“Your network is your net worth” and surely, this saying applies to websites as backlinks build the network, and authority comes from quality backlinks pointing to your site.
PBN links and Guest Posts are some of the several ways on building your backlink network that we are going to examine.
Table of Contents
What is a PBN?
A Private Blog Network is a group of websites that is owned by a single entity to transfer authority scores to the target money site through backlinks. This is built to make the flow of authority possible as it helps websites to rank better on the front page of the search engine results.
PBNs are built by purchasing old or expired domains that have a relatively high authority metrics define by its historical organic traffic, Domain and Page Authority, and Backlink Profile to name a few.
It has become appealing to many SEO as with an authoritative website comes better ranking in the SERP which could look like getting at least 33% of the organic traffic if you’re the top search result.
Getting this top spot faster as well as maintaining to be on it would mean greater savings on time and money.
After all, a better website ranking means you’re getting much traffic which is good for sales conversion from clicks, and better brand exposure on the web.
While it may sound simple as we say it, building your private blog network or even just getting ready-made from service providers would still require you to do some reading about PBNs.
As a website owner, webmaster, or SEO, you must read a more detailed definition of a PBN and grasp the idea of it.
What is a PBN Link?
Authority is what matters most to search engine algorithms such as Google’s which is called PageRank.
This metric is a calculated score from tons of different scoring criteria that numerically define how reliable and valuable your website is.
Now, this authority score flows through backlinks which is the very reason why PBNs were built.
PBN links are backlinks coming from sites within the private blog network that a person owns.
SEO experts have different ways on how to build PBN links but surely, the first step is by doing a keyword research and then a backlink research righ after.
Keyword research will help you define which keywords to target which will be useful when creating articles and choosing anchor texts that serve as connection points between websites.
Also, the above action will help you with your backlink research, answering questions like what is the search volume, how many backlinks you will need to rank to the SERP relative to the search volume, how long will it take to feel the impact to your site, and what campaign will you implement to keep your site on the top spot.
Built PBN Link vs Rented
There are two ways how you can source your PBN links. One is by building your own PBN and another is by renting from a PBN links provider.
Building your own PBN link source will require you to know about the webmaster’s guide and the entirety of the PBN working principle so you’ll not mess up your setup.
The advantage of this is that you can control how many PBN links will be flowing to your target site and when they are going to go live.
Rented PBN links from service providers gives you less control over how the links will flow when they will go active, and how the PBN was built.
The advantage of renting is that you’re saving yourself time and effort from studying effective PBN building, avoiding footprints, wherein you can just focus on other aspects of your SEO campaign.
What is a Guest Post?
Writing an article or creating a blog post for another website is called Guest Posting.
This practice is very common in the SEO world and one of the most effective ways to boost your website authority in a less risky manner.
The challenging part in guest posting is first, who’s website are you targetting, and second, how to contact the site owner.
Doing keyword and backlink research help greatly to find good websites to do guest posting as well as it helps you write articles where the target keywords are optimized for search engines.
What is a Guest Post Link?
When you do a guest post on other brands’ or person’s websites, you have the freedom to establish backlinks to whatever page within your domain you want.
When your article is well-made with the right word count, enough keywords have well-picked anchor texts, and is posted on an authoritative website, the link juice will flow nicely to your main money site.
Authoritative sites that are commonly targetted for guest posting are those with top-level domains of .com, .net, and .org.
Websites of news outlets and reputable brands are also a great choice as long as it aligns with your own website’s niche.
Outreach for Guest Posts vs Buying Them
You might wonder, “how can I do guest posting?” There are two ways you can do that. One, by outreach, and two, by purchasing them.
Outreaching is done by reaching out to website owners and requesting if they can allow you to contribute to their blogs with even just one article to post.
One advantage of outreach guest posting is you have control over what keywords to target, anchor texts to use, and the length of the article.
While you have control over the content for the guest post, you are limited to when this article will be posted on that website you’ve reached out to.
Bear in mind that all website owners also have their SEO campaign to follow which includes the number of posts that they are publishing at certain times.
It is also important to note that doing outreach for guest posts is easier done by people who have a wide network to tap.
You need to know and at least be acquainted if not close friends with other webmasters to simply allow you to do guest posting on their sites.
Another factor that adds up to the challenge when doing outreach guest posting is that some website owners are selling these opportunities, especially those that have significant site authority and organic traffic volume on their records.
This leads us to the next way of getting Guest Post links and that is by Buying Them.
Guest post link services have been a lucrative business by enterprising webmasters as they fully understand the power of backlinks and at the same time, they have access to a vast network of website owners.
Buying a guest post link is guaranteed content posted to relevant authoritative sites and linking to your target page within your domain.
Most website owners prefer that you’ve already written your article content and with your links on it. However, some charge extra if they’ll be the ones to write the article for you.
Your control over where the links are pointing back to your pages is present on both guest posts and buying PBN links.
Looking for where to do outreach guest posts is time-consuming and difficult thus, buying a guest post link is more convenient.
Homepage (PBN link) vs Inner Page (Guest Post) SEO Effectiveness
Being the webmaster of your page, it’s your task to efficiently direct where and how will your backlink juices flow back to your domain.
With the control you have on backlinks from PBN links and guest posting, you ought to plan your pipeline for a better website ranking.
PBN links are coming from the homepage which is a powerful rank driver as the homepage is the face of the whole domain and it projects power in terms of domain authority.
On the other hand, the inner pages of guest post websites have no direct backlinks to them and rely on organic traffic which Google trusts.
Combining both is a strategic thing for implementing your backlink program, however, most of the lifting is done by the PBN links. Why?
PBN links are powerful as it comes from homepages where there most of the direct links are pointed, thus, making is more SEO-effective.
Anchor Text of PBN Link and Guest Post
Search Intent and search volume play an important role in what anchor text you are using for both PBN link and guest posting.
So, begin by studying what search intent you are to focus on first to further funnel the searches down to the target page within your domain.
Any type of anchor text will work for both guest posts and PBN links. However, there are some best practices
For guest posts, it’s best to use branded anchor text because it helps with branding.
PBN link is best used for more aggressive, targeted anchor texts because the power behind it is greater.
Also, remember that search engine bots are programmed to understand the context of an article so make sure that you’re choosing an anchor text of a PBN link that is sensible.
Difficulty of Obtaining & Scalability
Around 5-10 backlinks to rank on a medium level competition keyword is considered a good way on how to rank with backlinks in general.
A medium-level competition is scored at around 40-60 out of 100, a data you can find on online SEO tools when you do the backlink research onset of your campaign.
Now, these figures will give you an idea of how difficult it will be for you to either build a PBN or secure a quality deal guest posting.
5-10 backlinks will require you to purchase around the same number of old domains that will best suit your authority score needs.
The challenge of doing guest posting is first, who’s website are you going to reach out to, and second, how you’re going to get in touch with its owner.
While service providers are selling both PBN links and guest posting opportunities, the cons of this are that you’re having less control over timeline and scalability.
Scaling both private blog networks and guest posting requires either automated software or a team of people. Possibly a combination as it cannot be a one-man show if you want to do it effectively.
Risks & Benefits
PBN links are considered grey hat as they work like link farms, however, are built with Google’s webmaster guidelines in mind mostly, except for the linking out part.
The benefit of PBN links is the speed at which you can achieve the target spot in the SERP and considerably, great for short-term SEO campaigns.
The ultimate PBN risk is if the setup you’ve built has footprints left, could break your whole SEO campaign costing you time, money, and effort, just to get your main money site getting penalized.
Guest posting is a white hat practice and is a risk-free engagement which is a great way to keep your site’s value intact that we can say a good long-term investment.
However, risks from this are the time it would take for you to see the impact of guest posting to your website rankings, as well as you have no control over the guest post source domain like they may close unexpectedly in the future or get penalized and become toxic backlink source themselves.
Overall, PBN links and guest post is better for SEO and they have a great impact on your website ranking depending on your needs and the timeline you want to accomplish your targets.
Mastering the use of both will be even greater in speeding up your climb to the top level of the search results page and ensuring you solidly maintain your position without the risk of getting penalized.
Conclusion
PBN links involve greater risk but also carry greater potential to push organic rankings, while guest posts are considered a more reliable and long-term SEO strategy. When it comes to ROI, guest posts are favored for their safety and PBN links for their power and immediate impact on SERPs.
