Are PBN Backlinks Good? What You Need To Know About PBN Links
PBN backlinks are links built from a group of connected websites and blogs.
PBN’s have been used as a black hat link building technique in the past and is a topic that is frowned upon in the world of SEO
In this article, we will discuss what PBN backlinks are and whether they are still good or bad to use in 2021.
What is a PBN?
- What is a PBN?
- What are PBN backlinks?
- Do PBNs still work in 2021?
- Why do people build PBN links?
- Can you rank a website using PBN links?
- Need link building advice?
Private Blog Networks are hyperlinks constructed from a network of connected sites and blogs. The hyperlinks are built from sites and blogs in the same private network, which can be owned by one person.
PBNs are often built using expired domains.
These outdated websites that once hosted content had links and rankings in the eyes of Google are used as a way to create a network of links that pass authority to a website.
By building basic content on expired domains and using a web archive, you can quickly recreate web pages and use their historical domain authority to pass onto your website via a link.
What are PBN backlinks?
A PBN backlink is a link from a site within a private blog network. They can be sometimes hard to spot and if you haven’t carried out the necessary research, they can often go unnoticed until they harm your site further down the line.
In order to identify a PBN backlink, you need to take into account many factors, including:
- The appearance of the site – a lot of PBN websites look spammy and will often have no clear contact information or business address. The content will be thin and will have no real business identity. Remember that if you are building links directly to your money site, you want these to be from real, relevant websites.
- An imbalance of incoming and outgoing links – if you see that they have around 200 referring domains but then have 50,000 outgoing links to other websites, chances are this is a spammy website that is serving no other purpose but to provide a link to a website.
- No clear content outline – the content may be random and not really have a focus on the website. Look at the other articles to make sure that what they are talking about is relevant and looks readable.
Do PBNs still work in 2021?
When it comes to private blog networks, the discussion of whether they still work or not remains somewhat of an unknown.
In order to build a PBN that leaves no trace of building it, has quality content and the general running of the website can become costly.
Whilst link building is still a very important aspect of SEO, if its mismanaged and looks unnatural, then this will eventually catch up with your website ranking efforts.
This is also not to mention what goes into finding an expired domain that has a clean link profile. Finding an expired domain that is relevant and has a natural-looking backlink profile and has good authority comes at a price.
Linking an expired domain that looks spammy directly to your money site can be a very risky tactic and is something that you should try to avoid where you can.
Why do people build PBN links?
When it comes to building PBN backlinks, a lot of people will choose to create or buy links from a PBN due to the potential power that an aged domain or group of domains can pass to your money site.
However a lot of the time, website owners will build PBN backlinks and not know that these are basically spammy links.
Without the right strategy, PBN link building is a lot of effort for the return that you get in terms of money and time.
People often use PBN’s as a way to power up the higher quality links that are pointing directly at their money site which can often be a better and more low-risk strategy that will keep any potential link building footprint away from your website.
Are PBN backlinks good or bad?
There is a mixed opinion generally when it comes to PBN links. Generally, if you are building the network yourself, it can be very time consuming and not be too cost-effective when you weigh up the options where you could be investing directly into your money website.
There are so many other factors that go into ranking a website in Google and there are a lot of other strategies that you can implement as a pose to the outlay of creating a private blog network, which could ultimately destroy your site completely.
Can you rank a website using PBN links?
Whilst you may notice some positive ranking results from using PBN links, it is a ticking time bomb if you are using them to link directly to your money site. Building nothing but spammy links will only harm your progression in the long run.
Not all PBN links are spammy and some may look okay on the face of it when you look at their metrics. It is important to know what to look out for when it comes to building PBN links and you need to be very careful when sourcing them.
There are so many other positive and natural link building techniques that you can use to acquire links, private blog networks are somewhat inefficient.
Need link building advice?
You need to tread very carefully when building links and especially if you are considering PBN’s. It can be something that if mismanaged, can be extremely harmful to a website.
There is a lot of misinformation out there when it comes to building links so make sure you do your research and audit sites you are interested in building links from very carefully.
If you are unsure about your backlink profile and need some advice on what to look out for when it comes to building high-quality links, do not hesitate to contact me.
I will be more than happy to answer any questions you have on PBN’s and link building as a whole.