog network? Surely the first one right?
Are you so sure of your initial buying decision now? Is Domain 1 really the better choice?

Lets say domain 1 is currently  on auction at Godaddy. Current bid price is $80 so expect a final price over $100.
Domain 2 is currently not registered at all so it would cost around $10 - $15 with privacy enabled.

Domain 1's best link is, say on a blogroll spot of a PR4 site along with a bunch pf other outbound links
Domain 2's best (and only) link is this PR4 one from an authority site

The single PR4 from an authority site, in my opinion, is a lot more better than all of the links Domain 1 has put together. Why? Because I could probably build the same or similar links to Domain 1 myself given time but I could NEVER replicate the editorial link from an authority site that Domain 2 has.

And that's why trust is so important. MozTrust is based around the concept of Trust Rank which was actually a Yahoo patent originally (although most people accept that Google do something very similar). It is a measure of how far away from a trusted set of "seed sites" your site is.

So Domain 2 above is 1 "hop" away from a trusted site which would probably form part of that set of seed sites. If you then link through to your money site from this domain, it is 2 hops away.
Other sites that might make up the set of seed sites are universities, large association websites, large charities, large news sites, foreign government and university websites etc.

I believe that MozTrust is a very good metric to use when deciding what domains to buy. I use it as my main metric above others like DA or even PR.

So next time you are looking at domains to buy, don't just go for the one with more links or a higher Domain Authority. Take a closer look and see if there are some hidden details that most other people will overlook.

Please note: when looking at MozTrust (or any other Moz metric), you should ensure that you only look at the scores for the root domain and not the page or subdomain.