I've found you can't keep it's PR, all expired domains I've bought at auction from about 2 years ago have had their PR/backlinks reset unfortunately. Stopped buying them for that reason. David Law
I buy expired domains with PR all the time. The trick is to make sure they still have google backlinks. If they lose their google backlinks, then there's a chance they will also lose their pr. That being said, after buying about 100 expired domains over the last 2 years, I've only have 4 or 5 completly lose their pr. I also agree with keeping the niche of the site the same as it was when it gathered the PR. Also, if possible, try to keep the regiration information the same for as long as possible. Finally, add some quality inbound backlinks to support the PR. You should never stop adding new backlinks.
I've bought about 50 in total ranging from PR0 (for the name) to PR5 (for the PR ) and after a few PR updates the ones I've added new links to have got the sort of PR I'd expect from the new links and no longer show the old backlinks in a link: search. The ones I've added no links to (not many I'll admit) have lost all PR and backlinks. The ones I bought I think three years ago (when I first started buying them) held their PR and backlinks, it was the ones I bought around 2 years ago that lost PR. The domains aren't banned or anything, just had to use other PR sources to get them ranked. Been about 2 years since I bought an expired domain and will say I didn't always keep the theme of the site. So not tested keeping exactly the same theme, but some of them didn't have major theme changes. For that reason stopped buying them as better to buy new domains with exactly the names I want. I have considered buying PRX domains putting an affiliate site on them (dead easy to do) and selling them, but feels a bit underhanded so not done that. David Law
Exactly right, if you buy a PR5 domain with no backlinks it will drop like a rock. If the backlinks that made it a PR5 last update still exist it will keep it's PR. I've had many actually go up, i listed one here that was a PR3 for about $30 and nobody bought it and 3 weeks later it went to PR6 in the update. It's all about links.
This is correct information , the greenbar will disappear on the next update if you change ownership , unless you add new links of course , PageRank goes to pages only , not to domains ( in themselves) I would buy blogs instead ( where ownership does not change and theme is kept 100%)
In my experience buying domains that have NOT expired will keep their PR (unless you do something dumb and get it banned), but a domain that's actually expired like you find in expired domain auctions don't hold PR long term. Might give it another try since a few posters above appear to be the type that wouldn't make this sort of stuff up, so either they've made a mistake or I have. I'm practically perfect in every way, not 100% perfect, still working on that . David Law
It depends. In the case that the expired domain loses it's PR, it's usually because it lost it's google backlinks. Sometimes (not always -- probably not even half the time), when a domain expires, the google backlinks are reset to 0. If the google backlinks are reset to 0, then there is a chance (not always -- probably not even half the time) that the domain will lose it's previous PR, unless new quality backlinks are added. There's no hard and fast rule here. However, if a domain loses it's google backlinks, then there is significant risk that it will lose it's PR as well.
correction on what I wrote above In other words far better to buy an unexpired domain with apparent PR than an expired domain with apparent ( greenbar) PR
It is nice if the domain, keep the backlinks and start building on that, if not you have to start afresh. Good luck