Private blog network links have been used in the SEO space for over 20 years, but they really started taking off as a backlink strategy about ten years ago. 

What typically happens when everyone in the industry jumps on methods like PBN links is that Google takes notice, and a lot of people who don’t focus on quality get stung badly. 

What I want to show you in this blog post is how to buy PBN links safely by focusing on a few important factors. 

As someone who has been building a PBN network for 10 years, I can share my recipe for avoiding de-indexations and penalties. 

Benefits Of Using A Private Blog Network

Whether you plan to manage your own network or buy PBN links, there are several benefits to using this approach for improved search engine rankings. 

Full Control Over Backlink

The biggest advantage of PBN backlinks is that you have complete control over them. This is the case when you manage your own PBN network and with a good service provider as well. 

Within reason, you have complete freedom of where you place links, what anchor text to use, the content topic and quality, and what level of authority you want to target.

There is also generally a lot more flexibility compared to guest posts, where you have to satisfy content requirements from other site owners. 

Overall, that flexibility allows you to tailor your backlink profile in a way you believe will trigger the best search engine results. 

Ideal For Testing Niches

I’ll get to the costs of PBN links shortly, but it’s safe to say that they are generally cheaper than guest posts. 

You could get five high-quality backlinks from a PBN network for the same price as one great guest post. 

Now, there are plenty of people who use PBN links exclusively, but one way to strategically use PBNs is to see how you can manipulate a site's ranking with certain combinations of content, anchor text, and domain quality. 

It’s then possible to use those test results to take a more educated approach to guest blogging, especially in competitive niches. 

Targeted Control Of Backlink Quality

One of the critical factors in every SEO project is getting high-quality link juice from backlinks. 

With PBN links, you can target a specific domain or page authority range, which is particularly helpful when you need top-quality links to break through in competitive search results. 

You can also ensure that your backlink profile has a diverse range of authority levels to make it look more natural to Google's algorithm. 

Fast And Consistent Results

Speed and consistency are major advantages of PBN links, but I have to give you a bit of context and caution about this. 

First of all, as with any link-building strategy, you’ll only get fast and consistent results if the quality is great. 

But when you find PBN sites with a proven track record, you typically can experience results within days. Some of my best PBN domains trigger ranking improvements within 5 days. 

Whether you’re using it as your main backlink method or to test a niche, speed and consistency are very valuable for your research and return on investment. 

Cost Effective Strategy

Other methods of buying backlinks, like guest posting, typically cost a lot of time, money, and effort. 

You can expect to pay anything from $100 to thousands of dollars just for the guest post placement. That doesn’t include the costs of writing the content, editing, and promotion. 

PBN backlinks are very different. 

Because there’s a lot more content flexibility with PBNs, costs are typically a lot lower. 

You can get good quality PBN links from $25, with great ones costing about $50. 

That’s less than a quarter of the cost of a guest post link. 

The Downsides Of Managing Your Own Private Blog Network

At this stage, you’re probably thinking about building your own network and trying this strategy for yourself. 

It’s how I got started, but I quickly learned a few very tough lessons. 

Finding decent quality expired domains and setting up a new website on them is actually the easy part. Yes, you need good quality control standards to avoid toxic domains, but there are tools that help with that. 

More about this below. 

However, there are two areas where PBNs become complex and difficult to manage. 

Firstly, there’s the whole footprint avoidance. You can’t simply register 20 expired domains on the same registrar, then set them all up on the same Bluehost account and have them all linked to the same email address. 

You need to diversify everything possible, from hosting to the registrar and content management system to plugins, so that you avoid leaving a detectable footprint. 

And then there’s PBN maintenance. 

You need to keep track of all the login details for hosting, WP dashboard, and registrars. There’s also the need to check domain indexation and ranking, and you have to update plugins regularly. 

And don’t forget that you can’t just leave your PBNs sitting idle; that would be another footprint. The more sites you have, the more content you need to regularly add to make them look like real websites. 

That might sound easy for a couple of PBN domains, but once you start building out your network, it becomes too much for one person, and then you’re heading towards hiring a team. 

Which brings me to an important question.

Why Should You Buy PBN Links?

I don’t just recommend that you buy PBN links because I offer this kind of service. The main reason I suggest this approach is that making mistakes with PBN links can significantly harm your main site. 

If you spend any amount of time in SEO-related Facebook groups, you’ll see countless people reporting major issues after creating their own PBN and adding them to a link profile. 

Unfortunately, it takes some time and experience to learn how to filter out domains that are toxic because of a bad link profile, site history, or generally dodgy content. 

More on this in the next section.

It’s better to gradually learn about the effects of good and bad PBN links, and the best way to do that is to find a high-quality and trusted service provider. 

Before you head off and buy PBN links from the first Fiverr service you can find, let me tell you about some risks. 

Risks Of Using A PBN Link Service

Buying links from service providers always comes with a certain level of risk. You don’t have full control over what you get, and, unfortunately, there are service providers that sell very bad PBN backlinks.

Here’s what to look out for. 

Low-Quality Websites

Ideally, a PBN should contain domains that look like real sites. If someone has put in the effort to make the site look nice with solid web design, then it’s far more likely that it will pass a manual review. 

The PBN content is also important, as you don’t want to get links from sites that have completely unrelated or dubious content. 

I’m talking about sites full of articles about pills, poker, and porn, which could do a lot of harm. 

Ideally, you should be able to choose PBN packages based on authority, site traffic, and topics to make those links as robust as possible. 

Easily Identifiable Footprint

Footprints can take down an entire network and quickly send a spotlight right on your website for having links that Google doesn’t technically like. 

Unfortunately, many service providers don’t put in the time, effort, and money to ensure their PBN sites don’t leave a footprint. 

There’s a lot involved in ensuring different registrars, hosts, IP addresses, CMS, plugins, and registered owners. 

De-Indexation Concerns

I have seen many people get badly burned because they bought PBN packages for dozens of backlinks, and then the entire network gets de-indexed. 

In a best-case scenario, your search rankings will drop because you lost all your backlinks. 

However, the worst case could involve your site being flagged for review and receiving a manual Google penalty. 

The problem is that bad quality control tends to lead to more de-indexations. 

History Of Expired Domains

The final risk you need to consider is the history of the expired domains. 

Whether you’re building your own PBN links or buying from a service provider, you want to check the history of the domains. 

To do this, use a tool like the Way Back Machine–this will show you a snapshot of sites over time, and you can see whether it was abused for foreign content, poker, pills, porn, or something completely unrelated to the backlink profile. 

How To Find Quality PBN Links

If you plan to build your own PBN, then you have to follow these quality control steps. 

1. Backlink Profile And Domain Authority

You can use an SEO tool like SEMRush to get a comprehensive view of all the backlinks and anchor text pointing to a domain. 

Before you register a domain, check all the referring domains for anything dodgy. 

Ask yourself these questions: 

• Does the backlink come from a site related to the domain?
• Are there dodgy referring sites about porn, gambling, and pills?
• Are there lots of foreign language anchor texts?
• Does the anchor text profile look over-optimized?
• Are there valuable high-authority backlinks?

If a domain checks out, then you could be looking at great link juice flowing to your site. 

1. Web Design And Content Quality

When you build new sites on PBN domains, don’t just choose free themes and avoid any web design efforts. 

Your goal should be to make the site look as authentic and real as possible, which means adding great images, putting effort into the layout, and even having some social profiles. 

1. Anti-Footprint Detection

From having sites on the same IP addresses to using the same registrar for the whole network, there are many things that can create an identifiable footprint. 

Here are some tips to avoid this: 

• Ensure your PBN has diverse IP addresses.
• Set up a variety of DNS servers. 
• Don’t use whois protection for all your sites.
• Use a range of free and paid WP themes. 
• Don’t use WordPress for all the sites.
• Mix up your use of plugins.
• Get content from diverse writers.

As you can see, there’s a lot involved with setting up and properly managing this strategy, which is the main reason I suggest you buy PBN links.

I’ve spent over 10 years working on an anti-footprint system, and I can tell you it’s a tough job. 

Don’t Cut Corners With PBN Links

No matter what SEO services you’re looking for, don’t let your budget drive you towards bad decisions. 

Great links from a rock-solid private blog network won’t come cheap, and if you see services for less than $10 per link, then you’re probably taking unnecessary risks. 

PBN links can make all the difference to your SEO success as long as you take quality control seriously and follow my above recommendations.