Building SEO Since 13 years Old. I didn’t set out to build an agency — I set out to solve a problem.
Private blog networks (also known as PBNs) are a black-hat SEO tactic designed to manipulate search engine rankings so that your link-building efforts pay off immediately. Although PBN links may be effective in the short term, Google doesn’t like them. It prefers when you prioritize user experience and earning valuable backlinks over “hacking” the system. Additionally, Google is now better than ever at recognizing them, which means they can be detrimental to your long-term SEO strategy, negatively impacting organic growth and ROSI (Return on SEO Investment).
Here's a deeper look at what PBNs are, which brands may be compelled to use them, why you should avoid them, and how to help your website recover if it's been impacted by low-quality links.
A private blog network (PBN) refers to a network of websites that businesses and individuals have created to generate links that point to another website. Businesses often create websites in these networks from expired domains that have existing authority, content, and backlinks.
The idea is that these sites will link back to your website, helping it rank higher in search engines, which will increase visibility and improve authority.
However, search engines like Google see this type of link generation as an attempt to manipulate the algorithm, branding it as a black hat link-building tactic. Because of this, using private blog networks can actually tank your entire SEO strategy rather than set you up for success.
Because of this, you need to stay away from these quick and dirty tactics.
Choosing to use PBNs as part of your SEO strategy is dangerous and can put the domain authority of your website at risk. But despite this, businesses still use them. This is because:
Many brands aren’t SEO experts – they’re experts in their products and running their business, instead, which is why they choose to outsource SEO to agencies. But not all SEO agencies are created equal, and some may sell a lot of links at a low cost. This is unethical, hindering the brand’s SEO strategy in the long term for the sake of quick results now. And because the majority of brands don’t understand PBNs, they likely won’t ask about them or understand what to look out for.
Using these quick and dirty tactics doesn’t yield the results that brands want. That’s why, here at DTC SEO Agency, we focus on sustainable, long-term results using ethical SEO practices, such as valuable link-building.
Link building is one of the most important aspects of SEO, but it's also one of the trickiest. Google sees links as ticks of approval from other websites, and the more you have, the more trustworthy your site is.
However, how quickly links get built will usually depend on other websites and blogs: how willing they are to accept your content, how fast they respond to you, and their own publishing schedule.
This makes PBNs appealing. With private blog networks, a site owner can build lots of links quickly without forging partnerships or depending on organic outreach. But what they don’t understand is that link building is about quality over quantity; many low-quality links can negatively impact your site. (But more on that later.)
A lot of the time, it's hard to control the anchor texts you can use with organic outreach. Certain websites may ban branded or promotional anchor text. However, most companies want to be able to use branded or keyword-rich anchor text within articles, as this helps Google understand the topic and context of the linked page and rank their website higher.
With PBNs, businesses usually have full control of their anchor text. They’re also able to control link placement, which can be appealing as well. This is because the higher your anchor text is placed in an article, the more authority Google gives to the linked page (your website).
Although PBNs used to be a popular way of gaining backlinks, they violate Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, which makes them risky. Google's modern algorithms are well-versed in identifying private blog network links.
This is actually the best-case scenario you can hope for when using PBN links. Search engines will identify and bypass spammy, unnatural, or suspicious links pointing to your website, which means they won't hinder your search rankings.
However, you'll be left with a low-quality backlink profile made up of links that won't improve your brand authority or online visibility, either. This means any money you previously spent on PBN links will be for nothing.
If you're using black hat link-building tactics, Google will soon identify a pattern. If it believes you've tried to manipulate search results and rankings through PBNs, it will immediately penalize and de-index your website, leading to a sudden drop in rankings and a huge decline in organic traffic. This is detrimental to your ROSI (Return on SEO Investment) and revenue.
Furthermore, recovering from Google's penalties can be tricky. It involves disavowing bad, spammy, and unnatural links pointing to your website through Google Search Console. And even after that, it could be months before you start seeing positive results again, while your competitors soar ahead.
Like we said above, if you use unethical link-building practices, you will be penalized, and it can be impossible for your website to recover. But there are also other huge disadvantages to using PBNs, such as:
You can avoid all of this by doing link building by the book.
PBNs are evolving, which means they’re harder to identify. Agencies may not be operating with the old, simple "link farm" model. Instead, they may be attempting to create more complex networks to evade detection from search engines.
This includes:
These are all things to be wary of when checking the quality of your links.
As we mentioned earlier in this article, Google is cracking down more than ever on PBNs, which means it’s getting harder and harder to use them, even if businesses are adopting more sophisticated PBNs.
Here are some of the ways Google finds them:
Due to the risk factors, we recommend avoiding private blog networks at all costs. To do this effectively, you need to know the warning signs. They are as follows:
The majority of the time, PBNs will have very little or no organic traffic. This is because their main purpose isn't to attract an audience or engagement; it's to pass link equity. The best way to see if a website doesn't have any organic traffic coming to the website is through tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs. If a website has a high domain authority (DA) without any organic traffic, it's probably a PBN website.
Alternatively, a low DR can also indicate that the website may not be legitimate. Once again, using tools such as Ahrefs' Domain Rating or Moz's Domain Authority can help you understand whether a website has a good domain rating and can provide high-quality links. If you notice that a website has lots of outbound links but low domain metrics, you're likely dealing with a PBN.
The content on these sites is usually low-quality. This means the articles are not valuable to the reader, they don’t offer new information or insights, and they may be littered with spelling inconsistencies or grammatical errors.
Most online websites focus on a niche or a parent topic, such as mental health, fitness, or finance, and then create articles around subtopics in that niche. For example, a mental health website might write articles about depression, anxiety, PTSD, stress, and more. However, a PBN likely won't have a topical focus. One article may be about home improvement, and the next may delve into cryptocurrency. You might even come across articles in a completely different language. There’s no clear audience for the website.
When it comes to link building, relevancy matters. If Google thinks you're getting links from irrelevant sources, it will believe you're trying to manipulate the algorithm and penalize your website.
Check the visual structure of blog articles. Are they under relevant categories or just in one long feed? Does the site cover any and every topic, and are all the articles mixed up in a non-logical way? These are big tells that you’re dealing with one of these networks.
These articles may include unnatural anchor text, which basically means that the anchor text doesn’t read correctly within the content. It may be grammatically incorrect or may not fit the context of the article.
The website may be full of high outbound links, which are basically links that link out to other websites. That is because linking out is the sole purpose of the website. At the same time, it may also have low inbound links, which are links that point to the original website.
Agencies that use PBN links will often make grand promises that sound good on paper but are unlikely to be true. For example, if a website offers to build 40 backlinks for $2,000 or guarantees the number one ranking spot on the Google search engine results pages, then proceed with caution. An effective, high-authority link-building strategy takes time and consistent effort, whereas fast and cheap links come from black hat tactics such as private blog networks.
Important Note – If you're a company relying on an SEO agency, make sure to ask them what their link-building strategy is. Ensure to review the links they're getting you to make sure they’re high-quality.
Although using private blog networks might help you attain a huge number of links in a short space of time, they won't have the SEO impact that a well-thought-out, authoritative strategy would have. It's much better to have a few high-quality links than endless bad links from low-quality websites. Authoritative links come from trustworthy websites with relevant content and high traffic.
Here’s what authoritative, good-quality links can do for you:
Overall, good link acquisition from superior sites in your niche will help you build a high-quality link profile and show Google that it can trust your website, which will improve your site's rankings, ensuring your website shows up when potential customers are looking for you.
If you've purchased or have been targeted by spammy or PBN links in the past, that doesn't mean it's the end for your website. You can always disavow unwanted links through Google Search Console. Link disavow is basically where you tell Google to ignore specific links when it's assessing your authority and ranking your website.
However, the link disavowal process is delicate. It can be far too easy to remove good, high-quality links, which can hugely impact your brand authority and rankings. On the other hand, if you remove too few links, then you'll be stuck with spammy links and a poor link profile.
Here's how to disavow links so you're only left with high-quality, natural links:
If you've never disavowed links before or you know you have a lot of old, spammy links you need to remove, it's worth working with professional SEO experts – like us. We offer professional link disavow services that focus on protecting your site's authority.
Broken link building is a white-hat, Google-approved SEO tactic. It involves finding broken links on relevant websites and offering to replace the broken link with a link to your own, valuable content. This strategy is a win-win for both your own site and theirs. Fixing a broken link improves the host site's user experience and helps you earn a high-quality backlink that will strengthen your own brand authority.
Some professional link building experts include broken link replacement as part of their service.
PBNs (or private blog networks) are not safe for your SEO. Google sees them as manipulative and will penalize your website if you use them. PBN links may offer gains in the short term, leading to high rankings in the first few months, but after that, your website will drop in rankings. The worst-case scenario is that Google will de-index your website, and it will be extremely difficult to recover.
The risks of PBN links far outweigh any short-term benefits.
There are a number of ways you can tell if you have PBN links. If your rankings have dropped or your SEO strategy isn't moving the needle, it might be time to look at your link profile. You can identify PBN links by the following:
If you're concerned with poor-quality links affecting your SEO score and leading to low rankings, we can help with that. Here's what we do at DTC SEO Agency:
We'll help you climb higher in the Google search results with a link-building strategy designed for the biggest impact.
Although private blog networks once offered a tempting shortcut for quick SEO gains, it's clearer than ever that the risks of using them far outweigh the rewards, for both seasoned and new websites alike. Once Google discovers that you're using PBN links, you'll be penalized, which can have detrimental effects on your brand's existing authority and visibility.
Rather than using PBN shortcuts and ending up with spammy or unnatural links, focus on building links through ethical methods, such as content creation and building relationships with authoritative websites related to your niche. If you focus on authentic, white-hat SEO methods instead of shortcuts, you will genuinely improve your search rankings.
