Introduction to PBN - Does it Work for SEO?

09 - Jun - 2018

Search Engine Optimization

adnanaqeel

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Hey Fellas! We are here to help you with the latest information related to your field of interest so you keep coming back for what we have to offer. Today, I'm going to unlock the details on the Introduction to PBN and Why it Important for SEO. This is the fourteenth article of complete SEO series. You can check my previous article on Web 2.0. Before we move forward and check the importance of PBN in SEO, we must know what is PBN? PBN stands for private blogging network and is defined as a number of blogs you build for linking back to your main blog. A huge round of applause is due for the SEO Gurus who still guide you through traditional techniques for SEO that have been abandoned long while ago. It is true, PBN is used for better SEO that ultimately puts your blog on the top of search engines. But wait? Doesn't it work the way as it did before? Of course not. We know that online technology grows and evolves every day and using the same strategies over and over again for your blog to rank higher on SERP, doesn't make sense. Earlier, it was very easy to develop PBN, create a lot of blogs, and link back to your main blog, all the while ignoring if those blogs were relevant to the demands of the visitors. Google works smartly and precisely more than ever before. Most of the people pick internet to keep updated with most relevant and useful information. Google takes visitors' demands very seriously and doesn't rank the blogs that come with minor or no value to the end users. You can check our complete guide of SEO tutorials which contains all posts related to On Page and Off Page SEO. In this tutorial, I'll discuss each and everything related to PBN why it is important, its limitations and everything you need to know.

Introduction to PBN (Private Blogging Network)

PBN is a network that comes with a number of blogs that link back to your main blog. This is not a new trend and has been used quite a while now by most of the marketers. Creation of PBN helps your main blog appear on the top of search results; however, it is not as easy as it looks. Now, search engines come with smart algorithms, that don't prefer using this trend of creating a lot of blogs and link back to your main blog. If you do this, you will come with a higher chance of getting banned or penalized by Google and it will take no time to de-index your pages from the search engine.

Google not only counts the number of backlinks you get but it also analyzes and detects the quality of backlinks.
Low-quality backlinks pose a severe threat to the overall growth of your blog.
Google takes a number of things into account while checking the backlinks like relevance, page authority, domain authority, trust flow rate and citation flow.

1. Content

You have heard "Content is the King". There is no doubt about it. When it comes to checking the quality of your blog, content tops the list. What that being said, you are not going to spend as much time writing the content on PBN blogs as you do writing a content for your main blog.

You can do things faster if you adopt a smart approach.

Spinning the article is a good option as long as the spun article makes sense and adds value to your blog. However, there are tools like Dragon Speak which you can use to write the article faster. This software will write the words as you speak.

Length of the article does matter. Normally, articles that manage to secure a place on the first page of google search come with word length around 1800 to 2000 words.

However, the articles you post on the blogs fall under your PBN can comprise of length between 300 to 500 word, because the main aim of these blogs is to link back to your main blog and make it appear on the top of search results.

Also, this is not the only approach to write a post for PBN. Everyone develops their own strategies to run PBN. You can try different methods and stick with ones that work for you and deliver valuable results.

2. Domains

Buying and analyzing domains is the first step to make your journey successful with PBN. This is the process that requires special heed and brainstorming from your side. Don't get intimidated by the word "Brain Storming" what I mean here is buying and organizing the domains smartly.

Developing PBN around low quality and irrelevant sites can put your main blog at a huge risk.

And when you develop your blogging network, with a lot of backlinks from the similar blog at once, Google will weed out your blog from indexing and you may end up getting penalized or complete removal of your blog at the end. Following are the main things you may consider before buying domains.

A. Buying Expired Domains

Of course, you need to work your butt off if you intend to start a blog from scratch for developing your private blogging network. This is where buying expired domains come handy. Because these domains have some history and have some of their page indexed.

It is true, expired domains lose some authority after they get expired, but when you put some effort on them, you can turn them back on track.

Note: It is advised to explore the expired domains from vendors spread across the web than buying domains from auction websites.

B. Relevance

The domain you pick for PBN must be relevant to your main blog. Suppose if your blog is technology related, then getting a backlink from health blog will be highly deplorable and not recommended at any cost.

The domain you pick, if not is totally relevant, should come with a remote connection with your main blog. This will make Google think, that you are getting signals and recommendation from the legit websites that fall into your niche.

C. Page Authority and Domain Authority

PA and DA are two terms introduced by Moz.com, that play a vital role in highlighting the authority and quality of any blog. Based on the nature of your main blog, you can pick other blogs with a little higher domain authority.

However, if you want to remain in a safe side, you can pick the sites that come with 15+ DA.

D. Citation Flow and Trust Flow

Citation flow is the number of total links you get for your blog. And trust flow defines the quality of those backlinks. You can check the TF and CF of any blog by using the sites like Majestic. This tool doesn't predict the overall authority of the blog as Moz does.

Sites with TF with 10+ are good to get started with your blogging network.

E. Use Waybackmachine

You wouldn't want to buy the blogs that have already been used for PBN. There is a site called Waybackmachine that detects and explores the history of any blog. This tool will help you analyze the quality of backlinks of the domain you intend to buy. In this way, you can easily filter out the blogs that come with spammy links and have already been used for link building.

However, when you are checking backlinks on the sites like Ahrefs, you need to pay equal attention to the Anchor text ratio.

F. Pick Different Service Provider

Google will catch you up if you all of your blogs belong to the same service provider. Try to develop a strategy for PBN that determines your link building is based on diverse signals.

GoDaddy is good option to start with, but, don't buy all of your domains from this provider, as it will convey a clear idea you are doing something wrong and sneaky to get higher on the search results.
You need to maintain a clean and diverse link profile in order to get away from the eyes of Google.

3. Hosting

Picking right hosting plan is very important for maintaining PBN. Don't be surprised if Google bans you for getting a number of backlinks from the sites linked to the same hosting plan. Try to keep every site on its very own hosting. Keep following things in your mind before you intend to host your blog on any server.

ONE. There are a lot of platforms out there that help you in developing and maintaining a blogging network. You need to be very selective while getting benefit from these platforms. Some platforms do black hat SEO that is not admissible by the search engine. However, Easyblognetworks is a service that helps you grow your blogging network, where it provides link building from multiple platforms.
TWO. It is advised to host your websites on different IP addresses to make your profile diverse in nature. There are many sources through which you can hide your identity i.e Cloudflare proves to be very handy to hide your IP address.
THREE. Also, using public SEO hosting services can put your blogging network in danger. You can use infamous SEO hosting services to make your online presence hidden from the eyes of Google.
FOUR. You can choose any hosting plan based on your requirements, however, it is preferred to use a cheap hosting plan for the blogs under your PBN. You don't like to pay more than 10$ per year for one blog. However, exploring cheap hosting plan is not a walk in the park, you need to wrestle your mind and scrape through the internet to pick a relevant hosting plan. Buying shared hosting is another option that leaves you with satisfaction where you need to pay less than buying a separate hosting plan for your blogs.

4. Create Social Identity

You can't belittle the importance of social media in developing the blogging network strategy to boost your revenue and overall blog authority. Your backlink profile looks clean and natural if you develop social profiles using Web 2.0 for every blog you develop for your blogging network.

When you create a page with any blog, try to keep that page filled with relevant information i.e what your company does and what kind of content you can provide.
Avoid creating a lot of profile on a single platform that links back to your blog. If you do so, you will be left out with no choice but getting penalized by Google.

Google gives value to the blog that comes with a lot of signals from multiple platforms that highlight relevancy and provide value to the visitors.

5. Hide your Blogging Network

A blogging network is created with the intention of making it private and hidden from others on the web. You don't want to unlock the strategy and hard work openly you develop for blogging network so other can anticipate and develop a plan like yours.

Experts have created platforms like Ahrefs, Moz that make very easy for the competitors to spy on you and speculate the strategy, backlinks and SEO you did for your blogs. But remember, with every problem, there is a solution. Following things, you can do to hide your blogging network.

You can use .htaccess to block the stalkers. In this way, no one on the net could see your working and files available on the server except you and your hosting provider.
Based on the budget, you can try differing hosting plan and service provider to make your blogging network diversify in nature.
No one stalks you like Google does (relatives don't include). It comes with advanced algorithms that detect the recent activity you do across the web very nicely. In order to minimize the stalking from Google, you need to reduce the manual activity on your websites.
Spyder Spanker is a useful plugin tool that doesn't require FTP to access your hosting. Remember, don't let these things switch your focus away from your main blog. You're working and planning to rank your main blog. It is advised to allocate specific time to every activity you do for your main blog and for maintaining the blogging network. Your online success depends on how you analyze, organize, and develop every plan for ranking your blog higher on the search engines.

Summary

Buy cheap old domains that come with some online history. It is preferred to look for vendors of the expired domain than to buy a domain from auctions sites. Keep relevancy in mind while weeding through the domains across the web.
While developing your network, try using different platforms like Wordpress, Drupal, Joomla to make your network sneaky and diverse in nature.
Compose the content on the blogging network that is relevant to your main blog. You can use article spinner or the platforms that convert your words into writing. Google leaves you in danger if you try to trick it with plagiarized content.
You can get benefit from the social sites like SocialAdr that develops your social identity across the web. Also, the fan page you create for your blogs must be relevant to the main blog. Don't just create a fan page and get away without updating it regularly.
Interlinking is good for your main blog and decreases bounce rate as long as you are doing it within the blog. Don't do a mistake of interlinking to all of the blogs involved in the blogging network. You don't want to make Google anticipate you are doing PBN for ranking higher on the search engines.
Create link building slowly and gradually as your blog grows. Don't create a lot of backlinks from a single blog in a day. Get backlinks from multiple blogs spread over a span of six months.
Don't link too much to your main site. This looks sleazy and fake. When you write a blog post, try creating outbound links to other sites. If you create outbound links to your client's sites only, it can put your main site in danger.

Note: There are many risks involved doing PBN unless you are an expert in it. If you are new to blogging, don't jump in right away into this trend. First, make your reputation and authority with your main blog. Also, when you are a beginner, you can't make a lot of blogs at once. This strategy works when you get your hands on blogging enough that you are well aware of the benefits and limitations of developing PBN. That's all for today. I hope you have found this article useful. In the next post, we will cover Web Directory Submission. If you are unsure or have any question you can ask me in the comment section below. I'd love to guide you according to the best of my expertise. Keep us updated with your suggestions, they help us provide you quality content. Thanks for reading the article.