Cost to boost analysis: PBN vs 301

ThopHayt

ThopHayt

Elite Member
Joined
Jul 25, 2011
Messages
7,012
Reaction score
2,864
I've been wondering about something: Where is the greatest return of gains to money spent, 301 redirects or PBN's? Overall 301's (if high quality) are more expensive even than creating your own PBN. But does a $1,000 network of 301's redirects outrank a $1,000 PBN? Has anybody looked into this?
 
Advertise on BHW
It depends on who designs the PBN.
For example if you are an SEO expert you can put that $1,000 to work much better than somebody who is new.
 
For sake of this conversation let's assume that the PBN is high quality. Even then, though, I'm not sure if it would give as much juice as an equivalent dollar value of 301's. But the price of domains seems to keep going up and up. This of course effects PBN's as well, but not as much as 301's because their value is 100% in their attached domain value.
 
I am not in a position to give you an answer but for the sake of conversation wouldn't the value of pbn be multiplied as you can use it on more than one sites??
 
A PBN is better than 301s because PBNs can be used to rank multiple sites. 301s can be used for 1 site only. That said, a few PBN links from 5 domains won't provide the boost that 1 301 might. Make your decision accordingly.
 
I had a thread on this question less than a month ago. You can use a few 301 redirects on your site, but you can't redirect 20 expired domains to your site and expect it to last. However you can add 20 PBN links with your desired anchor text.
 
SEO Power is perfectly right.

If you can invest $1k and either build a small PBN network or add more sites to your current one, do it. This will prove to be more cost-effective down the road simply because you will be able to use the network to promote multiple sites at once, not just one.

And if you do it right, the posts will stick in Google's index for good and you will continue to rank much longer than with the famous 301 method. Basically PBNs, if done right, are much safer.
 
Regardless of cost, I'd be on the PBN side, simply because it's 'multi-taskable' - you can use the same asset for multiple rankings.
 
I'll add that a quality PBN will work as long as links and anchors play a part in the algo, I don't have the same confidence in 301's
 
I think you're right when you consider the multi-site use of PBN's. Though I have knows a few guys around here who've ranked for BIG money using mostly high quality 301's as the basis. I will add, though, that I have a suspicion that 301's days are numbered with Google.

What's the baddest domain any of you've 301'ed and what effect did it have?
 
ThopHayt said:
I think you're right when you consider the multi-site use of PBN's. Though I have knows a few guys around here who've ranked for BIG money using mostly high quality 301's as the basis. I will add, though, that I have a suspicion that 301's days are numbered with Google.

What's the baddest domain any of you've 301'ed and what effect did it have?
Click to expand...

why would you say that? have you seen anything out of the ordinary lately? 301s have been around for years. actually that brings me to another thing i'm not too sure about - are 301's affected by the recent update? i seem to remember reading some posts of guys using 301s to bypass the sandbox thing.
 
One word - test.

Sounds like a good case study that I would love to take on. ;)
 
PBN is better then 301 redirect. Never know your network websites can get ranked for particular keyword.
 
PBNs have lots of advantages over 301s:
1 - Can use for multiple taret sites
2 - Can use targeted anchor text
3 - Can change anchor text if needed
4 - Can deliver social traffic (almost nobody does this though)
 
7yearitch said:
why would you say that? have you seen anything out of the ordinary lately? 301s have been around for years. actually that brings me to another thing i'm not too sure about - are 301's affected by the recent update? i seem to remember reading some posts of guys using 301s to bypass the sandbox thing.
Click to expand...

In my experience, 301s don't work as well as they used to. I've bought and 301ed 2 expired domains (spam-free) to two different sites in the past few months with no positive or negative movement in the results pages.
 
We have seen great success with 301s as well. I tend to think it also has to do with ROI. If you have a client who is easy to rank, start with 301 and segue into pbn over a few months
 
There are other points to consider here:

- How are you going to source a domain. If you are scarping expired domains - you can possibly build up to 50 PBN sites in $1000 but these days not several high power domains are available as several have already been found or misused.
- If you are buying them at auction - you will likely be buying a few, likely under 20 domains (@avg $50 per domain) or if you want good metric 5-10 domains at $100-300 each
- If you use these as a PBN you can control a few things like the anchor text linking to your site, annot do that with a 301 redirect to the same extent.
- You can increase relevancy of these link by using contextual articles, link coming to that article that will help increase relevancy.

If you opt to buy 1-3 domain which are HIGHLY relevant to your site, very strong metric and have anchors you would want linking to your site a 301 would be the way to go.
 
7yearitch said:
why would you say that? have you seen anything out of the ordinary lately? 301s have been around for years. actually that brings me to another thing i'm not too sure about - are 301's affected by the recent update? i seem to remember reading some posts of guys using 301s to bypass the sandbox thing.
Click to expand...

That is exactly why I am suspicious that 301ing is the next loophole Google will go after. It has become more popular lately and if I've learned one thing about SEO it's that as soon as a tactic gets too popular an update comes along that slaps it. I'm sure they'd love to go after PBN's as well, but it would be easier to go after 301's frankly. A good PBN is tough to tell from a legit site.
 
ThopHayt said:
That is exactly why I am suspicious that 301ing is the next loophole Google will go after. It has become more popular lately and if I've learned one thing about SEO it's that as soon as a tactic gets too popular an update comes along that slaps it. I'm sure they'd love to go after PBN's as well, but it would be easier to go after 301's frankly. A good PBN is tough to tell from a legit site.
Click to expand...
They already know about it and have probably already devalued them (people aren't seeing as great of results from that method anymore).

PBN's really don't compare to 301's as they serve different purposes. 301's just pass links, PBN's add a layer of contextual relevancy that is hugely important.
 
Advertise on BHW
You must log in or register to reply here.
Sign up now!

Main Menu

Home Main Forum List Black Hat SEO White Hat SEO BHW Newbie Guide Blogging Black Hat Tools Social Media Downloads

Marketplace

Account Selling Content / Copywriting EBooks / Methods Hosting Misc Proxies For Sale SEO - Link building SEO - Packages Social Media Social Media - Panels Web Design More

Making Money

Affiliate Programs Hire a Freelancer IM Journeys Making Money Pay Per Click Site Flipping Want to Buy

BlackHat World

Dispute Resolution Forum Suggestions & Feedback Introductions Lounge
Back
Top