Does Domain Trust & PR get forwarded with a 301 redirect?

i am getting conflicting info about this.

i have a potential client that has an established, 8 year old PR4 website. he is planning on copying all site files/content/structure, keeping the old domain and 301 redirecting all the pages to a new keyword friendly domain...but this domain is 1 week old

i always thought that the link juice is forwarded in a 301 but the domain trustrank and PR will come from the actual domain itself. can someone please clarify this?

That is the only way to do it. Make sure to take care of url change in Google webmaster tool.

actually, they do have the option to keep their domain, but they are being sold by someone who is trying to get a keyword rich domain.

I think the loss in PR and trustrank will FAR outweigh the gain seen by a keyword in the domain.

do you know if the PR and trustrank will pass through with the 301?

In my experience, *some* of the linkjuice will pass to the 301's destination (note the word some).

The "trust" will not.

If the PR does pass to the new name (which is a big if), it is likely that it will be reported as fake or invalid.

You will never get the complete benefit using the aged domain. The PR will be passed to new domain, but the Trust Rank may not be passed fully.

Like someone already suggested use google webmaster tool to update 'permanently moved' status. By the way do it after your client suffer the drop in traffic. Let them know that you knew what you were talking.