Pbns & the Google Spam Update – Do They Still Work?

Did the combination of the Search Spam Update and Link Spam Update doom PBNs for good? Some SEOs think so. They claim these updates gave Google the power to detect and ignore PBNs. My team and I dove deep into the numbers to determine the facts.

In this study, you’ll learn what’s happened to PBN links since the arrival of the spam updates. Our team followed a sample set of PBNs across months to discover whether they could still pass on link power. You’ll get the real numbers from our internal data and graphs revealing essential trends.

Before that, we have some helpful information for readers that are new or recently returning to PBNs. You’ll get caught up on the recent history, learn why the updates provoked a reaction, and find our stance on PBNs right now. Continue reading

How Well do PBNs Work in Foreign SEO? (A 2022 Study)

One of the most common questions I get is: can you get results with PBNs in ______ (fill in the country)?

In this article, I’ll answer this question by looking at 1000s of real PBN placements and their resulting movement in the Google SERPs.

We’ll answer the questions:

• Do PBNs work in <insert country>?
• What is the % chance a ranking increase will occur?
• How do PBNs take to kick-in with foreign SEO?
• What are the best practices to achieve the best results? Such as:
• What anchor text is best to use?
• How many PBNs can you send to a single foreign domain?
• Do PBN links from English PBNs work to foreign sites?
• How many PBNs can you send to a single foreign URL?

So essentially, we’re also answering the question:

Do links from English websites boost rankings on foreign language websites?

You’ll see the answer shortly.

By the way, if you’d like to see our full study on PBN usage in the U.S. (google.com), check it out here.

Continue reading

2021’s PBN Best Practice Guide [Backed by Data]

Over the last few years, we gathered an exhaustive amount of internal data on how our clients use PBNs. We’re going to use this overwhelming amount of data to answer some of the most critical PBN use practice questions that exist.

How fast should you build PBN links to your site? Should you send them to your homepage? Should Tier 1 and Tier 2 links be used together? All the answers are here.

I’ve sorted our findings into two FAQ sets that cover Tier 1 and Tier 2 PBN links. For each one, I’ve created a set of questions and followed up with data-backed answers that can help you maximize the value you get.

The answer to each question includes the proof that we pulled from our research and some additional commentary that may help you put the answer to use in real-life situations. Together, these lists will give you a set of the best practices you can apply going into 2021 and beyond.

Let’s start with Tier 1 PBN links.

Tier 1 PBN Links

Tier 1 PBN links are the links that point directly to the pages on your site. The questions and answers I’ve organized for you below should help you do that easily.

After the questions, you’ll find some additional Tier 1 link insights from our research. You’ll learn how much more popular PBN links are compared to past years, the most popular niches for PBNs, and other fresh information.

Tier 1: Questions Answered Through Data

• How fast can I build PBN links to my site?
• How many PBN links can I build to my website?
• How many PBN links can I build to a single URL?
• Should I send PBN links to my homepage?
• How long do people keep their Tier 1 PBN links?
• What type of anchor text are people using for PBN links?
• Do PBN links from English PBNs work to foreign sites?
• Do PBN links work on YT videos?

How fast can I build PBN links to my site?

A steady drip of 3-4 links per month was the velocity we recommended in our best practices guide. That was our recommendation, but let’s look at what the pros (our customers) are doing.

For 2020, the average number of Tier 1 PBN links built in a typical Rank Club order was 3.29. It seems our power users either agree with our recommendation or made the same choice by looking at their own behavioral data.

We found that people tend to build links to their sites in batches. While 3.29 was the average, there were some notable outliers. The largest order we saw last year was 39 links in a single batch.

How many T1 PBN links can I build to my website?

You’re safe to send a significant amount of T1 links to your website so long as they’re properly spaced out.

This number was taken from our entire client base and included links built across different orders.

The largest amount of links built to one site (66) was far outside of the average.

However, being outside the norm doesn’t necessarily pose a risk. The graph below shows you how that 66-batch site grew over the last half of last year.

How many PBN links can I build to a single URL?

The average number of tier 1 PBN links built to a single URL was 3.2.

This number was in line with trends we had already begun to suspect before our data was collected. The primary usage model working well for our clients is 2-4 PBN links centered around target anchor text.

Should I send PBN links to my homepage?

PBNs can be safely sent to your homepage.

Our clients made less use of PBN links to their home pages.

The home page is not the destination of choice for most PBN links. While most people aren’t trying to rank their homepage, people often send link juice there just to be safe.

How long do people keep their Tier 1 PBN links?

The average length of a tier 1 PBN Subscription on our service was 11.01 Months.

People typically use PBNs on their ranking journeys to get from small sites to authority levels.  From these we can infer that journey may be taking just about a year. By that time, the site is aged and the PBNs can be replaced with other links

I think this length says something about the ROI that PBN links still have today.

What type of anchor text are people using for PBN links?

Our research revealed that anchors (by percentage) broke down like this:

PBNs are great for power.  You want to combine that power with your most critical target keyword anchor text. This is a killer combo.

You can use less powerful links for your “pillow anchors.” These are the anchors that don’t use targeted keywords that are used as a hedge against over-optimization.

Do PBN links from English PBNs work to foreign sites?

English PBNs work on foreign sites, but they have not been embraced to a high degree by the people who utilize PBNs.

Despite many test results and client results showing strong results sending English PBN links to foreign sites, it seems that this technique hasn’t caught on as much as it could.

Do PBN links work on YouTube videos?

PBN links may be effective on YouTube videos, but our customers are not widely using them that way for the time being.

Our research revealed that the percentage of PBN lnks going to YouTube was 0.07%,

If the low amount of usage of PBN links to YouTube videos is an indicator of their effectiveness, the writing’s on the wall.  Nonetheless, we hear many reports from clients saying that it helps.

More Tier 1 PBN Statistics and their Conclusions

I have some more T1 data for you that doesn’t neatly fit into a Q&A format. Below, you’ll find some critical insights into how the use of PBNs evolved over the last year.

Increase in # of PBN links built from 2019 to 2020

PBNs are considered a grey hat technique. That perception hasn’t changed, but these increases signal that website owners see a reliable return on value.

We’re expecting to see additional growth through 2021.

Niche-Specific Statistics

Below, you’ll find a breakdown of the niches we built PBNs for and the percentage of our links built out to each one. There were some clear standouts that I’ll explain in the comments below the chart.

Let me break this data down a little further. The general/business niche stands out as one of the largest niches, but it’s a catch-all for niches that just don’t fit anywhere else.

Longest Average Length of a PBN subscription (by Niche)

Rank Club rents guaranteed homepage link placements for a monthly fee. This ensures that you’ll get the maximum benefit from your PBN link: namely the link juice.

These are the three niches (in order) in which people retain their links for long periods:

The high level of retention may be explained by the fact that these niches have less turbulence in their SERPs.

They are much more stable compared to a niche like health, for example.

Hottest Month’s for PBN Placement

#1. January
#2. September

We saw some unusual shifts in the hottest months for PBN placement. January made a lot of sense. That’s when a lot of people make their new year’s resolutions, and the health niche players are eager to capture those buyers.

September, though? Your guess is as good as mine as to why this month was the 2nd hottest in 2020.

Average Number of Client Links per PBN: 3.5 links

This number is a measure of our own standards. While we guarantee a maximum of 8 outbound links per PBN, we use an internal placement software (dubbed Cerebro) to minimize the number of links placed on a given site.

This helps us more closely control outbound link patterns to mask the footprints that might appear when PBNs link to the same set of sites. This matters because most footprints (whois, hosting, IP, etc.) are common knowledge. The tricky one is OBL, so we resolve it with software.

Tier 2 PBN Links

Tier 2 PBN links are, to put it simply, “links to your links.”

T2 links improve the power of the pages that are already linking to yours so that they can pass on more link juice. T2 links also provide you with an extra layer of safety because none of them are being built to your site.

This is a relatively new service of ours that only launched in May 2020. However, we’ve been able to analyze a significant amount of data on it thanks to the number of placed orders.

The FAQs below cover how our clients are making use of this service, along with some commentary.

As with the T1 links, you’ll find these questions followed by some additional statistics that may help you put T2 links to use.

Questions Answered Through Data

• How many Tier 2 links should be sent to a given URL?
• How many Tier 2 links can be built at a time?
• Do people send more links to a higher DR URL than lower DR URLs?
• What is the typical anchor text used on Tier 2 (need to do this for T2 too)?
• Should I use tier 1 and Tier 2 links together?

How many Tier 2 links should be sent to a given URL?

There isn’t a hard limit on how many T2 links should be sent to a URL. In the past, we’ve experimented with as many as 20 T2 links per URL. The results seemed to taper off after that. Let’s look at what our clients prefer.

The average number of Tier 2 PBN client links built to a URL is 2.63

With Tier 2 PBN linking being a relatively new strategy, we feel the industry is starting to develop best practices day-to-day.

That said, we see a wide variation of Tier 2 PBN links to a given URL based on the receiving domain’s authority. Some clients build only 1, while others build as many as 13 at a time.

How many Tier 2 links can be built at a time?

You can build a significant amount of T2 links at one time. We recommend a lighter touch with T1 links because you need to control how fast your own site profile gains links carefully.

T2 links, on the other hand, can be sent to a bunch of different sites, and they won’t affect the integrity of your own profile. Let’s look at how our clients are taking advantage of this.

Our legendary package is our most commonly ordered package. This is our 20-link package, so that may account for the fact that the average was right in that range.

Do people send more links to a higher DR URL than lower DR URLs? 

People send more links to higher DR URLs. This has been broken down in the histogram that you see below (month of December):

I think this trend can be explained by the assumption (likely correct) that a URL from a high DR website can “handle” more links from homepages than a low DR website.

A site with a high DR is already aged and supported by good backlinks. Links from homepages aren’t going to knock its balance off.

What is the Typical anchor text used on Tier 2 (need to do this for T2)?

The typical anchor text for T2 links breaks down as follows:

Results look similar to T1, with an important exception. Our clients typically use a lot fewer Brand/URL anchors on Tier 2 and instead go harder with Miscellaneous.

Nonetheless, this falls under our recommendation that balanced anchor text on T2 links yields the best result.

Should I use Tier 1 and Tier 2 links together?

You can use T1 and T2 links together. In past guides, we’ve detailed that the two options stand out in certain situations. For example, you can focus on T1 links when you’re in a rush to rank and T2 links when you want maximum risk reduction.

The minimal risk of T2 links (as in, they aren’t counted against your link profile) means that they can be easily combined with T1 link building campaigns. Let’s look at how many of our clients are trying that.

While there is a decent overlap, it seems that (for the most part) there are two camps of PBN users. One prefers to link directly, and one prefers Tier 2.

More Tier 2 PBN Statistics and their Conclusions 

In addition to the Q&As, we’ve collected some other data to inform how you use T2 links.

Total number of links built in 2020

Considering we only launched our Tier 2 product in May of 2020, we’re impressed with its quick adoption.

A large number of orders suggests that the pros we work with saw the value in the service. They also saw returns that made them want to come back.

Niche with the highest T2 links built

The niche with the highest number of T2 links built was health.

Health is a standout niche in a lot of areas. There’s a lot of competition, and new trends (and new websites for them) rise often. It makes sense to see the health niche getting so much attention here.

Make PBNs more Effective in 2021

PBNs were an excellent tool for link building in 2020. The data that we’ve gathered suggests that they’ll be doing a lot more through 2021.

Now, you’re armed with the knowledge of how some of the most frequent users of PBNs make them pay off. Using what you’ve learned about the best practices for the amount, destinations, and appropriate anchor text of PBN links, you can maximize the value of every PBN link you build.

PBNs: Tier 1 vs. Tier 2 (When to Use What)

Private blog networks (PBNs) are a powerful tool you can use to rank your sites in record time.

To make the most of them, it’s important to understand what works, in what situations. After all, PBNs have been used to build different kinds of links. By understanding the differences and acting on them, you can unlock their true power.

This guide will introduce you to two essential types of PBN links (tier 1 and tier 2). You’ll learn the definitions for each one, and the use cases that define them. By the end, you’ll know which strategy works best for a series of real-life situations that SEOs face every day.

Let’s start with some definitions.

Definitions

What is Tier 1 Link Building?

Tier 1 link building is the practice of building links directly to the page you are trying to rank. The web pages that link directly to your site are all considered to be tier 1 links, no matter what form.

What is Tier 2 Link Building?

Tier 2 link building is the practice of building links to your links.

When another site gives you a link, you’re going to send links toward the page that’s linking to yours. By strengthening the original links with tier 2 links, you can increase the amount of juice that they send to your money pages.

As I covered in my tier 2 link building guide, this works on the principle of one of Google’s oldest ranking factors: PageRank. In the companies’ own words:

“PageRank works by counting the number and quality of links to a page to determine a rough estimate of how important the website is. The underlying assumption is that more important websites are likely to receive more links from other websites.”

Starting from that principle, tier 2 links work by increasing the PageRank of the pages that are linking to yours. As their rank increases, they pass on more power because they are calculated as being higher quality than they were when you first got them.

Your own link profile is now filled with more impressive links because of the power that tier 2 links have given them.

What type of links work best for each type?

In general, the links that you use for tier 1 links should be the highest quality you can source.

SEOs are typically using guest posts, editorial links, and high-quality PBNs for their tier 1.

Generally, tier 1 PBNs do not require a tier 2 to power them, because of their inherent power/page rank.

For tier 2 links, you have more options. Some people use web 2.0s, guest posts, or niche edits. Based on our research, PBNs are the best option for 2nd-tier links.

While both of these types of links fit into an effective strategy, there are definitely times where one is a better investment than the other. Let’s examine the situations where your tier 1 links should be taking priority.

When should I build tier 1 PBN links?

You should build tier 1 PBN links when:

1. You haven’t already sent too many homepage links to an existing URL
2. You’re using safe and secure PBNs
3. You’re in a challenging niche, and you need the power to rank
4. You’re in a rush to rank

Let’s look at each of these use cases in more detail.

You’re in a challenging niche and you need power to rank

If you’re in a challenging niche, a burst of tier 1 PBN links can provide you with the power that you need to rank.

An important way to ensure the results you want for your site is to carefully manage the types of anchor text that you are using. Tier 1 PBN links are most effective when used in combination with target keyword anchor text.

You’re in a rush to rank

If you are interested in ranking as quickly as possible, PBNs can provide you with the short-term juice that you need. They can be deployed much more rapidly than links that you gather from other sources (especially those that rely on weeks of outreach).

This early, explosive growth gives you the freedom to focus your attention on the links that take the most time to acquire. Your site will continue to grow—even explosively—while you’re sourcing the best links for your niche.

You’re using safe and secure PBNs

If you have access to safe and secure PBNs, there’s no reason not to take advantage of them.

Safe and secure PBNs are those that emulate natural internet sites. They should never have been penalized or used for SEO. In general, you want sites that have:

•  Premium design
•  Quality content
•  Existing social profiles
•  A low number of outbound links
•  No GSC penalizations
•  Zero footprints

As long as the sites can meet these standards, the only thing you need to worry about is getting links relevant to your niche.

Remember, though, you have some control (and responsibility) over how effective this strategy is for you. Make sure that you keep your PBNs effective by not using the same set of PBNs for different money sites.

They become less effective (high risk) when it’s clear that your sites are acting as a network. That happens when multiple money sites share the same PBN links, and thus create an outbound link pattern (see below).

You haven’t already sent too many homepage links to an existing URL  

PBNs are mostly homepage links, and this sets them apart from most other links you can build. Why? Because homepages have the most incoming links, and thus the most power.

Remember, however, that this is also a limitation. These types of links are rare in the real world, so there is an upper limit on how many it is safe to build.

When to use tier 2 PBN links

You should build tier 2 links when:

•  Your competitors have few links going to their ranking URLs, and you want to avoid being the black sheep
•  You want maximum risk reduction
•  When you’re in a challenging niche, and you need more power to rank

Let’s look at each of these use cases in more detail.

When you’re in a challenging niche, and you need more power to rank

If you’re in a challenging niche and need some extra power, tier 2 links can provide it. They reliably empower any links they are pointed toward.

This effect is especially significant if you’ve already built out most of the essential links in your niche. Building tier 2 links will be more effective than building new tier 1 links that are less relevant.

Your competitors have few links going to their ranking URLs, and you want to avoid being the black sheep

If you are in a niche where competitors only utilize a few links, building too many will attract attention you don’t want from Google.

Repeated tests have demonstrated that the black sheep of a niche—those who have a wildly different link profile from everyone else—will often be banished to the second page or worse until the problem is fixed.

The solution to this problem is to make the few links that you have as powerful as possible by pointing tier 2 links at them. Every tier 2 link you build can increase the power of the links that are already part of your profile.

You want maximum risk reduction

If you want to reduce risk to your money sites, tier 2 PBN links are among the safest investments you can make.

The links you are building are not being sent directly to your site. As a result, they aren’t being evaluated as part of your own link profile. Not that Tier 1 links are dangerous when you’re using a trusted network, but this is an even safer strategy.

Use PBNs Right to Use them Powerfully

PBN links are a useful ranking tool when they’re used correctly. Both tier 1 and tier 2 links play an important role, and they are most powerful when you understand which one is the best fit for your current situation.

Take advantage of tier 1 links when you have a new site that needs some help to get out of the sandbox. If you have access to high-quality PBNs and a relatively small link profile, the first tier 1 PBN links you build will have a robust and reliable effect.

Focus on tier 2 links if you have a valuable, aged site with an excellent profile. Tier 2 links provide the indirect force you need to take the lead from competitors when you already have enough tier 1 links.

No matter your priorities, Rank Club can support you with competitive tier 1 links and niche-specific tier 2 links.

The Definitive Tier 2 Link Building Guide for 2021

You’ve heard a lot more about tier 2 links lately. Wondering why? It’s because they are a key part of some of the most ambitious SEO campaigns launched in recent months.

If you aren’t sure what it means to build tier 2 links, you’ve come to the right place. If you do know what it means, you probably also know that many strategies that worked in the past have been destroyed by algorithm updates. You need a reliable, up-to-date process.

In this guide, you’re going to see a tier 2 strategy that has produced stunning results for SEOs in numerous niches. But first, you’re going to learn what it means to build tier 2 links, how they make your links more powerful (and more credible), and how you can deploy a modern tier 2 strategy like a pro.

After all that, you’ll get to see how powerful this strategy has been for us in a single-variable testing environment by enjoying a peek at the live data from our most recent experiment.

Let’s get started. First, let’s look at what it means to build tier 2 links.

What is Tier 2 Link Building?

First, let’s define ‘Tier 1’ link. When a link to one of your money site’s pages shows up on another site (intentionally or not)—that’s a tier 1 link.

A tier 1 link goes directly to your website.

Tier 2 links are the links that are built to the tier 1 page that links to your website. It might make more sense with an example.

Imagine you are an affiliate marketer in the skiing niche. You write a guest post about your experiences on your favorite slope and include a link to a page on your money site. That’s your tier 1 link.

But now, imagine the guest post is so good that it starts getting shared on by social media influencers or in hobby forums. Now, there are a bunch of pages pointing at the link that points back at your site. Awesome, all of those are tier 2 links.

Those tier 2 links will make your original link a lot more powerful and credible. Even better, don’t have to sit around waiting for them. You can take the future into your own hands by developing them yourself.

Why does the credibility that tier 2 links offer matter? The answer to that question goes back to one of the oldest tools in Google’s toolbox.

Why is Tier 2 Link Building Important?

Tiered links matter because they send out important signals that are used by Google to determine the worthiness of pages.

One of Google’s oldest ranking factors is PageRank. As Google once defined it,

“PageRank works by counting the number and quality of links to a page to determine a rough estimate of how important the website is. The underlying assumption is that more important websites are likely to receive more links from other websites.”

That hasn’t changed much. Even today, the power of a link is determined by the power, quantity, and quality of other links going to it.

It gets a little more complicated than that, though. Over time, Google has acted to weaken the power of links from certain sources. You’ll get to see a list of those in just a bit, but first, let’s look at how links become more powerful.

How do Links Become more Powerful?

If you want to make your links more powerful, you need links to your links, and those new links need to be recognized as legitimate.

It’s not enough to just land a link, even if it’s a great one. To use an example, let’s assume you land a guest post on the New York Times website.

That’s a great placement. You’ll immediately get to benefit from the trust that getting featured on the NYTimes gives you. However, what you don’t have yet is power flowing from that link to your page.

It is only when you build out links to the post that it starts generating both trust AND power.

It’s hard to measure PageRank because it is no longer displayed by Google. However, it is indeed part of the algorithm, otherwise what I’m about to show you in the guide wouldn’t work.

Speaking of what doesn’t work, make sure you understand that some types of tier 2 links are no longer going to have a desired effect.

How Tier 2 link building was done in the past

Algorithm updates in recent years have not been kind to older strategies of building second-tier links. Don’t sabotage your strategy by throwing in one of these outdated tactics.

GSA Search Engine Ranker spam

GSA is one of the most prolific automated link building tools out there. It builds links by making automatic posts on a variety of sources, including—

• Social bookmarks
• Blog comments
• Directories

It was as good as a ranking button for a brief point in affiliate marketing history. Those days are gone, of course.

The original Penguin update in April 2012 massively devalued the kind of links that GSA generated. And Penguin 2.0 started to penalize websites using GSA (and other tools) on tier 2.

That isn’t to say that the program doesn’t have any use anymore. It still has some important niche applications, especially for much higher-tier links—but it’s no longer a point-and-click way to rank.

Web 2.0 property generation

After more-natural links became a requirement, some marketers turned their attention to cultivating blogs on platforms like Blogger and Tumblr. This was effective for some time because Web 2.0 blogs carried more authority (DA and DR) than the sites GSA was spamming on.