1. my personal experience with web 2.0s is that they don't work. It's true that I've tested them for tough keywords in tough niches (pregnancy for example) and they didn't work. Now, if you're gonna get 100 web 2.0s to a keyword like... I don't know.... "coordinating colors in a bathroom remodel" (just a made-up keyword) you might rank it on page 1 if there's no competition.
But if there is competition for this keyword I doubt that the web 2.0s will help you. Not to mention that most web 2.0s have become pretty scumbag-y lately and they're nofollowing your links (which means that you'll get no link juice out of them), or they're deleting your content, or close your accounts if you don't log in once a week, and stuff like that.
Again, this is MY experience with web 2.0s, but I know for a fact that some people are having different experiences. Just a week ago someone said on this forum that they're having a team of VAs doing nothing but web 2.0s and that they work. But when I asked for details the guy was not heard of again
So I don't know, make of this what you will. Or better yet, try it yourself and see how it goes. Yeah, you might waste a few days building links on 50-60+ web 2.0s, but at least you will get first-hand experience which, in SEO, is better than any knowledge that others can provide you with
2. If the site you want to buy guest posts from is indexed and ranks in google then that's the most important thing. If the website is not even indexed you are gonna get ripped off, no matter what DR the site has or how well and cheap they're selling you the guest post.
So, check if the website is indexed first. If it's indexed, check if it ranks, for which keywords, and where. If you're happy with what you're seeing then the guest post is probably worth your investment and you don't need to run any other tests.
If you're not happy with what you're seeing (maybe the website doesn't rank on pages 1-2 of google, or maybe it ranks on pages 1-2 for obscure, unimportant keywords only, or maybe it doesn't rank for many keywords, etc) then you need to check more things because the reasons for which that website might not rank where you want it to rank could be many (tough niche, competitive keywords, tough competition, weak domain authority, etc).
So, if you're not happy with where that website ranks (if it even ranks to begin with) you might want to check how many RDs (Referring Domains) they have, and how topically relevant and strong they are. A website with only 40 RDs - for example - but which are niche-relevant and pretty good, is more important than a website with 200 RDs that are bookmarking sites and web 2.0s.
So, check how many RDs the website has, how good they are, also check what the total number of OBLs (Outbound Links) the website has because if it's linking out to other people's website from each one of their pages then it's definitely a link farm type of website and it will go down in value over time, or even get deindexed if google catches them doing shady stuff like this (selling guest posts).
The topical relevancy is also somewhat important. Not as important as it used to be years ago, but it's still important and if you have the choice, for example, of buying 1 guest post for $100 from a website in the same niche as you, or buy 1 post for $75 from a website that covers all niches under the sun... well, you might be better off paying the extra $25 all things being equal (or mostly equal). By "all things being equal" I mean if the RDs, DR, backlinks, etc. are the same, or almost the same for both sites. You need to use your judgement and common sense in such cases, there's no math that applies to every single backlink.
And also important (and I should have mentioned this first) is what type of backlink you're gonna get. Even if the website is indexed and ranking, if they're gonna give you nofollow link you should refuse. I mean, ok, if you're getting a quality backlink from Forbes, Bloomberg, JP Morgan, or NY Times you should be grateful enough for that link even if it's nofollow because these brands are too big and google trusts them enough to reward you with some delicious authority if such big names link out to you. But at least make sure that the link you're getting from such companies is not buried in a page or somewhere that no one and not even google knows it exists. In general, you will want backlinks from the homepage of a domain, but if that's not possible then get your links placed inside of the articles at least instead of footer for example.
3. no idea what this URL was supposed to show me because I need to be logged in to see, and I have no account (and won't create one, either):
https://ah.seotooladda.com/keywords-explorer/google/us/overview?keyword=%5Bpii_email_0cd81888a5fe7246075b%5D
But I'll answer to your other questions...
PBN means Private Blog Network and it's basically a collection of sites that you own. Your own money site can also be considered a PBN because 1) it's YOUR site, so you own it, so it's Private.... 2) it's a blog... well, I assume that it's a blog, if it's an ecom website then that's a different story but it can still be part of a PBN simply because it's yours and you can use it any way you want
So, a PBN can be as good or as bad as you want it to be. If you care about the sites in your PBN then you're gonna get good value out of that PBN. But if you're selling links from every single page of your sites in your PBN and if the content is garbage and no one visits your website (even if if's indexed in google) then yes, that PBN is not very good and you won't get much value out of it. It might even harm your site if google flags it as spammy
this actually might be true. I mean, if google knows that a site sells links they will definitely punish it somehow (either deindex it, or flags it as spam, or devalue any links coming out from that website in the best case scenario). But the good news - for us - is that google can't keep up with the millions of sites that get created each day, or that start accepting guest posts. That's why you see websites that say "write for us" still ranking and banking just fine. It's just not possible to detect, monitor and punish all of them when tomorrow a new batch of sites will start doing the same... over and over again.
So, in theory, this is possible and true, yes. But practically, if you play it smart you might be able to run with it for years until google can catch you.
4. Citation links are great for local SEO. For everything else (ecom, blogs, affiliate sites, etc) quality PBNs, quality guest posts, quality niche edits, .edu blogs, and quality social media links (from aged and maintained accounts) are still safe. Not all of them will boost your rankings the same way, but they're safe to build
