Is it worth it to buy pre-made PBN?

by sconer
22 replies
  • SEO
  • |
I hit a plateau and can't get out of it. So I am going to tell my story and hopefully some people can help.

I own a small contracting business. I come up A or B in the local 3-pack for most typical search phrases in both my own town and the next town over. The problem is that these towns are small, population 15K and 20K. In order to survive, I need to be advertising to all of the towns around me as well.

So I made landing pages for these towns, 35 of them. They work, but not well enough. They generally come up between result #5 and #22 (3rd page!!!). I've constantly tried to tweak the pages for the best on-page SEO, but it's not making much of a difference.

Here's the big issue, I am not being beaten by competition. When I come up on the 2nd page, usually there are only 2 or 3 other contractors ahead of me. The rest are all either directories or companies that have nothing to do with this, such as Home Advisor, Indeed, Yelp, Angie’s List, eLocal, Beyond, BBB, Yellow pages, Superpages, Business Finder, etc.

It seems like I have 2 choices. Everyone says content content content. So I got a good writer and had her write some blog articles. These were good, I found them interesting and so did some people I had read them. But the problem is that most people simply don't care for electrical stuff, so the audience is small. People say to write about electrical safety and holiday stuff, which I did, but so did every other contractor in the country. And when it comes to blog articles, the location doesn't matter much so I am competing with 200,000 other electrician who all have their SEO guy put up blogs.

So what's left? Links. It seems like that is my only option to raise my landing page ranking in the organic results, and those links aren't going to be coming from blogging, so I need another source. So that's why I question whether I should have my own private blog network, possibly purchase it to save me the time and all the trial and error.

So would it be worth it for me to buy a PBN?
#buy #pbn #premade #worth
  • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
    Originally Posted by sconer View Post

    So would it be worth it for me to buy a PBN?
    That 100% depends on who is selling the network. The services I have seen so far, are subpar at best.
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    • Profile picture of the author sconer
      Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post

      That 100% depends on who is selling the network. The services I have seen so far, are subpar at best.
      So if I found a good service, or took the time to build it myself, it would be beneficial in my position?

      The key thing being that I only have one website that I am promoting, it's not like I do SEO for a living and have multiple websites that I could use the PBN for.
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      • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
        Originally Posted by sconer View Post

        So if I found a good service, or took the time to build it myself, it would be beneficial in my position?

        The key thing being that I only have one website that I am promoting, it's not like I do SEO for a living and have multiple websites that I could use the PBN for.
        I have built networks that were 50+ sites big to rank just one site, so yeah, that is not a big deal. In fact, in many ways it is much safer that you are not using the network to try to rank multiple sites.
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        • Profile picture of the author sconer
          Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post

          I have built networks that were 50+ sites big to rank just one site, so yeah, that is not a big deal. In fact, in many ways it is much safer that you are not using the network to try to rank multiple sites.
          Gotcha, thanks.

          If I was to take on this endeavor, how many sites would you recommend for my needs?
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          • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
            Originally Posted by sconer View Post

            Gotcha, thanks.

            If I was to take on this endeavor, how many sites would you recommend for my needs?
            How long is a piece of rope?
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            • Profile picture of the author Campbell24
              The best thing you could do is just rent a PBN link for a monthly fee which would be cheaper.

              Have it linking to your home page with anchor text about your niche.

              You also want your site's on-page SEO to not look like a generic mass-produced site that is designed to show up for a bunch of town pages. Because Google is becoming more and more aware of this tactic.

              A 500 word unique article on each page(not spun) is what I would implement for a site of a mere 35 pages.

              But anyways renting a link would be the best way to get started with PBNs, also buy some social signals(these are a MUST right now).
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              • Profile picture of the author sconer
                Originally Posted by Campbell24 View Post

                The best thing you could do is just rent a PBN link for a monthly fee which would be cheaper.

                Have it linking to your home page with anchor text about your niche.

                You also want your site's on-page SEO to not look like a generic mass-produced site that is designed to show up for a bunch of town pages. Because Google is becoming more and more aware of this tactic.

                A 500 word unique article on each page(not spun) is what I would implement for a site of a mere 35 pages.

                But anyways renting a link would be the best way to get started with PBNs, also buy some social signals(these are a MUST right now).
                The unique article for each landing page is something that I want to do, but can't do myself. I simply am not creative enough to write something compelling in 35 different ways. Right now I have the same article on each page with keywords changed. I also have some unique information about each town, but that is mostly copied from the official town page or Wikipedia.
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                • Profile picture of the author danparks
                  Originally Posted by sconer View Post

                  Right now I have the same article on each page with keywords changed. I also have some unique information about each town, but that is mostly copied from the official town page or Wikipedia.
                  Aside from the PBN question, if you really only changed the keywords in the article and are reusing it many times on your site, then you are definitely setting yourself up for duplicate content issues with Google.
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                  • Profile picture of the author sconer
                    Originally Posted by danparks View Post

                    Aside from the PBN question, if you really only changed the keywords in the article and are reusing it many times on your site, then you are definitely setting yourself up for duplicate content issues with Google.
                    It seems like that has never been an issue in the past. But I have spoken to some people who think it's going to become a problem this year so it's definitely something I will be changing. Finding a writer who understands my business enough to write about it while also writing well for both SEO and converting purposes has been a problem.
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                    • Profile picture of the author danparks
                      Originally Posted by sconer View Post

                      It seems like that has never been an issue in the past.
                      But are you sure it's not been an issue? You said your landing pages weren't ranking well. Perhaps duplicate content could be the, or part of the, issue. Duplicate content isn't an all-or-nothing situation where if you have it, you're deindexed or don't rank at all. I've seen sites with duplicate content that, once removed, had keywords rise 10 - 20 places in the SERPs. Not saying that's your case for sure, but I certainly would get rid of it.
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                      • Profile picture of the author sconer
                        Originally Posted by danparks View Post

                        But are you sure it's not been an issue?
                        Not, not at all.

                        You said your landing pages weren't ranking well.
                        I guess that needs to be qualified. They ARE ranking. Some of them on the first page. So I would assume they aren't being penalized. It's just that some of them are behind the bog boy sites, which really aren't my direct competition. For example, when someone searches for "electrician in anytown" the website "indeed.com" comes up with a page for open electrician jobs.

                        Perhaps duplicate content could be the, or part of the, issue. Duplicate content isn't an all-or-nothing situation where if you have it, you're deindexed or don't rank at all. I've seen sites with duplicate content that, once removed, had keywords rise 10 - 20 places in the SERPs. Not saying that's your case for sure, but I certainly would get rid of it.
                        I see. That makes sense. And it might mean that what I said above isn't accurate. Even more reason to get rid of the duplicate content
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            • Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post

              How long is a piece of rope?
              This is the funniest thing i read all day. Where is the sense of humor guys. This is gold..
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              • Profile picture of the author sconer
                Originally Posted by TotalWebsiteControl View Post

                This is the funniest thing i read all day. Where is the sense of humor guys. This is gold..
                I find it more sarcastic and condescending than funny.

                While there is no solid answer to the question (which we all understand), an experienced professional can give a recommendation if his intentions were to help instead of mock.
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                • Originally Posted by sconer View Post

                  I find it more sarcastic and condescending than funny.

                  While there is no solid answer to the question (which we all understand), an experienced professional can give a recommendation if his intentions were to help instead of mock.
                  Lighten up buddy. I will answer your question. Should you buy a pre existing PBN. Well first off how well do you know the person who is selling it? Does he have any proof to show you? Has he ranked other people using his blog?

                  There are questions that you need to get answered because purchasing his network. I personally wouldn't risk it. I imagine he wants a good bit of money for it (if the PBN is worth its salt at all) Instead of buying your own PBN why not just hire someone to make your own? I made one and i still use it for my seo efforts. At least this way there is no chance of you getting ripped off... Did this help you any? Sorry its really early and i'm super tired !
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                • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
                  Originally Posted by sconer View Post

                  I find it more sarcastic and condescending than funny.

                  While there is no solid answer to the question (which we all understand), an experienced professional can give a recommendation if his intentions were to help instead of mock.
                  It was not condescending or mocking.

                  The point of that statement was that there are a ton of variables (like competition, authority of the domains used for the networks, how the network sites are constructed, where the links are placed, etc.) that it is literally impossible to give any kind of definite answer.

                  Just the authority of the domains used for a network site alone makes things drastically different from site to site. You might setup a network of 10 sites that I can beat with a network of 2 sites using stronger domains.
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                  • Profile picture of the author sconer
                    Alright, I apologize, I'm having a bad day (month).
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  • Profile picture of the author CodySparrow
    Hey there! Unfortunately, there is no cut and dry answer (welcome to SEO) to how many sites you will need in your network in order to rank where you want.

    If you're going for a specific keyword in a local niche and are going against relatively unoptimized competitors, it could only take maybe 4 or 5 backlinks from different IPs in order to give your website the extra push it needs in order to rank. It depends on how well optimized the competition actually is, in addition to that of your own website. I could give you an analysis of the competition and whatnot if you want to PM me.
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  • Profile picture of the author Curtis2011
    From your description of the rankings it sounds like there isn't much competition for the location-based keywords. Getting a few backlinks to each location-based page, even just backlinks from social media (which you can buy for cheap or do yourself) might make a difference.

    If you want your location-specific pages to rank higher, you need to add more content on those pages. Not just more SEO blog articles about other topics to other pages of your site, as you mentioned you have created.

    Originally Posted by sconer View Post

    Right now I have the same article on each page with keywords changed.
    Just FYI, this is the literal, original definition of "duplicate content" that Google specifically tells people not to put on their sites. It is a very outdated and very ineffective way to achieve SEO success. It typically won't get you penalized unless you outright spam thousands of pages with duplicate content, but it also won't win you any SEO contests for competitive keywords either.
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  • Profile picture of the author paladinseo
    if u know how to make a good pbn and hide all the footprints than do it yourself, if not hire a professional
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  • Profile picture of the author Engineer2Blogger
    Paid advertising not an option?

    I'm not sure what niche you are in but google PPC to your site, especially if your providing a service with a decent profit margin might be your better option over SEO.
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    • Profile picture of the author sconer
      Originally Posted by Engineer2Blogger View Post

      Paid advertising not an option?

      I'm not sure what niche you are in but google PPC to your site, especially if your providing a service with a decent profit margin might be your better option over SEO.
      I would happily do PPC, if I could find someone who could actually run the campaign and get me calls. I tried 3 times, I got nothing but more wasted money.
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    • Profile picture of the author bluejeans
      Originally Posted by Engineer2Blogger View Post

      Paid advertising not an option?

      I'm not sure what niche you are in but google PPC to your site, especially if your providing a service with a decent profit margin might be your better option over SEO.
      Yes, I am going to chime in on this one too. Not sure how much ads will cost in your niche, but honestly, gaming natural search with a PBN can be like hitting a moving target, especially if you are inexperienced. Too many places you can make mistakes all along the way.

      Would paid search be feasible for you?
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