A Private Blog Network (PBN) is an SEO goldmine.

When done right, PBNs give you complete control over your backlinks and traffic. You can control your search engine rankings and influence your website’s authority.

However, many professionals make PBN mistakes that may undermine their SEO efforts. But not to worry! This blog post will explore these common PBN mistakes and teach you how to avoid them.

Shall we?

What are PBN Mistakes? 

PBN mistakes are common errors made by SEO experts, marketers, and website owners when using a private blog network to build links.

Contrary to popular opinion, PBNs aren’t just a set of worthless websites that eventually lead to a search engine penalty. But if you build your PBN without careful planning, search engines may see your websites as manipulative. 

Some common PBN mistakes include using spammy domains, neglecting websites across the network, and using an unreliable PBN hosting service. But before we discuss these PBN mistakes in detail, why should you watch out for them? 

Why You Should Watch Out for PBN Mistakes

Google and other search engines have constantly modified their algorithms to eliminate manipulative SEO strategies. Hence, common PBN mistakes like spammy domains, neglecting websites across the network, and leaving traceable footprints can make search engines see your network as a scheme to distort search results and penalize your websites.

For instance, if the source is unnatural, Google can ignore your backlinks, so your rankings will not increase or decrease. You may also get hit with a manual action, and some pages will either lose ranking or be omitted from SERPs altogether. 

Now that you know some common PBN mistakes and why you should look out for them when executing your SEO strategy, let’s explore them in detail and how to avoid them at all costs. 

6 Common PBN Mistakes to Avoid

Here are common PBN errors that can sidetrack your SEO efforts in the long run:

Overusing Generic, Similar, or Duplicate Content

Many people, even seasoned experts, often use content across their network that barely provides detailed information. Some even use similar or duplicate content on different websites with minor tweaks. 

While this may not necessarily lead to a penalty, it reduces the efficiency of your PBN as unique, high-quality content typically suggests authority and high engagement.

How to Avoid This: 

• Diversify content across your network by creating unique content for each website. 

Leaving Traceable Footprints

One of the biggest PBN mistakes people make is that they leave traceable footprints across their network. They use the same theme, hosting, or IPs for multiple websites within the PBN to save costs or for better convenience. 

Search engines may investigate footprints like IPs to see if one website leads to another. That way, they can easily identify the entire network and penalize it. 

How to Avoid This: 

• Have a dedicated IP address for each website so the search engine can’t easily identify the connection between the PBN sites. 
• Use different plugins, themes, and registrars for each website. 
• Set up Whois Privacy Protection to hide domain ownership and link between PBN websites. 

Using Spammy or Low-Quality Domains

Auction domains are the core of any successful PBN SEO strategy because they already have link juice that can be passed on to other websites.

However, some people buy domains with existing penalties without properly screening the domain first. Backlinks from such a domain will not impact your main website and may even lead to penalties over time. 

How to Avoid This: 

• Conduct thorough domain research and look out for any spam activity. The website’s archives may be a good place to start. 
• Select domains with clean backlink profiles to prevent penalties. 
• Don’t buy domains with previous controversial content like gambling or adult content. 

Ignoring Consistent Site Maintenance

One of the most common yet overlooked PBN mistakes people make is neglecting regular website maintenance. Setting up a PBN is not enough, as content, themes, and plugins may get outdated when you don’t regularly maintain websites across your network.

Over time, this may lead to several broken links and expose your website to cyber-attacks. Plus, a neglected website may have loading issues and a poor layout that can drive at least 38% of web visitors away and hurt your ranking chances. 

How to Avoid This: 

• Actively post new content or refresh existing articles across the network
• Audit your website and look out for broken links and unresponsive pages
• Consistently keep backups of your websites in case of a security breach 

Unnatural Link Building Practices

Some people engage in unnatural link-building practices that can raise red flags for search engine algorithms.

For instance, using exact-match anchor text across websites in the network can suggest keyword stuffing and manipulation. When search engines like Google crawl websites with such looming signals, their algorithms have been trained to penalize or de-index them. 

How to Avoid This: 

• Strategically insert links within the network to appear more authentic to search engines. 
• Vary the anchor text links across websites so that your backlink profile will seem more organic. 

Using Unreliable PBN Hosting

Choosing the right hosting service is vital because it lays the foundation that determines how successful your PBN SEO strategy will be. What does this mean?

Some people take the shortcut by using an unreliable, low-quality hosting service that allows them to host multiple PBN sites on clustered IP addresses. Search engines may then investigate and identify multiple websites originating from the same IP address during the crawling process, which may lead to a loss of ranking.

Such websites may also experience security issues, poor performance, and frequent downtimes.

How to Avoid This: 

• Use a reliable hosting service that offers unique IP addresses for each website in your PBN like Priority Prospect. This premier hosting service is tailored explicitly for PBNs and offers dedicated, footprint-free IP addresses for each website within your network. That way, you can host your PBN without fear of frequent downtimes or shared IP addresses that can be traced. 

PBN Mistakes at a Glance

Final Words

Building and running a successful PBN is not a walk in the park. You need to avoid common mistakes and pay careful attention to the tiniest details. 

While these PBN mistakes can severely affect your website, they can be fixed. However, a reliable hosting service is needed to support your SEO strategy. That’s why investing in a trusted PBN hosting service like Priority Prospect is key.

When you invest the right resources in excellent services and follow the right practices over time, you can create a PBN built on the proper foundation rather than spending your time avoiding mistakes. 
Sign up for our hosting services and supercharge your SEO strategy today.