The World Wide Web is a huge network of interconnected pages.
From this nature, search engine algorithms are programmed to rank a website’s relevance to a search query based on how strong is its network.
This gave birth to a network of blog sites intended for the sole purpose of ranking a website. Let’s dig deeper and compare Public and Private Blog Networks.
Table of Contents
What is a Blog Network?
According to PC Mag, a blog network is defined as an organization that hires content writers to produce SEO-optimized articles for a blog site they own, primarily for digital marketing and advertising purposes.
Another definition states that a blog network consists of multiple interlinked blogs that share a common niche or industry focus, such as technology blogs, finance blogs, health blogs, and affiliate marketing sites. This definition strongly relates to the SEO industry, where a blog network is often managed by a single entity or webmaster to influence search engine rankings.
There are two main types of blog networks used in SEO strategies:
- Public Blog Networks (PBNs) – These networks are openly accessible and allow multiple users to publish content, often monetized through Google AdSense, affiliate marketing, and sponsored posts.
- Private Blog Networks (PBNs) – These are controlled by a single SEO professional, agency, or business, primarily used to build high-authority backlinks, boost domain authority (DA), and improve keyword rankings on Google Search.
In this guide, we’ll deep dive into these types of blog networks, discussing how they function and why PBNs remain a controversial yet widely used SEO technique for boosting organic traffic, keyword rankings, and domain authority in search engine optimization (SEO).
How is PBN Created?
Creating a PBN requires acquiring aged domains or expired domains with high domain authority (DA), page authority (PA), and trust flow (TF).
When we refer to high-quality expired domains, we mean domains that have a strong backlink profile, a clean history, and were previously associated with authoritative websites.
When a website expires due to non-renewal, it loses its live status, but its domain authority (DA), backlinks, and historical SEO value often remain intact. This is why SEO professionals and link builders seek out these expired domains to create high-quality PBNs that can pass link juice to their money sites.
Why Expired Domains Are Valuable for PBNs
- Strong backlink profile from authoritative websites
- Pre-existing domain authority (DA) and trust flow (TF)
- Potential to rank well in search engine results pages (SERPs)
- Faster indexing and ranking in Google Search
To ensure a successful PBN setup, you must follow a PBN checklist that includes factors like:
- Using unique hosting providers (SEO hosting)
- Avoiding footprints by diversifying CMS, themes, and plugins
- Creating high-quality, unique content
- Using natural-looking anchor text and link placements
By following a fool-proof PBN strategy, you can build a powerful link-building network that enhances your SEO campaign, boosts keyword rankings, and drives organic traffic to your money sites.
What is a Private Blog Network?
It is called a Private blog network when all the domains within the blog network are owned and used by a single individual.
The operation is essentially like the link farms however, each domain is built looking like a real website accessible to the public.
This means that the websites within the network have a good layout and design and contain blogs that are in the same context as the target main money site.
This technique is employed to avoid getting detected by the search engine bots as PBNs are considered a black hat practice.
It is still useful today because there are loopholes in the algorithm that can be worked out.
What is a Public Blog Network?
Public blog networks are essentially similar to private blog networks where the only difference is that they are offered to the public as a service.
Since building a PBN requires time and knowledge, amateur website owners who have a budget are the main customers of public blog network services.
Public vs Private PBN: Pros & Cons
Blog networks are classified as private and public with the main difference being scale and their use. Private blog network is smaller and for personal use while a public one is used commercially and usually much larger.
Both Private and Public blog networks offer a fast way to rank your domain on the search engine results page.
All webmasters eye the top three spots of the SERP and some want it in a short span of time.
It is made possible as PBN utilizes the Domain Authority and Page Authority of the quality old domains purchased and built back to life.
These DA/PA scores flow back through the target main site through backlinks.
Consequentially, PBNs are essentially link farms, and websites caught using these are penalized under Google’s Webmaster’s guidelines.
There are various aspects of PBNs that we can review as we learn what are the pros and cons of going for a public or private blog network.
Hosting
One of the first challenges in building a PBN is where to host all the websites that you will be owning.
One important rule on PBN is to have a diversified hosting.
Nameservers house domain names and so, you want to buy your old or expired domains from different locations.
This also applied to web hosting. This is the place where your websites are stored.
Google algorithm can easily smell a PBN when a couple of domains on a single IP address are pointing to a single target website.
Now, the pros of going for a private blog network are that it is of small scale which also means a person can manage it single-handedly.
Also, Since it is for personal use, less diversity is needed which also equates to a cheaper cost of hosting.
However, if you happen to use it on a larger scale, expansions are required, and doing it solo is difficult and costly.
Unless you are to sell links, it is not advisable to go public if you’re only doing SEO for a single website.
Public blog networks are of a larger scale which is ideal for servicing multiple websites.
This kind of blog network has its own complexity that managing it requires either a team of people or software.
Common usage of public blog networks is to service customers who want a convenient route to use PBNs for their SEO.
This means that more diversity on the implementation is required on PBN hosting to support multiple PBN link renters.
Content
Your content writing will be solely under your discretion when it comes to private blog networks. Ideas and their delivery will all be your call.
However, brain drain will soon happen and it can affect your content. This is a considerable downside.
On public networks, content is usually included on the PBN link service and thus, it’s the service providers’ call on what content is being added to the PBN sites.
If you are building a public blog network, this also requires your to diversify your Content Management System (CMS) solutions to avoid leaving a PBN footprint.
For those who are buying PBN links, public networks may or may not accept client content.
The risk of the contents being spammy spun, or irrelevant could pose a risk to your website.
Also, the link presence is not guaranteed as you have no control over whether this public network might get penalized and shut down.
Outbound Links (OBL)
Outbound Links are links that point out from your website to another with the purpose of adding more context to your content.
Private blog networks tend to have lower OBL. This could be attributed to the scale of the network.
This, however, is not always the case on public networks since they are meant for commercial purposes.
OBL from public networks could be at an average of 30 that could leak considerable link juice out of the network which is not the best scenario.
However, there’s a risk that the PBN service provider is spammy where the OBL could be as high as a few hundred.
Link Neighbors
PBNs are about networks so the quality of the domains to which your website is linked is a significant factor to consider.
On private networks, you have sole control over outbound links being published. An advantage that is not present in public networks.
A con on public networks is they might be linked to a toxic neighborhood which can negatively impact your website.
Overall Control
Private blog networks offer much control over your hosting, contents, OBLs, and the link neighborhood you will belong.
On public networks, you won’t have this kind of extensive control.
The cons of this on private blog networks are that you might overlook important aspects of PBN building such as leaving some PBN footprints will make you bear the cost alone.
Renting PBN Links
Renting PBN links from public networks is a reliable way and a faster route to your SEO goals as they can quickly boost website ranking.
There are public blog networks that offer one-time payment options that can provide very short-term benefits as your link stays on the homepage for a very short time.
Also, rather than building the whole PBN yourself, there are service providers offering PBN link rentals that cost cheaper which is great for webmasters that are conservative when it comes to dealing with PBN risks.
Renting links from T-RANKS is a great option as we have a healthy link neighborhood, quality content, and a team of SEO experts managing the network.
