𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜𝘀 𝗮 𝗣𝗕𝗡?

PBN stands for Private Blog Network. Long story short, it’s a group of websites that a webmaster owns for the sole purpose of boosting the rank of other websites.

𝙏𝙝𝙚𝙨𝙚 𝙣𝙚𝙩𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙨 𝙛𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝘽𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙃𝙖𝙩 𝙎𝙀𝙊 𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙠 𝙗𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙨 𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙜𝙤𝙧𝙮. 

Obviously, at first, they didn’t. But after people started abusing them, Google took action. Before 2014, PBNs were the stuff. The hype was high and everyone started building them. Everyone wanted to get in for the ride.

That was until Google completely destroyed a few PBN services and some popular marketing bloggers’ PBNs.

The truth is that PBNs are nothing more than Web 2.0s on steroids. Instead of using subdomains from WordPress and Blogger, you use expired domains that already have authority built to them. If you purchase the right expired domains and build the network properly, you can get yourself a nice asset.

In order to avoid getting caught by Google, BlackHat SEOs have to constantly hide their traces. What a tiresome struggle… This list of traces can contain:

𝗪𝗵𝗼𝗶𝘀 𝗜𝗻𝗳𝗼: If you have 10 domains that all link to one another and are all registered publicly under the same name, everyone is going to know it’s a PBN. Now most of the time the details aren’t public and you can also purchase Whois protection for extra fees (sometimes offered for free) but I’ve heard stories of Google having access to Whois info anyway.

𝗜𝗣 𝗔𝗱𝗱𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀 & 𝗛𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: If more websites are on the same IP, they’re definitely connected in some way. That’s why shared hosting accounts are dangerous. If someone spams that IP address, you’re also on the list. You can purchase dedicated IPs for each domain to fix this. (Not only for PBN sites. Do this for all your sites. It helps keep things safe.)

𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘀: Some countries legally require you to post this information if you monetize your site in any way (you do, since it’s part of your marketing strategy, so if someone reports you, you risk getting fined).

𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻, 𝗖𝗼𝗱𝗲, 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁: Many times, people simply duplicate these websites by copy pasting and changing some basic aspects, like colors and logo. However, the platforms and themes they use are always the same.

𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝘀:Have 10 sites under the same Analytics Account? Good luck evading Google.

𝗦𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗽𝘁 𝗜𝗗𝘀: If you have different tools that require tracking, you’ll need separate subscriptions for each and every one of them, otherwise anyone could figure out the connection between two sites.

Thank you