Link Acquisition - PA vs PR

[initialeffort]

I am wondering if someone can please advise on link acquisition. I have the opportunity to acquire a few good backlinks that will bring both traffic and some potential link juice. All things aside, if we are strictly comparing Page Authority with Google PageRank which will provide the most benefit to my SERP ranking?

1. Google PageRank 4 and Page Authority of 25

or

2. Google PageRank 2 and Page Authority of 35

We are strictly talking about SERPs!

[DavidWolf58]

You are comparing apples and oranges. The combination of PR and pa isn't really going to help you as much as some other Moz metrics. If you are spending time and effort getting links as opposed to mass spam stuff you will want to focus on the subdomain mozrank of the potential link your are getting. Especially if it is a blog related link. That is because your page will grow in authority over time as google indexes more pages on that website that contain links back to that specific post. Great links grow in value over time and crappy links dont. Domain authority is valuable, but it can misrepresent the value of a link if the following occurs:

The website uses spammy methods to link build (Linkscape doesn't do a very good job of determining the difference between contextual based links and comment spam.

The link you are getting is on a subdomain of the website (DA takes into account the domain mozrank which is different than the subdomain which is more important. Especially on hosted blogs like wordpress, blogger, or typepad)

I have asked Ran, and tend to agree with him that you are much better focusing on links on high authority subdomain mozranks with low PA than low domain authorities with a high PA.

That being said. Make sure you also take into account the amount of links on the page. Whatever authority you are going to grab is going to be split amongst those links. It may also be beneficial to spend a proportional amount of time evaluating to the value of the links. If you have a choice between two websites that are in the 70's of DA range you should be spending a lot more time evaluating than DA's in the 20's and 30's

[RyanKent]

Obviously I should take a PR4/PA35 over a PR4/PA20, but should I take a PR2/PA35 over a PR4/PA25?

Take the PA35 and treat the PR stat as if it doesn't exist.

Numeric measurements have value as long as they are accurate. Google has clearly stated PR data is not updated even on a monthly basis. Everything I have seen indicates it is basically a deprecated system of measurement.

[initialeffort]

Yes, but I also thought DA was already factored in PA.

I am asking if anyone has any practical experience building links when they target PA only, rather than PR.

Obviously I should take a PR4/PA35 over a PR4/PA20, but should I take a PR2/PA35 over a PR4/PA25?

(I have watched all the videos and explanations, thank you for the great links. I also have the mozBar).

[blackballonline]

PageRank is an outdated stat. Google doesn't update it very much (if at all) anymore so you're looking at outdated data if you use PR. Page Authority on the other hand is calculated much more frequently. One other metric which you can get (and should heavily consider) from the updated SEOMoz Toolbar for Firefox or Chrome is Domain Authority.

Rand Just did a great Whiteboard Friday Video on Link Acquisition called Competitive Link Analysis Tips.