- Oct 5, 2022
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- 229
PBN still works fine for limited niches, It all depends on the Network you are getting links from if its well maintained than it gives you amazing results
Is anyone still seeing success with PBNs in 2026?
- Thread starter CrimsonLight1126
- Start date
- Oct 18, 2008
- 1,925
- 919
Agreed. For long term SEO purposes, guest posts of high quality may prove more economical than a PBN.
TimDawsone
Regular Member
- Jul 21, 2017
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- 200
Everyone in here is debating PBN vs guest posts like those are the only two options, and both of them are the expensive options.
A PBN costs you domains, hosting, maintenance and footprint management forever. Guest posts cost you $50-300 each and you need dozens. I run neither for most projects. Tiered automation with GSA SER on a verified list, buffer properties on top, and content generated by AI for pennies. The whole monthly cost is less than two decent guest posts, and it scales to as many projects as i want.
PBNs still have a place for money pages in competitive niches, i would not argue otherwise. But for the bulk of link building the math stopped making sense for them years ago, and guest posts never made sense at volume in the first place.
A PBN costs you domains, hosting, maintenance and footprint management forever. Guest posts cost you $50-300 each and you need dozens. I run neither for most projects. Tiered automation with GSA SER on a verified list, buffer properties on top, and content generated by AI for pennies. The whole monthly cost is less than two decent guest posts, and it scales to as many projects as i want.
PBNs still have a place for money pages in competitive niches, i would not argue otherwise. But for the bulk of link building the math stopped making sense for them years ago, and guest posts never made sense at volume in the first place.
Goblinzero
Newbie
- Aug 21, 2023
- 27
- 13
maintenance is the killer for me too. had a small pbn for years and the hosting and domain renewals alone ate most of what it earned. moved to tiered stuff with automation and honestly sleep better, nothing to get deindexed that i actually care about
- Jun 20, 2015
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A well-managed niche-relevant PBN can still make sense when you need more control over placement, anchor text, and turnaround time. Although the maintenance costs can be higher, they can still be quite effective for boosting keyword rankings when the domains are genuinely relevant and have a strong history.
- Feb 15, 2011
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I tend to agree. In 2026, maintaining a truly safe PBN means paying for quality expired domains, unique hosting, content, maintenance, and constantly avoiding footprints. The cost and effort have gone up significantly, while the margin for error has shrunk.
But for me the problem is more about the tym commitment than whether PBNs were capable of moving a website at all. once u consider finding the domains and re building them, the profit equation starts to change this entirely.
- Oct 25, 2011
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It’s been a while since we’ve seen any case studies on ranking sites using PBNs. Do you have any recent results or case studies you could share?
That's an interesting idea. I will need to look into it because at the moment we don't have our own data that could be used as a case study.
I will talk with a few of our customers and see if they have anything.
It sure would be nice to see solid data in the mix of bots that are broadcasting that "PBNs don't work anymore and Google will penalize you for even thinking about PBNs".
- Sep 1, 2009
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Pbns still have one big advantage, which is control. You control the content, link placement, anchor text, and overall linking strategy.
If the network is built carefully with genuinely relevant sites, that control can still make pbns worthwhile.