Blackhat/PBN websites in serps?

You need to ask yourself first if you want to create a website which will rank for longer or want something that can dropdown after any new update is rolled out.

I am not against blackhat method as I do use that from time to time but it varies from project scope. Its since if I am looking to build a website and might flip it in future then those PBN links could def. lower the price I will receive after flipping but if the website has got links from whitehat method and that too from authority sources then it will have good impact over the buyer.

So in the end its totally on you, PBNs are really powerful and can really give you a good boost in rankings just use them with caution since if you get caught your rankings will drop down hard.

Google does care and does deindex PBN sites.

However it's not easy for them as there are so many on so many different hosting plan.

SERoundTable regularly updates on their blog that Google found another network, in the past that were widely advertised services, nowadays it are more often foreign SEO companies that they go after, quick time table:

- 2012: BMR, ALN + many more
- 2013: SAPE, LinkFeed + others
- 2014: Polish link network
- 2015: Spanish & German link networks
- 2016: Japanese link network

That's only what SERoundTable reports on, in the meanwhile they are known to scan SEO hosting providers and each domain goes through a manual review, as a result PBN owners lost many domains.

Most owners have become more clever, spreading their domains in a better way, making the sites look more legit, still that doesn't safe guard anyone entirely, Google still manages to deindex PBN sites, even decent looking ones on shared hosting plans.

What you could do is the following:

1) Put the suspect PBN domains in a spreadsheet
2) Check if they are all indexed
3) Wait six months, check again if they're still indexed

The most likely result of such test will be that 10-30% isn't indexed anymore, not that it matters as a PBN site is easily replaced, so yes Google is fighting PBN's but it's an endless fight they'll never win unless they come up with new techniques to detect them. However, time has proven that's not so easy.

Firstly, you need to know the meaning of white hat. White hat is a complete adhere to the rules of SEO and merely just optimising your meta tags. If you lift a finger to build backlinks then you are not into white hat.

What you are probably doing is BlackHat while Grey Hat is the extreme form of BlackHat.

Most of us are into BlackHat and go about it in different ways. I don't think emulating what your competitors are doing is a bad thing so long as it's works for you too.