301 Redirect Question

I was hoping to seek your guys advice on how to best approach my new website.

-I have two domains, 1 new and 1 that I scooped from auction a few years back.
-I prefer the name of the new domain, but the aged domain has good metrics and is still niche relevant (9 Years Old, Page Rank 2, DA 37, PA 46, 306 backlinks)

Would I put myself at a big disadvantage by 301 redirecting to the new domain and focusing on that, or should I just use the old quality domain and focus on it for best results?

Thanks for your answers folks

It's up to you. Both the variants are OK.

If you're going for a bigger or authority website, then the better name would work better as people could remember it more easily. But if you're only relying on SEO then the name doesn't really matter.

I would use the new domain and redirect the aged one to it if the name is that much better, if not I would just use the aged domain and build off the old authority of it.

It really depends on whether you are going for the organic traffic of the old site or if the branding would be easier with the new domain.

jimbobo2779 said:

I would use the new domain and redirect the aged one to it if the name is that much better, if not I would just use the aged domain and build off the old authority of it.

It really depends on whether you are going for the organic traffic of the old site or if the branding would be easier with the new domain.

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The branding is fine with both, however the old one has a "-" which bothers me a bit.

1) So by using a new domain with a 301 redirect from the old one with all the serp value I won't be hindering myself in the short term? I know in the long term it will be fine.
2) Would it be wise to send some social signals or something to the old valuable domain after it's 301 redirected? As it hasn't been active for some time.

This is what I do and have had great success with: -

Build the site on the aged domain and start building links to it. Once all the pages have been indexed leave it to sit for a few months continuing to build links. After a few months 301 Redirect the old site to the new site. Things will jump arround a bit for a few weeks but once things settle down the new site should start to rank where the old site used to. The important thing to remember is not to be too quick to redirect it. Be patient and let Google fully index the site and get comfortable with the content of the site and the links you are building to it. Only then should you do the redirect. Hope that helps.

Thank you Bigweb, that's the info I needed. I am really concerned about the short term SERP success so I decided to use the old domain.