A Private Blog Network is a set of domains, which an individual owns. It is important to understand that you can own a PBN consisting of free blogs, such as tumblr.com, livejournal.com or wordpress.com. Normally, free blog domains do not have a lot of power. Self hosted blogs are considered more powerful. In this post, we have discussed some basics of PBNs (Private Blog Networks). For the purpose of this discussion, we have considered non-free blog platforms, which are self hosted.
In most cases, a Private Blog Network is made up from different expired domains. In simple terms, an expired domain is one that was owned and had content some time ago. It is possible that the website built and developed the website to fulfill a specific purpose. It is also possible that the website was linked to other domains on the Internet.
For whatever reason, the domain was not required anymore. Thus, the webmaster let the registration expire. When a domain on the Internet is no longer registered, any individual or business organization can purchase it for normal registration fee. Normally, the fee is $10-$15.
Until a few years ago, there used to be some Public Blog Networks, such as Linkvana and BuildMyRank. These were available in the pre-Panda and pre-Penguin world. These public networks allowed any individual or business organization to purchase guest posts or links.
A couple of years ago, Google decided to de-index links from a few Public Blog Networks. De-indexing these networks removed any value offered by the backlinks to sites. Public Blog Networks were easy to de-index and identify since they were easily accessible to everyone. Hence, PBNs (Private Blog Networks) were considered more important.
Why Would Someone Create A PBN?
A Private Blog Network is extremely powerful. The primary reason is that you control the content and links within the domain. In simple terms, you can create and change the content to make sure it relates to a specific niche. In addition to this, you can also create and change the anchor text, which links to the website. Anchor text acts as the hyperlink and takes you to another website.
It is worth mentioning that an expired domain is more likely to pass along link juice to any website linked to it. You can consider link juice to be ranking power. Therefore, it would not be wrong to say that an expired domain can pass along more ranking power than a new domain. A lot of people wonder why an expired domain passes on more link juice than a new domain. The reason is that expired domains carry more authority.
Why Do Expired Domains Have Authority?
According to experts, there are two important reasons why expired domains have more authority. The first reason is that Google considers the domain’s age when placing some value. If you are able to find an expired domain that’s been around for the last 5-7 years, it will have more authority. Thus, it will pass more link juice than a domain created a couple of years ago.
The second reason that an expired domain has a lot more link juice is the domain’s backlink profile. In simple terms, backlink profile is the standard make up of the backlinks to a particular domain. In this cases, backlinks for an expired domain. It is important to understand that the backlink profile considers factors like :
- Total number of backlinks
- Total number of linking IP addresses
- Total number of linking domains
- Title tag of the link
- Anchor text of the link
- If the link is in comments
- If the link is from images
- If the link is nofollow or dofollow
Ideally, you want to see a number of natural links from some relevant websites. For instance, if the domain is about home renovations, you should see links from a wide range of home improvement blogs with different anchor text. It is always better to see high quality and authority websites linking to expired domains.
Tips and Tricks
SEO is important to promote every website and generate more traffic. Though using PBNs (Private Blog Networks) can be risky, they prove to be beneficial when used properly. Here are some things you need to consider when using Private Blog Networks.
IP Addresses and Hosting – It’s important to make sure domains in the Private Blog Network have different IP addresses. When domains are on the same address, there’s a good chance that the same person owns all the domains. When Google checks this issue, it indicates collusion for backlinks. The key role of IP addresses is to reduce the network’s footprint. You need to set up your IP addresses to reduce the possibility that Google discovers your Private Blog Network.
Content and Theme – Needless to say, you need to use a unique theme and post fresh content. Content on the blog should be original. It shouldn’t be published anywhere else. All the articles should look natural and contain relevant information. You shouldn’t publish all the articles on the same day. They should be published over a period of time. Since you can edit the publish date in WordPress, it’s an easy fix.
Outbound Links – Outbound links are the primary reason you started a Private Blog Network. Thus, you need to consider this factor. It’s important to have backlinks from authoritative expired domains. This will help you generate good returns from your website. However, it’s important to use all the links judiciously, and exercise more caution throughout the process.
Though some entrepreneurs and online marketers are skeptical about using PBNs (Private Blog Networks), they can be an excellent tool to achieve good returns. When set up properly, PBNs prove to be a valuable tool for the niche website.
Though setting up a Private Blog Network takes some time, effort and money, the trade off allows you to control the links and content to your niche website. However, before you take any steps to set up Private Blog Networks, you should consult experts. This helps you get a better idea to generate more traffic, and get good returns. With some help, a Private Blog Network can give you excellent returns.