A private blog network (PBN) is a group of websites under common control whose main purpose is to link to one or more target sites to influence their rankings. Here PBN means this SEO tactic.
How it is built
Operators often buy expired domains that already have links and fill them with new content. The sites link to the target. According to reports, warning signs include thin content, similar templates, shared hosting addresses and repeated anchor texts. Each of these is only a hint.
How Google treats it
The spam policies do not use the term PBN. The tactic fits under link spam (assessment). Links created primarily to manipulate rankings violate the spam policies. The policy on expired domain abuse names buying expired domains mainly to rank low-value content. Google’s December 2022 link spam update used SpamBrain to neutralize manipulative links, and manual actions remain possible.
Example
Ten blogs with the same theme, a few posts each, all linking to one domain with the anchor text “heating installer Cologne”. The pattern suggests the links were not editorial (assessment).
Sources
- Spam policies for Google web search – Google Search Centraldevelopers.google.com
- December 2022 link spam update – Google Search Central Blogdevelopers.google.com
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