Private Blog Networks promise a quick way to rank your site as you capitalize on the value of the links it can provide but how do you build a PBN link that works?
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How To Build PBN Links In A Nutshell
PBN link building begins with buying expired domains with high authority. A network of websites is built from these as fresh ones don’t have this authority and won’t increase organic search rankings, which is the whole point of PBN links.
What is a PBN
PBN stands for Private Blog Networks and from the word itself, it is a group of domains owned by essentially a single entity or individual.
The main purpose of this is similar to the obsolete link farms and that is to provide backlinks to a target main website.
What sets PBN apart is that it is made from old or expired domains that are being repurposed for the said goal which are PBN links, unlike link farms which were made from fresh domains.
Another differentiator between link farms and PBNs is their visibility.
Old link farms are usually visible and accessible to the public and website layouts are usually of poor aesthetics since, in the early age search engine algorithms, these don’t matter.
Private blog networks on the other hand are usually kept hidden from the surface where access to it is limited to its owner, and webmasters also invest in quality website design.
PBNs are also built to have quality content not unlike those primitive link farms that contain either spun or spammy content which led to their demise being tagged as illegal by search engine webmaster’s guidelines.
Why build PBN Links
Surely, webmasters found value on links coming from PBNs that’s why they become a viable solution towards website ranking especially now that the competition has grown exponentially.
One thing that we must understand is that backlinks are a major contributing factor to website rankings which will also help us get the idea of why link farms were born in the early days of the internet.
Search Engine algorithms like Google PageRanks are a great example of how search engines produce the result page based on how many links are referring to a domain when a search query is done.
Now that search engine algorithms have developed into a more intelligent system, link farms are no longer a viable option that’s why private blog networks become the trend.
This made the internet have lots of PBN links sources that promise desirable results at a reasonable price.
For one, purchase-ready PBN links are hassle-free, affordable, and won’t require much technical knowledge.
These links sellers and service providers will take the brunt of doing keyword research, content creation and optimization, strategizing link placements, and the likes.
However, while you’re paying off these things if you’re just buying PBN links, the cons are that you don’t have control over the strategy, where the links come from and point to, as well as the health of the blog network that flows link juices to your main money site.
This is why many webmasters prefer building their own PBN and derive PBN links from there.
Consequentially, building your own PBN links requires technical SEO knowledge to ensure their efficiency and potency which entails cost and will also require time.
Nevertheless, the cost and time one would allot to learn proper PBN link building is a worthy investment as some benefits of building your own PBN link is that you have control over which anchor text to use for the links, which pages to focus on, and the pacing of your implementation.
But how do you build safe and secure PBN links?
How to build PBN links safely?
As mentioned earlier, the use of a private blog network has an accompanying risk due to some aspects of it is essentially the same with the link farms and these risks are violations of the search engine webmaster’s guidelines.
The guide changes regularly, as frequent as semi-annually, to make sure the playing field is leveled amongst website owners
To understand why these guidelines exist, let’s take a quick look back into history.
Link farms were born out of the understanding of many webmasters of the PageRank algorithm where the quantity of links is the only factor that matters.
Due to these circumstances, a lot of trash pages littered the internet making disinformation and misinformation prevalent on the search engine results page.
All of this is because a lot of website owners are only focused on earning from ads as a consequence of better site traffic.
In response to this, search engine developers improved their algorithms that now check the quality of links between sites with more factors, and that includes the quality of content.
The bottom line of the search engine algorithm development is that the search engine becomes a reliable and credible source of information for those who have queries.
Here are some general rules to ensure PBN safety of your whole link-building strategy especially if you’re employing the use of PBN links.
- Buy Quality Old or Expired Domains
When a domain expires, its backlink profile remains like it’s a portfolio. This includes the backlink volume, organic traffic history, Domain Authority/Page Authority, and many more.
These metrics are what PBN builders must look out for as this will define the quality of the old or expired domains to be purchased.
While having plenty of backlinks is something, quality will still always prevail over quantity.
- Strong Keyword Research
Keywords play a vital role in your PBN link building and implementation as this affects your content writing, anchor text selections, and how you will drive the crawlers to your network of domains.
When building your own PBN links, your site’s purpose must be clear so that you know what search intent you are targetting and this will give you a clear path on which keywords and set of search phrases you are to work on with.
Once you’re clear with the intent, you can start looking up the target keywords and their search volume. This will help how you will steer between long-tail and short-tail keywords.
- Invest on Quality Content
Content is always king in SEO and this also applies even when you are building your PBN links that will more or less be seen on the surface of the web.
As mentioned earlier, content on your domains within your private blog network must be at par with the quality of content on regular websites.
- Keep Your Domains Natural
All these previously listed guidelines boil down to this item – keeping it natural.
Search Engine bots, especially Google’s, can identify which domains are natural and which are not.
These bots can track unnatural website traffic, weird-looking website layout, and they can even find if they are housed on a single server which more likely gets your sites flagged as PBNs and trigger the risks.
Are PBN links White-hat?
Search Engine Optimization techniques can be classified into three different kinds and these are the White Hate, Gray Hat, and Black Hat.
White hat SEO are methods that completely adhere to everything in the Webmaster’s Guidelines. It’s risk-free, all legal, but quite takes time.
Black Hat SEO techniques are those that are considered illegal by search engine guides. Some webmasters are opting for this technique as it has the fastest delivery of results but comes with the highest risk.
Gray Hat SEO are practices that fall within the gray areas of webmaster’s guidelines, hence, the name. It can deliver faster results compared to the conventional practices but not as fast as with what Black Hate techniques can give.
Plus, Gray hat SEO entails minimal risk compared to black hat practices.
A Private Blog Network by essence is some sort of manipulation and thus, using it can be considered a violation of the webmaster guidelines however, there are loopholes in the guideline that can be used as a work-around to avoid getting penalties.
So is PBN whitehat or blackhat? It is considered as a Gray Hat SEO technique.
Is there Any Risk Building PBN Links?
Like what was mentioned above, yes, some risks entail building PBN links for your SEO campaign.
On the builder’s end, engaging with the use of PBN links without sufficient knowledge would cost you more time and money due to trials and errors.
On the search engine side, even if one is successful in building and is in the implementation phase if there are lots of PBN footprints, it will not last long and the whole PBN link building campaign will collapse and worse, will lead to the penalization of your main money site.
One of the common risk factors the private blog network link builders overlook is the content that they create for the domains within the network.
Spun contents are a common technique used by some amateurs as this can be done by a mere copy-paste from different blogs of the same niche without understanding that crawlers can detect that it is plagiarized.
Also, some content writers are stuffing keywords on their content making the blog spammy, and thus, search engine bots flag it.
How to Write content for a PBN Site?
Understanding the idea that PBN sites must be at par with regular sites will also make one understand that blogposts must be of quality.
An effective way of writing content for PBN sites is by defining the niche of your site and having a primary target audience.
The bottom line in writing content is to naturally attract readers, hence, organic traffic.
On-page SEO can be applied to your blog post by making good use of the data gathered from your strong keyword research, especially with the selection of anchor texts where your backlinks with being hinged.
Add enough images to the post and when uploading media materials, make sure to use a filename that is relevant to the article you are posting and use Alt Texts to reinforce it.
How to insert the PBN backlinks into Articles?
Inserting backlinks is very simple as it seems. By using the hyperlink function on the target anchor text or phrase on your editor, you can add links to your content.
However, when building a backlink for your SEO campaign, you have to consider what exact words are you using as your anchor text.
A common misconception by amateur search engine optimizers is to stuff their articles with exact keyword anchor texts, on the contrary, it is not the case and that’s why researching the target keyword for the niche is essential.
When adding PBN links to your article you may include some other text around the keywords themselves depending on the intent of the search, or you can use another phrase around the keywords without including the keyword itself.
What anhcor texts to choose for PBN links?
Anchor Texts is a word or group of words where the links are connecting from one website to another.
While it may seem as simple as it is, optimizing your blog post for search engines requires picking a proper place and proper word which T-RANKS is great especially with PBN anchor text selection.
Some of the ideal anchor text when being used for PBN Links are:
- Naked Link Anchors
- Generic Anchor Text
- Branded Anchors
- Image Anchors
- Keyword Variation
- Exact/Partial Match Anchors
How many links to build per PBN site?
The number of links to build per PBN site depends on the level of competition on the target keyword which is the search volume per month as well as the target timeline for the website to rank.
While it could be variable, the general rule is a healthy 8 – 12 PBN links will be enough to pump your website ranking on medium-level keyword competition.
You also would like to avoid flooding your main money site with too many backlinks in a short span of time as this will look unnatural and search engines would detect that you are deliberately using some sort of illegal methods.
