Private blog network (PBN) is a link-building strategy that uses multiple domains to get links to your main website. The purpose of the PBN is to boost your site’s rank in the Google search engine results page.

Does Google penalize PBN?

Using a private blog network for SEO is controversial and against Google’s webmaster guidelines. It can lead to penalties or algorithmic adjustments.

It costs money and time to build and manage a PBN, as well as recurring maintenance costs to keep it up-to-date. However, it can provide a great return on investment if done correctly.

The main risk of a PBN is that it can be discovered and de-indexed (making your backlinks worthless). This was mostly happening to high-profile SEO bloggers in 2016 when Google ran a large scare campaign against blog networks.

If you spot a website that posts random, unrelated content on a variety of topics and does not have a clear editorial direction, it is likely that it’s a part of a private blog network.

A good PBN hosting provider offers footprint-free services with one-click blog installs, automatic maintenance, 100% free site migrations and negligible deindexation rates. Some also offer IP address diversity with varying A, B and C-Class IP addresses and on different hosting providers to minimize the likelihood of your sites being identified by Google.

PBNs are a popular way to rank websites but they should be used responsibly and carefully. They are not for everyone, and they can be dangerous if you do it wrong.