PBN — Ranking Case Study!

[cyberjix]

I am not gonna be sharing any personal stuff, but I will show you guys the power of a good PBN.

PBNs are still one of the most powerful and quick ranking strategies for any keyword you're after, but the problem many people have is that they buy shitty PBN links. The best way to operate with PBNs is to develop them yourself, with organic content, and by building its authority in search engines.

Once your PBN is authoritative, you can safely use it to strategically backlink to the website you are trying to rank.

Let me take you on a journey, real quick...

Everyone knows where Miami is. If you don't, it's in Florida. A pretty big city with pretty big $$$ and, obviously, if you are in the digital marketing world or are providing SEO services in a specific city, you will need to rank for the keywords your potential customers are searching to find your style of services.

For example: in Miami, if you are providing SEO services, you will need to rank your website for the following keywords in the top 3:

• Miami SEO
• Miami SEO Company
• Miami SEO Expert
• SEO Agency Miami
• SEO Services Miami
• Best SEO Company Miami
• Local SEO Miami
• Local Miami SEO Company
• Miami FL SEO
• Miami SEO Firm
• SEO Marketing Miami
• The Miami SEO Company etc..

For example, Miami SEO has about 1,900 searches a month. The keyword difficulty according to SEMrush is 48 and there are over 20,600,000 search results. This is a fairly difficult keyword to go after because there is a lot of competition going after the same thing, fighting for that #1 position so they can offer their services to the wealthy whales of Miami.

Now let's take a look at our laboratory test subject.

• Yupe, it doesn't even have SSL
• Yes, it has the word "Bitch" in the domain (everyone stays too serious in these local areas so why not a little joke right lol?).

Here is website stats:



Domain Authority is under 20
Page Authority is under 25

Note: You don't need a super high DA or PA to rank for decently difficult keywords.

Not that it really matters too much, but if you were curious about the Global Ranking of this website:



Now, the keywords I listed above this website do rank for every single one of those important $$$ keywords in Miami.

Feel free to look it up yourself in your own browser, they'll still pop-up.



The website has 1 year and 9 months of ranking history.



The true work really started during November of 2018. This is when the real traffic started hitting the website. Before then, there was nothing else done on the website for generating targeted web traffic.

Take a look at the screenshot below:



The website secured easy keywords to build its strength. Now, within one year, it ranks for a total of 112 keywords.



Now here is the complete infrastructure behind this laboratory test:

After the on-site structure was built strategically.

The off-site strategy was nothing but good PBNs.

There are about 195 good links, channeling back to this website.



Now the main links that actually influence this website's ranking include these two:



The first link gives us about 43 links.
The second link gives us about 20.

And the hyper-focus keyword is "Miami SEO".

Now TEST #2: A different city

The city of Orlando is the second city with big $$$ every SEO firm is after at the moment. Let's take a look at some results from this area:

Keyword: Orlando SEO | 13,600,000 search results | 1,300 search a month | 46 keyword difficulty

This keyword was secured in no longer than two months, which you can search for yourself since I can not attach any more files. BHW limits up to 10 files per thread.

This is a case study to help clarify that good PBNs do work and are the go-to link building tactic for grey hat SEOs. I love using PBN's myself and they work for me.

Remember: A good PBN has more than 1 blog and do not scrape shit, do not spin articles either. Use your brain or hire someone to write you some articles for $10 through Fiverr.

If you guys have any questions, drop em below. If you want to share some of your PBN experiences I would love to hear whatcha got.

 

[HenryObi]

When hunting for domains to use for building your PBN, what do you actually look out for?

do you think domains with DA/PA of under 30, are worth it?

for a medium competition keyword that has big sites ranking for it too, how many domains do you think is ideal (while taking note of the aforementioned metricsDA/PA), to rank top 3?

the metric part is very important because I've actually tried buying domains for PBNs even on this forum, their metrics were in no way impressive to me and their prices were something else with respect to the prices.

 

[phoenix9]

So how many total pbn use site you for miami seo sites?

Do you use auction or expired domain?

How about anchor?

 

[Mr Positive]

Premium pbns always delivers but people often buy cheap pbns and then regret it

 

[slowboy]

Very good case study! Thanks you

BTW where are you you finding domains for PBN? How many article for each PBN?

 

[cyberjix]

If you don't have the patience to build it from 0 up.
Here what you should look for.

Here some things to consider:

Expired Domain Vs. Expiring Domains

Expired Domain — These kinds of domains tend to be weaker and take months to age before being worth linking at all.
Expiring Domain — Now, these kinds of domains retain their age and if the previous owner registered it 4 years ago, it will remain as registered for 4 years.

I normally like to operate with expiring domains because they are the best to work with this matter. The only downside to it is, they tend to be a bit weaker, therefore, you need to still, built it up and let it sit there at least 9 weeks. You can add links after 9 weeks of aging.

My advice to you for dmail acquisition is to exclusively purchase them through auctions or website marketplaces.

Recommendations:

Broker

• PureQualityDomains
• SERPChampion

Auction

• Flippa
• NameJet
• Namecheap Auctions
• GoDaddy Auctions

Any Domains From DA / PA 1 — 20 is solid. It doesn't have to be 30+ like everyone claims for anything that's under 50 keyword difficulty.

Now when it comes to hosting, one problem is that there is a footprint of using the same provider for all your PBN's. You do not want to use one of those cheap hosting services. The best thing is to use popular hots that real websites would use.

1. Bluehost
2. InMotion
3. HostGator
4. iPage
5. A2 Hosting
6. GoDaddy
7. SiteGround
8. GreenGreeks
9. HawkHost

These are all good host providers and are not so cheap compared to many SEO hosts or cheap shared hosts out there. But believe me, it is worth it for quality PBN. Plus it reduces your risk of losing your network!

for a medium competition keyword that has big sites ranking for it too, how many domains do you think is ideal (while taking note of the aforementioned metricsDA/PA), to rank top 3?

It's always good to have at least 5 in whatever niche you are operating in.

Let's say if you going after the automotive industry, it's good to have 5 solid in that industry. If you are in the fitness industry, 5 quality fitness PBNs. Etc. you get the point!

 

[cyberjix]

Premium pbns always delivers but people often buy cheap pbns and then regret it

I agree, people also don't have the patience. Rankings take time!

 

[Mohamad Zidani]

Can you guide me on how to setup a PBN from A to Z?

 

[dirtyguide]

This is some great information. I always thought that PBN strategy was a B.S. but lately I been seen more and more good stuff with some unavoidable hard facts.

I do understand the entire process but the thing I'm having a little trouble with is the content.

What do you suggest far as content? What kind of content should go on the PBN?

 

[Satal]

Thanks for the post. Interesting and I'm sure will generate plenty of conversation.

Do you stage your PBN over multiple hosting providers/registrars?

 

[awesomewebsites]

Only having PBNs is not sufficient, they have to be quality PBNs.

 

[LeanLow]

This is some great information. I always thought that PBN strategy was a B.S. but lately I been seen more and more good stuff with some unavoidable hard facts.

I do understand the entire process but the thing I'm having a little trouble with is the content.

What do you suggest far as content? What kind of content should go on the PBN?

You must be new here, PBNs have been putting bread on my table for the last 5 years, they do work.

Only having PBNs is not sufficient, they have to be quality PBNs.

That's true, the past 2 years PBN prices have been steadily increasing, if you're going to buy on an auction to get a decent one it'll cost minimum $200 (from providers same quality selling for $400), if you're aiming for the really good ones be prepared to shell $300+ on auctions, and you need quite a few of them to rank. Without a decent budget it's impossible to make it in SEO these days. I consider myself lucky to get into this train when they were relatively cheap.

People who think they can buy even barely minimally decent for less than $100 you're gonna have a hard time. Overall I'd say to get into PBNs (buying them (provided you know which ones are good on auctions, a lot of providers are selling pure shit that I wouldn't take for free), getting content, hosting, setting them up etc) without $5k don't even get into them, even with $5k you would have to go for the low comp keywords.

I agree, people also don't have the patience. Rankings take time!

If you can't afford waiting 6-12months while making nothing and spending money on PBNs,Guest Posts, content and all the rest of the stuff then don't get started with SEO. With a brand new site these days it takes more than a year to rank for anything decent.

When hunting for domains to use for building your PBN, what do you actually look out for?

do you think domains with DA/PA of under 30, are worth it?

for a medium competition keyword that has big sites ranking for it too, how many domains do you think is ideal (while taking note of the aforementioned metricsDA/PA), to rank top 3?

the metric part is very important because I've actually tried buying domains for PBNs even on this forum, their metrics were in no way impressive to me and their prices were something else with respect to the prices.

 

[Lutja]

The first link gives us about 43 links.

Awesome case study, thank you! Can you enlight me about this sentence, please? As after double-checking I don't get what you meant, since I can only see one link (miamiseo...) being present in posts.

 

[cyberjix]

Can you guide me on how to setup a PBN from A to Z?

I think I am going to write a guide sometime in the future and share it with you guys here.

 

[Satal]

I think I am going to write a guide sometime in the future and share it with you guys here.

That would be greatly appreciated

 

[maglincer]

Do you think google will eventually start penalising even the good PBN's?

 

[J T]

Do you think google will eventually start penalising even the good PBN's?

I'm not an expert on PBNs but I think the definition of a 'good' PBN is that it looks and acts like a legit, real website, and thus escapes penalties. And I'd imagine that definition keeps changing all the time as the search algo evolves.

 

[cyberjix]

I do understand the entire process but the thing I'm having a little trouble with is the content.

What do you suggest far as content? What kind of content should go on the PBN?

This is the part where most people get super lazy and make huge mistakes. n the past, the original method was to quickly write up some 300-word article, slap an image on it, and you’re done. These days things are not quite like that, we gotta take it to the next level while making the process even easier.

I personally recommend you to have at least 3-4 pages and 3-4 posts.

Golden Rule: The more the better.

I do understand the entire process but the thing I'm having a little trouble with is the content.

What do you suggest far as content? What kind of content should go on the PBN?

Here's the main structure of your on-site content, they must include the following:

• Infographic Posts
  
• Video Reviews
  
• Image Gallery
  
• Standard article

By having a mix of infographics, image galleries videos and standard articles it makes it much more visually appealing. And the great thing about it is its easy to write up the content, all you gotta do is recap an infographic or add your own thoughts to it, you can also recap a video. There are online tools that will transcribe the video for you and you can spice up the content. It's much easier than researching and writing up a whole new article.

 

[Lutja]

This is the part where most people get super lazy and make huge mistakes. n the past, the original method was to quickly write up some 300-word article, slap an image on it, and you’re done. These days things are not quite like that, we gotta take it to the next level while making the process even easier.

I personally recommend you to have at least 3-4 pages and 3-4 posts.

Golden Rule: The more the better.

Here's the main structure of your on-site content, they must include the following:

• Infographic Posts
  
• Video Reviews
  
• Image Gallery
  
• Standard article

By having a mix of infographics, image galleries videos and standard articles it makes it much more visually appealing. And the great thing about it is its easy to write up the content, all you gotta do is recap an infographic or add your own thoughts to it, you can also recap a video. There are online tools that will transcribe the video for you and you can spice up the content. It's much easier than researching and writing up a whole new article.

The first link gives us about 43 links.

Awesome case study, thank you! Can you enlight me about this sentence, please? As after double-checking I don't understand what you meant, since I can only see one link (miamiseo...) being present in posts.

 

[Mohamad Zidani]

I think I am going to write a guide sometime in the future and share it with you guys here.

Thank you