What is a PBN ?
For SEOs, it is a network of websites that are built with the aim of transferring to a target site, often called Money site, the popularity necessary in order to advance the natural referencing of it on Google, and to please his algorithm.
For Google, one of the determining factors in ranking in the results of its search engine is popularity, symbolized by the number and quality of inbound links pointing to a website, the famous Backlinks.
With it, you can create quality links yourself from private network sites to your main website which aims to position itself in Google results and generate most of the turnover.
The “Personal Blog Network” is an appellation which can cause confusion, we prefer to speak of “Personal Backlink Network”. Indeed, it would not be natural to create a site network made up entirely of blogs. The types of sites that can naturally link to your main site can be multiple (review sites, presentation sites, blog, shop, wiki, press, etc.). It is therefore necessary to create with relevance a varied site network, appearing as natural as possible in the eyes of Google.
Is there a risk of penalty for using a PBN?
If we had to rely on Google Guidelines, all unnatural links are prohibited and penalized. Suffice to say that a network of sites particularly enters practices prohibited by Google and therefore risks leading to algorithmic (Penguin type) or manual penalties.
If we had to stick to the recommendations of the search engine, only naturally created links would be accepted (Link baiting). Suffice to say that it would be impossible for many sites to reference themselves correctly, mainly for positions in a competitive environment.
The creation of a Personal Blog Network is a strategy among others, unnatural and black hat in the eyes of Google, but ultimately not more or less than sponsored articles or other methods of acquiring links.
It is all a question of moderation, relevance, and strategy in the work of SEOs.
What are the arguments of the detractors and disadvantages of private site networks?
The cost of setting up
One of the main drawbacks is the cost of developing and maintaining a private network. From its creation to its maintenance, the costs can be significant depending on the quality of your sites.
The costs are distributed as follows:
- Purchase of a new or expired domain name.
- Dedicated hosting.
- Site creation and customization.
- Possible creation of social accounts linked to the site.
- Content creation (variable prices depending on length and quality of writing).
These operations are to be repeated for each component site, which can quickly represent tens, even hundreds of hours of work. Even by automating certain tasks and by subcontracting a part of them, the investment in time and money can be substantial.
Risk of penalty
They are subject to 2 types of risk, algorithmic penalties on the part of Google, and manual penalties following denunciations by competitors.
The most secure solution in terms of Netlinling will always be to comply 100% with Google's recommendations. But in this case, there is little chance of obtaining optimum results and performing on competitive requests.
Any strategy of creation of links presents a risk, PBN is part of it, is it riskier than other methods like the purchase of sponsored articles? Probably not if you take a minimum of precautions.
It is time consuming compared to the purchase of classic links
Today there are many link buying platforms that allow you to quickly develop a netlinking strategy. Why waste time creating networks of sites when thousands of themed sites exist and accept for an equivalent or lower cost to create links to your site?
It is a strategy that complements the rest, to pass a stage, stimulate stagnant results…
Using link building platforms remains one solution among others. Press relations and the creation of quality content to encourage sharing are also techniques to be used.
No method is better than the other, they are part of a global strategy in which harmony and a balance of the profile of links must be created.
What are the advantages of using PBN?
They have many advantages in being integrated into a global linking strategy.
Flexibility and enrichment of PBN
When we set up a strategy of creating inbound links via third-party sites, we have once the link and the content created, little control. If the URL of the pages changes, if link anchors must be modified following a penalty, it is sometimes difficult to obtain modifications quickly.
With a network of private sites, you will have total control over the links, being able to modify them at will as needed, and adapt the strategy according to developments in Google's algorithm.
You will also be able to enrich your texts, contextualize the links, create an internal mesh, and make modifications as desired on the content part of your network sites.
With a network, you can dictate anchor text, links, and test to see what works best. No other linking strategy allows you such freedom.
It makes thematic links to your money site
The other advantage, and not least, is to have the freedom to create totally themed sites, related to the general theme or to certain parts of the target site. By creating relevant content, links will provide important authority.
In certain sectors of activity, or for specific niches, it is sometimes difficult to find quality media to create links, even less specialized sites on a particular niche. Thanks to it, you can create sites that perfectly match the theme of the target site and provide them with optimal thematic links.
The Trust Flow and Citation Flow indicators also make it possible to assess the authority of the domains for SEOs.
A constant juice over time for backlinks
When you buy a sponsored article on a blog or a press site, or when a new publication naturally mentions your site via a link, the power of this link is optimum when the content is on the home page of the site. Over time, new publications will appear, gradually pushing the articles in the pagination of the site, more and more in the number of clicks accessible from the index. The strength of the link will decrease over time. This phenomenon will occur with all links.
With site networks, links are most often on the index page and stay there. The index pages being those which receive the most internal links (internal mesh) and external links (netlinking), they transmit the most link juice towards the target site. By having control over these links and their constant positioning on the index page, the popularity transmitted will be linear over time, and will even be improved with the increase in power of your network sites.
How to integrate PBN into your linking strategy?
If 100% of your inbound links come from PBN, you're playing with fire. They should complement your other link building efforts. If you keep your private links between 5 and 20% of your overall link profile, then you should be pretty safe.
Its uses are always risky, but the risks are reduced when they represent only a small percentage of your link profile. The other 80 to 95% of your links must come from various sites: social networks, directories, forums, blogs, blog comments, etc.
Its creation and its number of sites will depend on many factors and will be part of a global strategy defined according to the situation at time T and its evolution over time, competition, medium, and long-term objectives.
How to concretely create a quality PBN?
Its creation responds to major rules that should be adapted to each site and new nature referencing strategy.
There are 3 main types:
Small: created from expired sites, they are between 1 and 3 pages. The goal is to create sites in numbers in order to make links from en masse.
Semi-qualitative: They aim to position themselves on keywords of the theme in the top 50 and contain ten quality pages.
Qualitative: They are very qualitative and can be positioned in a good position on the keywords of the theme. Getting quality traffic, they can generate qualified contacts and generate sales.
According to its strategy, its budget, the profile of existing links, it will be possible to adjust the profile of the sites composing it.
The creation of PBN in the form of a semantic cocoon makes it possible to carry out a work of semantic sliding between the page of the PBN site and the page linked via the backlink.
What is the methodology for creating a PBN?
In order to set up a netlinking strategy supplemented by a private network, it is important to follow a few simple tips.
- Perform an SEO audit of the current link profile (number of links, anchors, etc.)
- Do a competition audit on the targeted keywords.
- Determine the number of sites that will make up the network and their structure.
- Determine the themes to be addressed, the number of contents, their quality…
- Buy new domain names or find expired ones in the same theme.
- Create sites over time, paying attention to Footprints.
- Create links to the money site over time, never when the site is launched.
- Bring the sites to life by adding new content over time.
- Continue to popularize the sites of the network.
- Expand the network if necessary.
- Play with the titles of the links in reasonable proportions.
- Evaluate the results.
What precautions should be taken with networks of private sites?
Creating a PBN can be a risky operation if Google detects your network or if an unethical competitor denounces your network. A private network site should function like a "normal" site and your entire network should be natural. By asking the right questions and imagining what a natural site network looks like, you can apply and stick to certain rules.
In order to best secure your strategy, here are some rules to follow:
- Limit the PBN footprint (the common points between the sites): different source code, different WHOIS, different WordPress themes, different types of sites, different texts, different hosts, and IP. It would be absolutely not natural to receive links from sites almost identical, hosted on the same server.
- Protect the readability of your strategy: By preventing SEO tools from passing on your sites (semrush, majestic, ahrefs) it will be more difficult for your competitors to go up your network and denounce your sites to Google via spam report.
- Space the sites online: your network must be built over time. Avoid buying all domain names on the same day, putting network sites online at the same time. A link strategy is built up over time over several months, a year.
- Linking to authority sites: A website that links to only one site may seem suspicious. Linking other authority sites on the subject will add a dose of naturalness to outgoing links and will only be beneficial for your site.
- Wait before linking your site: Waiting a while before linking your money site is a precaution to take. Creating links on all the sites of the network as soon as they go online would appear suspicious. The links will be added over time, with new text which justifies the appearance of a new link to enrich the initial content.
- Do not over-optimize the anchors: A themed site already generates a very qualitative link. No need to over-optimize with exact link anchors that could grab Google's attention and suspicion. URL, the site name, or image type links are preferred. Optimized links should be used sparingly based on your overall link profile.
- Refresh content: a network site is not a site you create and then abandoned. He must continue to live and progress to continue to transmit SEO juice.
- Continue to popularize the sites of the network: they are sites in their own right. Creating links to these sites to increase their popularity will necessarily have a positive impact on the power of the links it makes to the main site to raise.
How to use the purchase of expired domain names to create PBN?
When we talk about site networks, we often associate this notion with expired domains. In fact, for the sake of saving time, the majority of sites are created on expired ones. Using expired ones has a tactical advantage in terms of time.
In fact, by buying an expired domain you benefit from several advantages:
- The domain is already known to Google.
- The domain already receives links from other sites.
- The field already has authority in specific themes.
- The domain has a long history (more natural than having a network with new domains).
All these advantages save time and allow you to have sites operational from an SEO point of view much more quickly. Working from a new domain will take longer. It will have to be launched, popularized little by little.
If you want advice and develop advanced linking strategies, we are here to listen.
