PBN is going to DIE in Near Future

I know this is a strong statement and will line this thread up for flaming. But IMHO PBN as a ranking strategy is nearing oblivion. Why is say that? because PBN has become a mainstream strategy and any strategy that becomes mainstream is hit by Google sooner or later. You can look at history and see for yourself, right from stats hitting (aka links from website stats like awstats) to Blog Networks (BuildMyRank) and Penguin, any technique that has become too mainstream is hit by Google. The follower of the technique always say that Google can't hit that technique (like they said in blog networks) and its almost infallible. But, the truth of the matter is Google has so much info from so many sources that it can hit any technique it want, the only consideration is how much collateral damage will it cost.

If you are doing PBN for some time, you would have seen that PBNs are not as effective as they were say 6 months or 1 year before. They are still very effective but the ranking is not immediate and it increases gradually. That shows that PBNs are on Google's radar and they would be working on something or the other to take them down and they will not take it down gradually, they will unleash one monster update that does it in one swipe, to shock and awe the seo world. Why? Because the fear is much better weapon to stop any technique.

They can't take down 100% of the sites, there would be sites which will go under the radar, but they only need to take down 60-70% to cause big enough splash for people to fear any technique.

So, IMHO if you are relying only on PBN links then start diversifying as its the only way to fly under the radar. I am not a fear monger

PS: I don't have any insider information, just what I feel from the underlying pulse of the market. I also don't know when the hit will come, it make come in next update or it may not come for 2 years, but better take precaution than sorry.

I used a few PBN links maybe 1-2 years ago, my site is still #1

If a pbn is built exactly as money sites but at scale how can that be penalised?

mansio said:

Nah if they died it would've died already, Google just uses a bot, and people here over rate that bot way too high.

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I am saying that Google is going to take action in the future, not that it has already taken action.

When would you say Google caught on? All the information I find indicates last fall (2014): https://www.google.com/search?q=google+pbn+deindexing

STiPEN said:

If a pbn is built exactly as money sites but at scale how can that be penalised?

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This is the logic given by followers of any technique (I also use PBN) but that does not stop Google to hit that technique. When BuildMyRank became mainstream and even before with Scrapebox, the followers said "Google can't put negative penalty on links or it will lead to negative seo and the seo world will go upside down" and that is exactly what Google did with Penguin. I am wary of any technique that goes mainstream, as ban hammer is not far behind.

Google right now has so much information about us and about the websites that we can't imagine and they surely have some of the brightest people working for them. Do you think they can't find a way to find out about PBNs. and in any case they don't have to find 100% they have to find just 60-70%.

Honestly, who knows. There are no guarantees in SEO - zero. All the more reason to use things that do work, and PBN's do work, while they last before adapting to the inevitable changes Google will throw our way.

Web 2.0 have been main stream for years and still work for me.

Every month or so someone gets bored and makes a thread saying how they will die soon....still waiting for them to die.

Haven't you heard the news yet? SEO is dead.

You are running around saying the sky is falling, but has no real evidence. It's like saying: you're gonna die soon, but we don't know when!

Ok how can pbn's die? They are just websites, like any other website on the internet.

If you take care of it and make them look real and dont leave footprints then how will google stop it?

Its impossible because when you build and take care of your PBN they are just normal websites in google eyes.

One newbie question what is PNB? sorry google didn't give an answer

The only time when PBN will not work anymore is when Google stops using backlinks to rank websites, and that is not going to happen in the next years, so Keep Calm and build your PBN's

Okay another thread about all SEO is dead and we will all lose our existence... from time to time it's even funny to read about.

You don't have any evidence for your claim. Web 2.0 strategy is even older than PBN and it still works if done the right way so stop bitching around and spread your hate. Rather start working on your projects and make some money

Eventually everything becomes obsolete and it's replaced by something better. PBN is not rocket science or a revolutionary idea. It's the old build xxxx backlinks dressed in new & more civilized clothes.


Google is an algo and people trying to exploit it and go around the bot are a lot smarter than the geeks behind it. For people with a good mindset, there will always be a way

David Cameron said:

You are running around saying the sky is falling, but has no real evidence. It's like saying: you're gonna die soon, but we don't know when!

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I am just saying History will repeat itself so take precaution. Regarding evidence, if google has banned multiple PBN networks in the past, don't you think they are trying to find out an algorithmic solution to them.

I am not saying abandon PBN, just improve the overall SEO as relying on PBN alone has become a risky proposition.

asap1 said:

Ok how can pbn's die? They are just websites, like any other website on the internet.

If you take care of it and make them look real and dont leave footprints then how will google stop it?

Its impossible because when you build and take care of your PBN they are just normal websites in google eyes.

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If you are running an actual PBN (even if private) of a considerable size for quite some time, chances are that you have seen some of them get deindexed manually. So how did Google find them in first place?

They did not go and check each and every website possible, they manually verified only sites which raised certain flags, so they have some infrastructure in place to flag PBN sites, it may not be accurate as of now so they require manual intervention. But who is to say that they don't improve it to capture huge chunk of PBN sites in future.

Secondly, Google has so much data available that it can tweak its rankings based on it which reduces the effect of any unnatural PBN link which is not accompanied by increase in activity etc. For e.g. my site gets 10-15 powerful links but it does not have any social activity, direct activity, has bad ctr in serp etc. etc. etc. It may not require to ban PBN sites but just reduce its effect, which is currently happening if you are tracking, the new PBN links to new websites are not giving as high power as before unless accompanies by good content, ctr, bounce rate, social etc. etc.

ranga said:

If you are running an actual PBN (even if private) of a considerable size for quite some time, chances are that you have seen some of them get deindexed manually. So how did Google find them in first place?

They did not go and check each and every website possible, they manually verified only sites which raised certain flags, so they have some infrastructure in place to flag PBN sites, it may not be accurate as of now so they require manual intervention. But who is to say that they don't improve it to capture huge chunk of PBN sites in future.

Secondly, Google has so much data available that it can tweak its rankings based on it which reduces the effect of any unnatural PBN link which is not accompanied by increase in activity etc. For e.g. my site gets 10-15 powerful links but it does not have any social activity, direct activity, has bad ctr in serp etc. etc. etc. It may not require to ban PBN sites but just reduce its effect, which is currently happening if you are tracking, the new PBN links to new websites are not giving as high power as before unless accompanies by good content, ctr, bounce rate, social etc. etc.

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Effectiveness of a PBN is proportional to how you build and maintain them. If it's properly setup and the money site links are diversified, it's next to impossible to track them.

ranga said:

If you are running an actual PBN (even if private) of a considerable size for quite some time, chances are that you have seen some of them get deindexed manually. So how did Google find them in first place?

They did not go and check each and every website possible, they manually verified only sites which raised certain flags, so they have some infrastructure in place to flag PBN sites, it may not be accurate as of now so they require manual intervention. But who is to say that they don't improve it to capture huge chunk of PBN sites in future.

Secondly, Google has so much data available that it can tweak its rankings based on it which reduces the effect of any unnatural PBN link which is not accompanied by increase in activity etc. For e.g. my site gets 10-15 powerful links but it does not have any social activity, direct activity, has bad ctr in serp etc. etc. etc. It may not require to ban PBN sites but just reduce its effect, which is currently happening if you are tracking, the new PBN links to new websites are not giving as high power as before unless accompanies by good content, ctr, bounce rate, social etc. etc.

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Yes they have ALLL this info you speak of YET pbns, web 2.0s, and a open link network called SAPE STILL works.

Plz just stop. If google rolls out a update we will see what changed and adapt to it, its that simple.