Getting tired of "SEO" Googles' way

This is my first post here & below is the reason I have joined these forums...

I have been building & SEO'ing websites for over 10 years now & have, like most people had the up's & down's Google likes to dish out over the years.

In the early days I had pretty decent content & wanted to legitimately grow my business, after all I enjoyed the job & just wanted more clients - after several years of struggling I eventually got to No1 on the search results for some pretty good phrases but this was using the old reciprocal link strategy or 3 way linking through my other sites - the Google declared war on link building!!.

After about 2 years of doing OK a lot of start up's started jumping on the same phrases & I started losing ground - but by this time I had just enough work & fairly regular money coming in - I needed to keep my places in the serps but wanted to stay as 'white hat' as I could.

THIS IS WHERE IT GOES WRONG!!!
Because of all the Matt Cutt's videos doing the rounds I had decided I could not afford to damage the business by getting spammy links or even blog post links as Matt & his team were "on the case" so instead I decided to follow Google's own guide lines & create great unique content in the hope that people would share it - But the truth is people don't really share pages about property web design in their hundreds or thousands, you may get one or two shares if you're lucky - these things just don't go viral.

So after a couple of years of playing totally by the book and following all the WH guidelines I am now steadily losing ground (not a lot, but even a few places makes a difference when it's across the board)

we use all the usual WH methods including social media, legit articles, occasional YT vids etc but still I notice sites that are not actually as relevant coming up above us.

I'm now at the stage where business is actually suffering and need to get my ranking back so am now contemplating moving to the dark side or at least the grey side lol.

feel free to let me know any grey(ish) methods that work for a bit of a boost.

Oh BTW - nice to be here

Stay away from anything spammy, like most SEO services. Learn how to build your own Private Blog Network and build them like they where money sites. Do this over some time and you should crawl back up in the serps.

onlineonly said:

Stay away from anything spammy, like most SEO services. Learn how to build your own Private Blog Network and build them like they where money sites. Do this over some time and you should crawl back up in the serps.

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Yes - I have been reading about PBN's - I assume its better to get several niche blogs on different servers under different names (but isn't that grey hat'ish) as I assume Google looks at ip addresses & whois data.

Also how many blogs do you recommend starting with & growing to ?

Thanks for the reply too.

Slyeagle said:

Yes - I have been reading about PBN's - I assume its better to get several niche blogs on different servers under different names (but isn't that grey hat'ish) as I assume Google looks at ip addresses & whois data.

Also how many blogs do you recommend starting with & growing to ?

Thanks for the reply too.

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Yes you need different IP's and nameservers for each website. Just search for some guides on how to build a proper PBN without footprints.

How many websites you need in your PBN is impossible to answer. Just start with a handful with good metrics and continue build until you ranking in top. Do it over time as well to look natural.


PS. Remember that eventhough PBN are pretty safe if done right, with all linkbuilding there is always a risk for a google penalty.

onlineonly said:

Yes you need different IP's and nameservers for each website. Just search for some guides on how to build a proper PBN without footprints.

How many websites you need in your PBN is impossible to answer. Just start with a handful with good metrics and continue build until you ranking in top. Do it over time as well to look natural.

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Will do - thanks for the advice

onlineonly said:

Yes you need different IP's and nameservers for each website. Just search for some guides on how to build a proper PBN without footprints.

How many websites you need in your PBN is impossible to answer. Just start with a handful with good metrics and continue build until you ranking in top. Do it over time as well to look natural.


PS. Remember that eventhough PBN are pretty safe if done right, with all linkbuilding there is always a risk for a google penalty.

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Just another quick question if you don't mind...
I have a hosting reseller account with hostgator that generates a slightly different ip address for each new hosting account I create - would that be ok to use for PBN or should I get 10 different hosts altogether?

Thanks

black hat if you have no love for your site.

That's some crazy-looking font colour you've used there!

Welcome to BHW!

Zwielicht said:

That's some crazy-looking font colour you've used there!

Welcome to BHW!

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lol - just wanted to stand out

Thx for the welcome

How "good" is the content you're working with?

Are you trying to alternate when it comes to the size of pieces?

If you want to go white hat without losing ranking, then go ahead and build your own PBN and trust me, you will not only get your rank back. It will stick for a very long time.

Aluminium said:

How "good" is the content you're working with?

Are you trying to alternate when it comes to the size of pieces?

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The content is top stuff, all written from scratch by myself so that is no issue - although ideally I would like to get someone else writing this in future as my time is limited due to dealing with clients.

T2tkid said:

If you want to go white hat without losing ranking, then go ahead and build your own PBN and trust me, you will not only get your rank back. It will stick for a very long time.

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Yes - this seems to be the general opinion tbh, any tips on how many I should start with, I was thinking if I got for example 20 web design type blogs and added a few articles a month on each that would help. But they need to be on separate ip's right & with different whois data?

I'd love to hear your thoughts & how other members have set their PBN up

Thanks

Continue to add content and do link building manually while growing your social media pages. Just my 2 cents

Slyeagle said:

Yes - this seems to be the general opinion tbh, any tips on how many I should start with, I was thinking if I got for example 20 web design type blogs and added a few articles a month on each that would help. But they need to be on separate ip's right & with different whois data?

I'd love to hear your thoughts & how other members have set their PBN up

Thanks

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PBN's are pretty much a given these days - I've written a few myself (for other people, mind you) in the past.

It's a lot of writing work; there's a need for unique content on every single PBN page that you put up. I don't just mean one or two articles on each PBN site, keep them CONSTANTLY updated with new stuff.

Not only that, but the MORE content you put up on these sites... the better. They look much more legitimate that way, and in the end, that's what you're shooting for.

I'm somewhat spit-balling, but I'm just speaking on personal observations that I've made!

JokerSEO said:

Continue to add content and do link building manually while growing your social media pages. Just my 2 cents

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So do recommend blog / article posts as the best way to acquire links or are there any better ways to get better quality links - I don't really wanna go down the spammy link route as this is my main biz

thanks

Thank's For You explanation

Aluminium said:

PBN's are pretty much a given these days - I've written a few myself (for other people, mind you) in the past.

It's a lot of writing work; there's a need for unique content on every single PBN page that you put up. I don't just mean one or two articles on each PBN site, keep them CONSTANTLY updated with new stuff.

Not only that, but the MORE content you put up on these sites... the better. They look much more legitimate that way, and in the end, that's what you're shooting for.

I'm somewhat spit-balling, but I'm just speaking on personal observations that I've made!

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Looks like I need to get busy then lol - I don't mind tbh as this will hopefully distance me from the other local firms - It seems too many companies now throw a few pages up with some text relevant to their main seo terms then just hit the SM campaigns.

Hopefully I can get back to where I need if I implement this then.

Did you have any input on whether ip address and whois data for each Blog was a big thing as I'd rather start off the best way possible.

Is it a local business? You don't have to create a PBN or resort to spam (mostly ineffective) to succeed.

LEarn to do what Amazon does, Affiliation brings links. Also learn what Google really wants, a good strong business that can make them money with Adwords Campaigns and you money with a strong quality product. They don't want to back smaller guys because of the spam, scams, and cpa bullshit.