Can Backlink Tools find PBNs?
- Thread starter xxaxle
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3bisu
Elite Member
- Nov 29, 2014
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Yes, backlinks can be hidden
SpoonFeeder
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PBNs are no different than backlinks. It's, in fact, a backlink but with much higher JuicePower. There are ways to block/ban/restrict crawler bots but < 10% PBN owners does it to protect their network. So, yeah, backlinks can be hidden.
F4lken
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SpoonFeeder
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That's interesting professor. Thanks for letting me know. I'm all ears to know what I'm doing wrong. With your enlightment., I'll be more than happy to stand corrected sir.
F4lken
Regular Member
- Dec 15, 2016
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What you said just doesn't make any sense:
How can PBNs be no different than backlinks?
I think you must learn yourself before teach to others..
FBM
Power Member
- Apr 4, 2017
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Hey mate,
Yes backlinks can be hidden but often it depends on how good the SEO'er is. As in, if they know how to even hide them and stop people sniffing out their trail.
I found a competitor's backlinks yesterday on Google by searching the URL. Funnily enough he also had typed his URL on a seller's page on SeoClerk when trying to purchase back links. This shows me the strength of his backlinks and also the number of backlinks he requested. (Obviously he may have more but this gives me a good starting point)
It also included the required keywords he wanted to rank for, the number articles he bought for which page etc. Lol
Obviously because of this "blunder" I can check these pages and the quality of the articles, which is absolute donkey shit. His on page is also shite, but he ranks as he has content out of his ass in a niche where all sites are thin and have little to no seo.
Basically what I'm saying is, sometimes you can find them using those tools but if they hide them you can find them using other means! Also these tools don't show you ALL the backlinks you/they have but they can be used as a starting point.
I hope this helps.
Midas
Yes backlinks can be hidden but often it depends on how good the SEO'er is. As in, if they know how to even hide them and stop people sniffing out their trail.
I found a competitor's backlinks yesterday on Google by searching the URL. Funnily enough he also had typed his URL on a seller's page on SeoClerk when trying to purchase back links. This shows me the strength of his backlinks and also the number of backlinks he requested. (Obviously he may have more but this gives me a good starting point)
It also included the required keywords he wanted to rank for, the number articles he bought for which page etc. Lol
Obviously because of this "blunder" I can check these pages and the quality of the articles, which is absolute donkey shit. His on page is also shite, but he ranks as he has content out of his ass in a niche where all sites are thin and have little to no seo.
Basically what I'm saying is, sometimes you can find them using those tools but if they hide them you can find them using other means! Also these tools don't show you ALL the backlinks you/they have but they can be used as a starting point.
I hope this helps.
Midas
SpoonFeeder
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How can PBNs be no different than backlinks?
That's a nice question to ask Professor.
Let me SpoonFeed with you a small example.
A car is no different than a vehicle. It's, in fact, a vehicle.
An apple is no different than a fruit. It's, in fact, a fruit.
Likewise, Backlink tools crawl the world wide web to find backlinks. PBN is no different than a backlink cos basically PBN is a website/network of websites. A backlink from a website or a website from a private blog network is still a backlink and that's what backlink tools see. Hence, PBNs are no different than backlinks. PBNs is just a term coined around a website to categorize the type of backlink(s). Just like how hertz is for frequency., HorsePower is for engines., SpoonFeeder invented the term JuicePower to gauge a Backlink's Flow/Authority.
xxaxle
Junior Member
- Dec 18, 2016
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Hey mate,
Yes backlinks can be hidden but often it depends on how good the SEO'er is. As in, if they know how to even hide them and stop people sniffing out their trail.
I found a competitor's backlinks yesterday on Google by searching the URL. Funnily enough he also had typed his URL on a seller's page on SeoClerk when trying to purchase back links. This shows me the strength of his backlinks and also the number of backlinks he requested. (Obviously he may have more but this gives me a good starting point)
It also included the required keywords he wanted to rank for, the number articles he bought for which page etc. Lol
Obviously because of this "blunder" I can check these pages and the quality of the articles, which is absolute donkey shit. His on page is also shite, but he ranks as he has content out of his ass in a niche where all sites are thin and have little to no seo.
Basically what I'm saying is, sometimes you can find them using those tools but if they hide them you can find them using other means! Also these tools don't show you ALL the backlinks you/they have but they can be used as a starting point.
I hope this helps.
Midas
Hey Midas and everyone else thanks for the advice, greatly appreciated. I'm looking to purchase a site but cannot find out if it is using a PBN... Will there always be this risk when purchasing sites?
Also, If there is a PBN, is it likely that it will get taken away once the purchase is finalized? The site had gotten around 40K pageviews monthly after about 5 months. Its believable given the that its a unique niche.
Any suggestions on catching PBNs would be great.
B
FBM
Power Member
- Apr 4, 2017
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Hi mate,
1. Unfortunately yes, there would always be this "risk". They may not remove their links if they are decent people. If they aren't decent people, they could remove their PBN links which will affect your position on the SERPs.
2. I mean it depends on how shady the seller is. The common saying on BHW is "if it looks too good to be true then it probably is". 40k after 5 months is quite nuts (still doable depending on how good/lucky you are). Makes you wonder why they are selling it though...
Why not build your own site and learn as much as you can on SEO (from all the free amazing info in this forum) and rank it. So much free gold here. OR you could buy a site from reputed sellers from BHW in the marketplace. I personally recommend AzonGeek as I have bought from him myself and have been very happy with the whole experience. However, have a look through the market place and see if anything picks your fancy. Make sure you understand fully what you are getting when deciding to buy from someone and also check the reviews out of course.
I hope this helps.
Midas
Have you ever looked for a keyword using say KWfinder, seen the number 1 site is DA1, PA1, zero backlinks and a dozen social media likes and average onpage seo, then seen the next 9 sites are all higher DA/PA with backlinks etc. Then asked yourself how/why this is ?
xxaxle
Junior Member
- Dec 18, 2016
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Thanks for the insight. Just checked it - the PA was 18, similar to other ones but the DA was lower by about 20 on average. The competition seemed quite low as other competitors are in similar general topic but not the exact niche. Aren't PBNs suppose to give PA and DA though?
Also, can websites only get DA and PA from backlinks? If thats the case, then the site only has 47 backlinks with 17 referring domains...
Midas - I was thinking of doing both making my own sites and buying cause that could help boost my goal of 5+ websites making 1K per month each.
Please let me know your thoughts regarding the metrics... The niche seems like it could be good but im also sketched out as well.
rafark
Elite Member
- Jan 15, 2013
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They can be hidden in many cases, AS LONG AS the SEO tools honour their own user agent; if they wanted, they could get all data as If they were Google. PBN's cannot be hidden entirely because they use a vulnerable http header. In web security, http headers are not to be trusted entirely because they can be manipulated by anyone.
- May 8, 2012
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its a bit broad to simply treat a PBN like a link, since it is not just that. while its true that its purpose is to be a link network, you still can't say its the same as a backlink, that doesn't make sense really.
also a PBN is a network of sites and not as you say "just a term coined around a website". a backlink is a single link, while a PBN is a mix of X complete websites with tons of internal and external links...
SpoonFeeder
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Yeah, a backlink is a single link and backlink(s) are multiple links. I know the difference between singular and plurals but I guess few peoples don't grasp the message or maybe I'm poor at conveying the point while posting replies in the weekend. I should better upgrade my spoon to an XXL version. A PBN's sole purpose is to backlink the money site and backlink tools can see those backlinks. It's possible to hide those backlinks thus the network too. If the network is hidden., then that backlinks are hidden too. Most of the PBN DIY'ers will start by registering a single expired domain and call it a PBN. At least., that's what I see lately here and they say they've just built a PBN. Technically., it's not a network of sites yet but still, that's how they call it. All my explanations remain valid and are pointed towards the people who owns/wants to build their own PBN and not to those who're selling PBN(boatload of)links in the marketplace or www in general. I say it again., a PBN., either a single/network of sites is worth nothing if it's not backlinking the money site or super-duper Tier-1 sites. It's built to provide backlinks and the answer to the OP's question is a PBN can be found by the backlink tools and be hidden from them as well cos backlink tools don't know the difference between a PBN and a backlink. There's no difference actually. A backlink is a backlink. That's how they see it. No matter if it's from a facebook profile or a PBN. We, humans, categorized that backlink(s) and call it as PBN for differentiating the type of backlink. It's still a backlink. But Google's algorithm may know the difference between a backlink and a backlink from a PBN.
As a side note, google panda's algorithm may penalize this page for overusing "backlink" keyword. That's a whole lot of backlink'in keywords on a single page!
Last edited:
- May 8, 2012
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well if someone calls 1 site a PBN, that person clearly didn't understand what that is
also i didn't say your points aren't valid, but refering to a PBN as a backlink is still misleading and yes its a definition thing for us humans only..
as for the other stuff sure bots cant tell the difference if the backlink is from a PBN or a "real" website, thats the entire point why to setup a PBN.
still you can cloak the links from real visitors and profilers like ahrefs, while only showing it to SE bots. that means you can effectively hide your PBN from the competition.
there are a few other tricks, but i won't spell them out here in public. oh and no google's algo can't tell the difference yet between a normal website and one built to be part of a PBN.
google can detect linking schemes though, so it also depends on how you interlink your PBN etc. many people do that wrong and thats where they get caught and assume its because google detected their PBN...
its mostly because they did something that is a known linking scheme since over a decade now and has been done in various forms, not because its a "PBN"...
also i didn't say your points aren't valid, but refering to a PBN as a backlink is still misleading and yes its a definition thing for us humans only..
as for the other stuff sure bots cant tell the difference if the backlink is from a PBN or a "real" website, thats the entire point why to setup a PBN.
still you can cloak the links from real visitors and profilers like ahrefs, while only showing it to SE bots. that means you can effectively hide your PBN from the competition.
there are a few other tricks, but i won't spell them out here in public. oh and no google's algo can't tell the difference yet between a normal website and one built to be part of a PBN.
google can detect linking schemes though, so it also depends on how you interlink your PBN etc. many people do that wrong and thats where they get caught and assume its because google detected their PBN...
its mostly because they did something that is a known linking scheme since over a decade now and has been done in various forms, not because its a "PBN"...