Confuse about competitor PBN - What do you think ?

Hello,

my competitor are ranking very well on a competitive niche.
After a analyse, i found out that he have not 1 but 3 websites in the same niches and they are ranking respectively number 2 / 3 and 4 for the main keyword (4 millions search per month).

Thoses 3 websites are all expired domains bought in 2015 (i check historical on waybackmachine).
And they are ALL linking to each others, and with quick check here https://website.informer.com/
i was able to found that my competitor have another websites (not in the same niche), and when i check them, they also are expired domains (with good backlinks), and linking to each others.

Iam a little confuse to find out this, because i though that Google penalise this behavior (using a PBN that not really private).
Every informations are public (whois), linking strategy can be found with any SEO tools and he hide nothing at all...
What do you think, and how this can be happening ? Are thoses websites can be conside as PBN ?

Thanks

Anyone have any ideas about this ?

ojuo5 said:

Iam a little confuse to find out this, because i though that Google penalizes this behavior (using a PBN that not private).

Click to expand...

Well, yes and no. On the book, Google punishes every attempt on PBN, but in reality, this is not always the case. Years ago it was popular for all PBNs to block crawlers and thus to wave the red flag to G. Today no one does it. The fine art of doing PBNs in 2019 is in the details: the website should look like ordinary. This means it should be updated: frequently, and all measures related to a ''normal'' website. Probably they are PBNs but seemingly they also do a great job in search intent(backlinks is clear), so I wouldn't expect G to kill em'.

Hexedog said:

Well, yes and no. On the book, Google punishes every attempt on PBN, but in reality, this is not always the case. Years ago it was popular for all PBNs to block crawlers and thus to wave the red flag to G. Today no one does it. The fine art of doing PBNs in 2019 is in the details: the website should look like ordinary. This means it should be updated: frequently, and all measures related to a ''normal'' website. Probably they are PBNs but seemingly they also do a great job in search intent(backlinks is clear), so I wouldn't expect G to kill em'.

Click to expand...

Would it still be considered a PBN if they do this really well though and each site actually provides value? It sounds more like just strategic website planning if they have several legit websites that link to eachother. Like a farmer that grows corn, sells seed, sells at the market and repairs tractors..they are in a sense providing value all around.

I'm very new still so I have a lot to learn, so please set me straight if there is a difference that i'm not seeing.