What Is A Private Blog Network And How Does It Work
What is a Private Blog Network?
In light of changes made by Google in the last few years many have turned to either creating or being a part of a private blog network in order to promote a business. Using such a method is considered to be "blackhat" and is particularly frowned upon by Google and the other major search engines, yet for those willing to risk the wrath of these traffic driving powerhouses, it can certainly help those who are out to promote either a single business or number of businesses. The switch can prove safer as it allows the person paying a fee for this service and more control over how the network is used and organized.
Reaping Benefits with Fewer Risks
Such a setup is typically done through a series of websites that will be assessed by Google and other search engines as a group instead of a single website, or online entity. Quiet often a typical setup can involve anything from ten to fifty blogs, but some recent now PBNS have added far more with many of the well known ones containing literally thousands of "ghost" blogs whose sole intention is to help rank websites with the aid of contextually relevant links. The network should have blogs that are similar in content and subject matter. This doesn’t limit anything as much as it might seem to at first glance. For instance a business that deals with cooking would suit a particular operation aimed at restaurants, chefs, fine dining, catering, cooking schools, cooking supplies, cooking lessons with much more fitting into the same subject. In this way linking the blogs or pages from the blogs will seem natural.
In light of changes made by Google in the last few years many have turned to either creating or being a part of a private blog network in order to promote a business. Using such a method is considered to be "blackhat" and is particularly frowned upon by Google and the other major search engines, yet for those willing to risk the wrath of these traffic driving powerhouses, it can certainly help those who are out to promote either a single business or number of businesses. The switch can prove safer as it allows the person paying a fee for this service and more control over how the network is used and organized.
Reaping Benefits with Fewer Risks
Such a setup is typically done through a series of websites that will be assessed by Google and other search engines as a group instead of a single website, or online entity. Quiet often a typical setup can involve anything from ten to fifty blogs, but some recent now PBNS have added far more with many of the well known ones containing literally thousands of "ghost" blogs whose sole intention is to help rank websites with the aid of contextually relevant links. The network should have blogs that are similar in content and subject matter. This doesn’t limit anything as much as it might seem to at first glance. For instance a business that deals with cooking would suit a particular operation aimed at restaurants, chefs, fine dining, catering, cooking schools, cooking supplies, cooking lessons with much more fitting into the same subject. In this way linking the blogs or pages from the blogs will seem natural.
Looking for a Good Fit
In discovering what it is and how it and how it can help your particular situation means following an established route. What some have done to increase the chances of success in creating this elaborate setup is to find and purchase a collection of defunct or expired domains that are high in either Page Rank (PR) or Domain Authority (DA measured by SEOMOZ criteria). These are websites that were in operation until recently when the owner either put the domain up for sale, or didn’t continue paying to keep the site domain name. Using these domains that had established traffic until recently will increase the private blog network’s chances of seeing ranking very quickly once it is set up.
In discovering what it is and how it and how it can help your particular situation means following an established route. What some have done to increase the chances of success in creating this elaborate setup is to find and purchase a collection of defunct or expired domains that are high in either Page Rank (PR) or Domain Authority (DA measured by SEOMOZ criteria). These are websites that were in operation until recently when the owner either put the domain up for sale, or didn’t continue paying to keep the site domain name. Using these domains that had established traffic until recently will increase the private blog network’s chances of seeing ranking very quickly once it is set up.
Avoiding Issues that Can Kill a PBN
The many different criteria looked at by Google and other search engines such as Yahoo is a bone of contention for many who seek to promote a business or website. Until just a few years ago many used public blog networks with success, but back then these were more public than private setups and it didn't take Google long to infiltrate and take down these mammoth setups and penalize all sites involved in the practice. Nowadays however and with the grace of hindsight owners of these rank boosting websites are a lot more conscious of the penalties involved and keep their cards far closer to their chest than their predecessors did.
Both public and private blogs allowed long posts or articles on various websites. These websites were linked to a form of automatic content distribution systems. Authors could write an article related to cooking as in the example above and this would be published on the network in the appropriate niche. Unfortunately, search engines penalized some of the big players as mentioned earlier and many subsequently closed down.
The Google Penalty Box
It’s theorized by those by those who watch how search engines operate that public blogs were shutdown for a number of reasons.
When Google lowered the boom on the likes of BuildMyRank and the other major blog network operators it seemed that the concept of ranking in this way was all but dead, yet what they don't seem to understand is that people who wish to make money online through ranking with this method sooner or later learn to adapt to any update thrown at them.
The many different criteria looked at by Google and other search engines such as Yahoo is a bone of contention for many who seek to promote a business or website. Until just a few years ago many used public blog networks with success, but back then these were more public than private setups and it didn't take Google long to infiltrate and take down these mammoth setups and penalize all sites involved in the practice. Nowadays however and with the grace of hindsight owners of these rank boosting websites are a lot more conscious of the penalties involved and keep their cards far closer to their chest than their predecessors did.
Both public and private blogs allowed long posts or articles on various websites. These websites were linked to a form of automatic content distribution systems. Authors could write an article related to cooking as in the example above and this would be published on the network in the appropriate niche. Unfortunately, search engines penalized some of the big players as mentioned earlier and many subsequently closed down.
The Google Penalty Box
It’s theorized by those by those who watch how search engines operate that public blogs were shutdown for a number of reasons.
- Blog networks were a form of paid linking, and Google has a policy against this.
- Articles and content found on some PBNs were of low quality and only used to get backlinks. Google wants only unique and well-written articles and content on a page. These will satisfy the needs of reader better than just filler to build to links, and draw legitimate traffic to a website.
- Google disapproved of ‘link schemes’ and some PBNs did not seem to have a natural form of link build as opposed to sites that operated independently.
When Google lowered the boom on the likes of BuildMyRank and the other major blog network operators it seemed that the concept of ranking in this way was all but dead, yet what they don't seem to understand is that people who wish to make money online through ranking with this method sooner or later learn to adapt to any update thrown at them.
Are Private Blog Networks Safer:
In learning what a private network is a person who intents to join one, or who wants to create one will need to avoid the pitfalls of the public networks. Giving up after not finding an expired domain is another pitfall since this is not a necessary criterion for making your plan work successfully. Creating a domain name and registering it is also a plausible method of getting up and running, yet you will need to build the all important high PR links yourself to these domains in order for them to flow any "Page Rank juice" to the sites you wish to rank. What is important is to play by search engines rules:
Those who haven’t followed Google’s rules will usually find themselves on the outs with not only this search engine giant, but will see all the other search engines follow suit. For those who penalized often the entire setup becomes a lost cause as page ranking drops so significantly there seems no way to repair the damage.
In learning what a private network is a person who intents to join one, or who wants to create one will need to avoid the pitfalls of the public networks. Giving up after not finding an expired domain is another pitfall since this is not a necessary criterion for making your plan work successfully. Creating a domain name and registering it is also a plausible method of getting up and running, yet you will need to build the all important high PR links yourself to these domains in order for them to flow any "Page Rank juice" to the sites you wish to rank. What is important is to play by search engines rules:
- Don’t put all of the blogs on a single server or IP address
- Create legitimate links
- Use only quality content geared to attract readers to a site naturally.
- Use links from multiple networks
- Keep informed of any chances Google makes to it’s rules or in how it validates a website.
Those who haven’t followed Google’s rules will usually find themselves on the outs with not only this search engine giant, but will see all the other search engines follow suit. For those who penalized often the entire setup becomes a lost cause as page ranking drops so significantly there seems no way to repair the damage.