Gone are the days when you have 1000 directory submissions and 100 article submissions done and your site comes on first page of Google. Google keeps on changing its search algorithms frequently to make users search experience better. It introduced Panda, penguin, EMD and many more to come.
It’s now difficult to make your website rank on first page of Google just by following traditional SEO tactics. What worked in the past, are not working in present and even you cannot bet what is working today will work in future as well.
I work as an SEO in a private firm and I always get pressure from clients to rank their sites top in Google, since years we have ranked many websites in top searches but since last 1-2 years getting rankings became tough. Then I had to think something which must work in order to retain the clients and also to get new clients.
Then I heard about Private Blog Networks from many sources and many friends, I didn’t trust initially over this kind of networks but when I used it to test on a website, I got amazing results. Few keywords which never got ranking even in 100 positions came up on first page. That was truly amazing! I started trusting this and started building the same for my official use and now I don’t have to think much for rankings; it works like a charm but there needs to take care a lot to avoid Google penalty.
Let’s explore this topic a little more:
So what is a Private Blog Network?
A Private Blog Network is collection of blogs which can be built using free platforms like blogger, wordpress etc or self hosted. Most of the powerful PBNs are built using self hosted domains because free platforms are built on sub-domains which are not so powerful.
Why people build Private Blog Networks?
No matter what others say but PBNs work like charm! People do build their own PBN to give link to their main website in order to get high rankings. That is the only reason people build it. Also, having own resources for link building has its own advantages, such as you have all the controls over your backlink profile, whenever you want to do any changes like links, anchor text or anything, you can do it at your ease.
How to build a Private Blog Network?
So now you know the need of building PBNs. Lets learn how to build in a better way. Basically there are 5 steps to follow to build the network:
- Buying domains.
- Hosting the domains.
- Setting up blogs over those domains.
- Putting Unique and enough content on them.
- Building backlinks for these blogs.
Buying Domains
The very first step is to book domains for your PBN. You can buy new domains but that will take a lot of time to make them valuable so that they can pass more link juice. That’s why the best idea is to buy those domains which already have some link profile, have some PR, and have some DA too because they can pass more link juice to your main website when you link it to them.
In such case, buy expired domains (the domains which existed in the past but now it is not being used by anyone.) which are aged, have link profile, Good PR with good domain authority as well.
But choosing the great domains with good stats is not an easy task; it takes a lot of time and energy to list out the best ones and buy them at affordable prices.
You can browse expireddomains.net to find good domains. They list out dropped domains on daily basis but not all are valuable to us so there needs to spend time to filter out the ones which have stats as per your expectation.
Hosting the domains
After buying the domains, say 10 domains to start with, they need to be hosted as well. Here is one thing you need to take care of and that is, you must host all the domains on different C class IP. Suppose during Google’s manual review, if they find 10 links to your main website from 10 blogs hosted on same C-class IP, then it raises a red flag and you might be caught and Google can de-index your whole blog network.
Many SEO hosting companies offer separate C class IP but there is also a problem because most of PBN owner get hosting from this kind of SEO hosting companies and Google can figure out a large amount of backlinks going out from particular C class IP. So in such case, I would advise to host each domain with different hosting providers and it’s good if the servers are from Different geo locations. Such as, 1 blog is hosted with abc hosting company, server location: Denmark, 2nd blog is hosted with xyz company, server location: USA and so on.
If you do this way then there will not be any red flag from Google and you will be doing great with your own PBN.
Setting up blogs over those domains
Okay now, you have domains, you have hosted them over different hosting servers. Now what?
Now the time is to set up blogs over them, without any second thought use wordpress blog CMS and create blogs on all the domains you have. If you have any problem regarding setting up blog on your hosting account then do read this comprehensive guide to install wordpress on your webhost: How to install WordPress on your Web Space.
Putting enough content on them
After all the blogs are up and running, start putting content over them. Don’t post copied or spun articles. It might cost you more but always post unique and quality articles over them. It’s tough to create so much content yourself, so you should hire writers and get the articles written. Keep articles length not less than 400 words.
Building backlinks for these blogs
This may sound you crazy because you are building your own PBN to give links to your main website which means you are going to use this network to build backlink for your site and I am saying to build links for your PBN’s blogs.
Yes, I am suggesting this because you should support these blogs with quality backlinks as well so that link from these pass more link juice. However, you don’t need to sweat much because the blogs you have built are expired domains and have some link profile already. So just keep building links slowly and gradually for them.
So you are done with building your own Private Blog Network! Cheers!
How to use your PBN effectively?
As you are done with the set up of your PBN, now it’s time to use it. Here are few pointers you should always remember to make the best out of it:-
- Give one link each to your website from each blog in any of your blog post.
- Don’t post links in every article because it won’t look natural and it can flag a red alert to Google.
- The blog post in which you give link to your main website should include 1-2 authority site’s link too so that the link placement will look more natural. Authority sites like Wikipedia, BBC, New York Times etc. Even in any post you don’t link out to your main website, do link out to authority sites to stay natural.
- Most importantly, don’t reveal any information about your Private Blog Network publicly.
- Post articles over them like a normal blog, say 1 or 2 articles per week.
[color-box color=”green”]P.S. I missed to mention above that you should stick to your niche. If your main website is related to electronic products then all of the blogs of your PBN should be of same niche.[/color-box]
All Done! Now you know, what is Private Blog network? How to build it up? How to use it effectively?
So if you have a business website and want to take it to the top searches then either buy service of someone who offers links from PBNs or build your own network of blogs.
Be sure to read the post on Link building mistakes here.
Any question after reading this post? Let me know in comments, I would love to answer them.
Thank you very much for reading the post.
Hello Atish,
You’ve presented an useful post for the bloggers. I was unaware of private blog networks and its benefits. Now it is crystal clear to me. Yes, you’re right! Now-a days, its hard to get ranking on first page of Google. Even though, I’ve written the good post with 1200 words and taking care of on-page SEO, my blog posts hold 3-4th page of Google and thus I can’t drive more traffic to my blog. I’ve tried something to improve my traffic, but it still remains the same.
As you said, starting a PBN is a big thing for me as I can’t spend my time to update the content for a group of blogs. You’ve already suggested me to focus on link building, so doing the same. It would be good if you tell any other idea to boost my traffic. You know very well, I perform blog commenting, guest blogging and taking part in blogging communities as well. But the saddest thing is that there is no progress in traffic 🙁
Thanks Nirmala for taking time to read the post and sharing your thought. I have never used any PBN to rank my blog posts rather I have used these kind of networks for clients’ websites and I got amazing results.
SEO for a blog and for website are quite different! Keep doing the great work.
Hey Atish,
Thanks for sharing this! PBN is a good thing to have if you are serious in SEO.
One of the best and safest way to rank well in Google. Takes lot of time to grow it but if you have the passion and the business capabilities, why not 🙂
Hi Reginald,
You are right, it takes a lot of work, time and energy to build a successful PBN. But it almost gurantees you the good rankings if done in right way.
Hello Atish,
You’re post is very inspiring and authentic as well. But I don’t think it’s necessary managing many blogs encompassing the same niche. We all know that blogging sucks time. One would be of concentrating on a single but authority niche blog rather than spending a hell of time building multiple blogs on the same niche. Anyways, that’s my little contribution, so thanks for sharing and do have a nice weekend.
Hey Victor, Private network blogs are different than normal blogs. Their primary goal is to link back to your business website. If you are building PBN for your tech niche business website then your blogs should also have the same niche because similar niche links works better than others.
Thanks for coming by Mate!
A lots of work but it also need a lots of work and what about the updation of these network blog. I think content marketing is again taking center stage.
Ofcourse Rakesh bro, need to run these blogs like a normal blog. The thing needs to be taken care is to not leaving any trace to Google that you are running a PBN.
Very useful and well written article,
This is the fastest way to rank well in Google.
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for stopping by Subodh.
Hello Atish bro yes this is the post which I feel deep down that it is written for me. I was really interested PBN and fundamentals of associated with it. Needless to say this simple yet very very effective guide has helped a lot to clear my doubts and i really learnt a lot from this.
Hope to do something useful with this information.. thank you. 🙂
I am glad that you found this post useful. Keep visiting.
Thanks bro. 🙂 Keep posting such articles.
-Swadhin
hello Atish Ranjan,
bro really it is informative post for me and other user. i will try to make PBN for my online business 🙂 thanks
Thanks for your visit Rahul.
Hello Atish,
People try different things that may work for them and they get rankings in SERPs. And one must try new things and the old ones also in a new possible ways. Because things that don’t work for someone may get good results for another. Its just how one works.
And having a private blog network to rank well not only will give you best results but linking them to the main site and other useful resources may give users a better experience.
Thanks for stopping by Aditya. PBNs are great!
Hello Atish,
Nice post with some really great stuff of knowledge. I never thought that PBN is so much effectively work for a site and for blog progress. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Thank you very much Sonam! Keep visiting.
Now this is clearly presented bro. I just sent it to my printer 😉
I have not created any PBN before. Though that may not be too much of an issue for me, I’ll still need your tips here.
Thanks for sharing it bro
Good to have you here Enstine! Glad to know that this looks clear to you. Thank you very much for taking time to read the post and share your comment. 🙂
Keep visiting!
Hi Atish,
Thanks for your great and awesome information about private blog network, it sounds a great idea to build a PBN. It is a useful and instructive tutorial…
Hey Atish, one Q. is in my mind that if i setup a PBN and i setup wordpress and i posted a 400 word article and it had 3 links(1 to money site,1 to sub page and 1 to wikipedia ) and i had like 4 more articles comming up.So i will then have my link on Each posts of website,will this not hit me ? Or should i pin posts on the home page ?
Geet,
You can pin posts you want. See, you can link your main site in every article but that won’t look natural. All we have to do is to look natural and don’t have to leave any trace for Google that we are actually doing something of this sort to build links. We have to do this because Google is against of every links which are used to manipulated the search engine algorithms.
Private blog network (PBN) consists of series of websites, which all blog content about same subject. one person manages this network. PBN is powerful because you control the content & links within the domain. To get traffic & quality backlinks, use PBN effectively.
Thanks for sharing your views about PBN.
Hi Atish,
Thanks for explaining what PBN is as it is my first encounter with this term.
I have to agree that it is a great idea but very time consuming unless a JV among 3 or 4 bloggers is made to keep up with the 5 or more blogs and maintain it up to date.
Thanks Atish for sharing these useful information and I am positive many businesses will find it useful to use to rank first in Google.
Have a great week ahead!!
Be Blessed,
Neamat
Thanks for coming by Neamat. Keep visiting!
The major challenge that could hinder the success of this tactic today is “content making/posting” to those blogs. Most marketers that used this method employ software to post contents. these type of contents can’t go anywhere today in the sight of search engine.
You made mention of some facts that makes this post reasonably important. If you can maintain those blog network and still be natural in your promotion, it is well. But I doubt you can.
Considering the difficulties involved in getting quality link these days might be a reason to consider the method but be prepared to outsource the management of those blogs. Huge revenue might be involved though. As for me, I prefer spending cash on other methods of getting quality links.
Hi Aceclue,
What other methods do you employ for getting quality links. In my opinion natural contextual links look more natural than other kind of links which you get from directories etc.
I agree about posting content. Content marketing strategies for your PBN must be natural and should be done manually because you always have to be natural in order to come in Google’s third eye. You can outsource the work but it can be outsourced to someone whom you trust because when you give these kind of tasks to SEO companies, they don’t care much and it might hurt your PBN’s quality.
About Revenue and investment, I would say as much you invest in a clever way as much or even more you can generate revenue out of it.
Thanks for coming by Mate and sharing your views with us here.
Hie Atish bro,
Indeed a great post again. Building a PBN can really do a great for website which you have applied on your client site. Now its time for us to try it on blog to get same amazing results.
You have mentioned all the steps for building the PBN, but I have a question that in spite of hosting our content on different C class IP address, google can also check the author details which is more or less is similar for all the blog. So I guess this can create problem in ranking for PBN article. Right?
Since all the backlink from the content start/initialize from same social profile, from same person so, do you think such things can also matter, if google is considering all such factor then?
P.S: I dont know whether google consider such details or not.
And yes I do also agree with all your points in ‘Points to remember’. One should take care of such minute details which building PBN.
Now its time to implement this PBN concept to our own blog. 🙂
Thanks for sharing such useful article. 🙂
>SK Lohar
Thanks for reading the post Shiv. I am not sure if Google does care about Author names as well but as now authorship has gone.. there are lesser chances. Unless you add your same Google+ profile there on every blog then there might be some issues.
To be on safer side, we can keep different names, email ids and everything. Nothing similar on each blog. See you can’t be sure whether Google can catch you but you should always try to be smarter by not leaving any trace.
Glad you liked the idea. Keep visiting.
How smart! Different email ID for all the blog network.
Though sometime its difficult to manage different email ID since we forget to check or login in each and every email ID. But its affordable to work with different account.
You just make me recall my one of the article in which I have shared about android application which manages all the email ID in single applicaition. This is that article http://www.stupidtechlife.com/managing-email-id-now-easier-using-mymail-android-application/
I think android has made our task more easier 🙂
And yes we must carry our work smartly whatever may happen in future. 🙂
>SK Lohar
Thats great. Thanks for sharing the link here! It might be helpful for those who want to manage multiple email id easily.
Private network blog are really good for seo and nt only blogger or wordpress but people are also using tumbler and hubpages also frequently for this, Where tubmler are most powerful platform for PBN.
Thanks for reading the post Deepak. Depends on budget and requirements, you can build network on free platform as well.
Hi Atish,
I’ve never heard of PBN before, but it makes a lot of sense to me! You have explained it so well and I can clearly see how effective this can be.
I am so amazed at this kind of format and thank you so much for sharing it with us. I’m sure the results will work!
Cannot wait to share this one with my friends.
-Donna
Thank you so much Donna. I am glad that you have learned something new from my post. Keep visiting. 🙂
Hi Atish,
This is a great plan for building a private blog network. As you mentioned, this is for business websites primarily and probably lot of companies carry out this plan directly or indirectly. I guess many prefer to purchase links rather because making and maintaining blogs is a tedious job, and if you keep employees for such tasks or even outsource it, it becomes expensive too.
As far as personal blogs are concerned, I don’t think such a network is required. I think when you go around blog commenting, you naturally build a network and keep pushing and supporting each other to top the ranks.
Vinay recently wrote a post on link building on my blog, and that clarifies my stand on this issue. While private blog networks may be a good support option for business websites, individual bloggers with personal blogs should focus on relationships, blog commenting, and of course, great content. What do you think?
Thanks for sharing this great idea and explaining it nicely. 🙂
I have read the post which Vinay wrote. Nice post that is! I have posted a comment there as well.
Yes, this kind of network usually built up to support business website not for blogs. Blogs don’t need a lot of SEO because you naturally do all the things even without knowing that those are parts of SEO.
Thanks for visiting Harleena!
Building a private blog network is not so easy.But can this be possible if i submit my post links to my friends websites and their post links to my website in this way one can get thousands of backlinks…Is this possible.?
By the way i really really liked your idea of making a private blog network…
Why not? You can build links from your friend’s blogs are well but the problem is, your friend may be giving out so many links to others as well then in the case backlinks can have less value but when you own your PBN, you might not use to give link out to others.
By the way thanks for liking my idea.
Seems promising. I have to get ranking for my website too but I have not much knowledge of this PBN thing but I have got something with this post. I have to start working upon it right away.
Great article! Mostly for me I’m still learning about blogging and SEO! Thanks for the content! 😀
Hey.
Great article! It’s true, building your own backlink websites is not an easy task. it requires lots of time, planning, also money.
Its very true what you write about blogging – you have to do it reguralry and the content should be unique. Otherwise you may get banned by search engines.
Once again, thanks for interesting post.
Kris
Fruitful things are never easier Kris, right? Thanks for coming by and appreciating my effort.
This is great tutorial but I am afraid of building links as nowadays, Google has started penalizing badly to the websites involved in link building practices.
Hey Atish,
thank you for a wonderfully and meticulously written article. Till now I was just a writer but now I’m part of a team that is building a mobile application development platform. Hence, I’ve been reading up stuff on creating a wiki page and generating back links and so on.
I have barely scratched the surface but your blog helped me a lot.
Thank you.
Thanks for the good words Frewin!
I am very happy that my blog helped you in someway.