For those of you who are not aware, PBN stands for Private Blog Network. It is a search engine optimization (SEO) tool that raises a great deal of controversy with SEO specialists. And even though people might think that the concept of PBN is a current trend, the truth is that it has been around for over a decade now. What’s even more important, it’s proved to be quite an effective SEO strategy, if you implement it properly, of course. So what are the risks and rewards of investing in PBN development to boost your rankings? Opinions vary greatly among professional moving company developers, website buyers and SEO experts.
What Are PBNs and the contribution of PBN development?
PBNs are basically dead websites. Expired domains that you can hardly locate unless with the help of tools such as Wayback Machine. And the good thing about these domains is that they have a “lot of SEO juice”. In other words, they have good value with Google and are able to rank for keywords much faster because of it. And if you were to link these domains to your website, that juice is passed along. So you end up with a boost in the eyes of Google as well.
How do you go about acquiring PBNs?
There are many different ways to hunt down these domains. SEO specialists sometimes scrape the Internet using software that hunts for abandoned domains. Other times they will look to purchase them through online domain auctions. Each domain you find should be checked through tools such as:
These tools can help you ensure that the domains used to be real and healthy sites, and not spammed sites with questionable content. You use them to confirm that there are still live links from other websites pointing towards them. If the stats look good and spam-free, then the SEO expert would label that domain as a real site that once had high-quality link content. You would then purchase that domain and host it (usually on different hosts from your money sites and other PBN sites), and rebuild the entire website.
What is the purpose of PBN development?
You will find that most SEOs will use PBNs for the promotion and selling of backlinks to other website owners. The thing you should consider with these kinds of offers is open to risk. There is a difference to be made between Public and Private Blog Networks. In other words, by selling links to various clients, you run the risk of Google discovering the ploy and responding. And believe me, if there is one thing that you want to avoid, that is for Google to penalize you. Private Blog Networks have a reduced risk of penalization, seeing that links are not sold to anyone but are instead used for specific sites only.
The main purpose of buying and rebuilding expired domains in PBNs is absolute control of link implementation. SEOs are able to control the exact amount of links they aim towards their own websites. It also means their content may be not as high-quality since the focus is put on the multitude of links to ensure standing with Google.
However, there are many of those who invest a lot of time and effort in high-quality content on PBNs. It makes getting links all the much easier. Others argue that the white hat principle is much more effective, cheaper and less of a hassle to use. All this goes back to the fact that the longer you use PBNs, the more exposed you are to being penalized by Google. Add to that the cost of PBN development grows substantially as the network grows. So you are ultimately left with a choice – invest or not?
Should you buy a site built with PBN development?
I understand that all this is a lot of information to process. And you still haven’t received the answer to the question whether or not you should purchase a site built with a PBN. It all comes down to who you are and the resources you have at your disposal.
If you have no prior understanding of SEO, PBNs might not be the best place to start. After all, why would you want to plunge into a venture without knowing the risks? And the truth of the matter is that a PBN-built site is always going to be riskier than a white hat site. This does not mean that white hat sites are perfect, of course. In fact, no SEO strategy is 100% safe, but everyone has potential under the right conditions. All of this can lead to long-term profits. But you should be well aware of the risks involved with each of them before purchasing any kind of online asset.
What mostly affect the decision to buy a PBN is whether or not you are willing to accept the risks that go with it. And if you are, you need to have a plan on how to minimize those risks. For example, you can do this by mixing it up with some white hat links. A site founded on PBN development will acquire organic links in due time with the increase in visitors. So ultimately, the PBN you own will become redundant.
In addition to these natural links, you should also do white hat link building campaigns. A campaign such as a series of guest posts on other powerful websites to again minimize the potential risk.
13 benefits of PBN SEO for small and growing businesses
Ranking for target keywords and growing your online presence is becoming increasingly difficult. With every new update, Google and other search engines find ways to make SEO more challenging for businesses. However, one way to resolve this has always been and remains (to a certain point) PBN SEO. In spite of the claims of some, here are 13 important advantages and downsides of this tactic:
1. It helps ranking struggles in SERPs
By building and using a private blog network, you have the ability to build that particular PBN for certain keywords. Once published and indexed, articles that you publish can rank for certain terms, giving them authority online. You can then use that link juice and pass it on to your website
2. PBN SEO helps you tackle the competitive niche
With such a high number of websites and web pages, it can be difficult to stay ahead of the competition. Sure, there are options such as spending money on PPC campaigns and hoping to make an impact. But, the PBN solution here can work as well. Given that you can build a strong website, which can offer quality in terms of information.
3. High-quality traffic
Growing companies always have a need for more traffic on their websites. But even more than that, you need to ensure that the traffic you attract has great potential to convert. Otherwise, you just have people coming to your website to look instead of purchase. PBN SEO can help you attract high-quality leads to your website through the right keywords.
4. You can outrank the competition for focus keywords
More referring domains, older sites, quality content, strong PBN links – these are some of the factors that can ensure online authority for certain search terms. So, in order to dominate here, you have to have your own private blog network. Furthermore, you can develop a proper link building strategy to keep up with the competition.
5. PBN SEO takes time and energy
It’s not a process that will occur overnight. You need to take the time and energy (and financial investment) to ensure proper PBN development. Once you have all that, you will be able to experience the fruits of your labor.
Priorities are important here – so you must not forget what matters most, and that is for your company website to grow in value. Otherwise, the research, building, developing and nurturing of your PBN becomes an expense you can’t refund.
6. PBN development and maintenance take time and money
Depending on the content quality and PBN hosting, a private blog network with 10 blogs could come up to more than $1000 annually. And you have to add to that the risk of de-valuation and de-indexing in cases of PBNs that are low in quality and those that have cheap hosting providers. So, you have to invest to ensure authenticity and proper indexing for your PBN SEO. This is a task that can prove challenging.
7. Outreaching SEO is a slow process
Outreaching is a strategy that focuses efforts on finding other bloggers and relevant website that can market your idea through backlinks and coverage. This is a process that demands research, communication and negotiation. With PBN SEO, however, you can make the outreach process much easier on your team. Splitting the focus between your blog network and guest blogging in a balanced way can lead to the results you want to achieve.
8. PBNs can help you create strong SEO campaigns
Think of private blog networks as a blank sheet – one that you can continuously use to practice and test your SEO strategies. Given that PBN SEO structures can fit any given field, you can use them to perfect SEO campaigns and provide link juice towards your main website.
9. There are also public blog networks to consider
By definition, these are private blog networks that have been monetized. The switch from private to public can be made receive earnings from a website.
10. Increase in earnings
Switching from private to public can result in additional earnings. And you will find a number of PBN owners that prefer to rent out their blog for use to other website owners for the purpose of guest posting and backlink building. Depending on the strength of the blog network in question, the cost for guest posting can be high.
11. Get natural traffic
The bare minimum of any quality blog content ranges between 1000-3000 words. And preparing all that content can be quite challenging. However, if you have the right tools and preparation for the job, you can be as good as set for the work ahead. Using tools such as SEMrush to research target keywords with the most traffic and least competition can help you target correctly and make just the right impact.
These keywords should be used in such a way to give them a natural look and appearance. As a result, you will be able to avoid any red flags for spam content and grow your natural traffic in a way that search engines won’t look to penalize.
12. PBN SEO strategies tend to live on despite other changes
Although Google has shown a tendency to change influencing factors in their SEO rankings, well developed PBNs have remained a helpful tool in maintaining online authority. However, bear in mind that this is only the case for PBN development that obeys by the rules and remains both natural and spam-free.
13. PBN SEO provides you with the necessary exposure
When you manage to rank well for a chosen keyword or search term, you are able to gather visibility for your website. From social media sharing to emailing lists, you can boost your traffic through quality content. This is yet another way for you to test different approaches and content influences.
PBN development is still a good investment, even in 2019
Even with the layers of risk and complexity that PBNs bring to the table, they can still be a good investment. If you were to do some research, you would find many people that have bought a PBN-built website and are still profiting from it. And if they are no longer profiting, from it, they are still receiving traffic based on them.
So, if it so happens that you find a site that you consider ideal, do not let the influence of PBN dissuade you from buying it. This especially goes if the site has the potential to grow. If you develop the website, you are able to minimize the risk of PBN with more sustainable links. Thus you receive rich content with minimum risk.
And even if you choose not to grow and develop the website further, you can benefit from it. The website can still deliver a consistent income that takes a minimal amount of time to manage – several hours a month in fact.
So to conclude, it all comes down to your particular level of comfort when it comes to taking risks. At the end of the day, you are the one that’s making the choice. But it is my hope that this post has shed some light on what your options are.
