When it comes to getting links to promote a website, many people come across such a concept as PBN (Private Blog Network) – these are private grids of sites created to transfer link weight. But not all links from such grids are equally useful. If you choose the bad ones, you can harm your site rather than promote it.
Domain history and credibility
Before posting links from PBN, it is important to check how reliable the site itself is. A good PBN domain has:
- A clean history – it can be checked through the web archive. If the site has previously been used in questionable topics (casinos, pharmaceuticals, spam), it is better to avoid such a source.
- Domain Authority (DA, DR) – metrics from services like Ahrefs or Moz show how much a site is valued by search engines.
The natural link profile is that if only spam links lead to the site, it will not be suitable for hosting.
Content on the website
High-quality PBN links are placed on sites that look like real resources. What should be on such sites?
- Unique content – if the site duplicates texts from other resources or uses automatically generated text, search engines will notice this.
- Constant updates – a good website regularly publishes new articles, rather than being created for a one-time link placement.
- Subject matter and structure – if a website is about finance, but articles about building materials suddenly appear on it, this is strange. A good PBN website should follow the theme.
PBN Reference Profile
It is important to analyze how the site itself looks in the eyes of search engines. Pay attention to:
- A variety of links – if a site links only to commercial projects and has no natural references, this is an alarming signal.
- Anchor list – if all links contain hard keys like “buy cheap shoes”, this is suspicious. There must be natural anchors.
- Search visibility – check if the site has organic traffic. If it’s not there, it’s probably already under filters.
Website design and convenience
Real websites are made for people, not just for posting links. High-quality PBN sites have:
- Modern design – even simple but well-designed pages look convincing.
- Navigation and structure – if the site is easy to find the information you need, it looks natural.
- A minimum of advertising and spam – an abundance of banners, pop-ups and advertising links reduces the value of the resource.
How do I check a website before posting a link?
Before buying or receiving a link from PBN, it is important to do a little checking. This will help you avoid risks and choose a high-quality site:
- Check through the web archive (Wayback Machine) – see how the site looked before. If it has changed the theme several times or has been abandoned for a long time, this is a bad sign.
- Analyze metrics (Ahrefs, Moz, Majestic) – pay attention to DR (Domain Rating), DA (Domain Authority) and Trust Flow. The higher these indicators are, the better.
- Check the traffic (SimilarWeb, Ahrefs) – even a small traffic indicates that the site is not abandoned. The complete lack of traffic is a reason to be wary.
- Examine outbound links – if a site links only to questionable projects, search engines can ignore it or punish it.
- Evaluating content – unique and useful articles is a good sign, but spam texts or texts without meaning may indicate poor PBN quality.
High–quality links from PBN are those that are posted on sites with real value, a clean history, and a good reputation. If the site looks questionable, it’s better to look for another site.
