You have an AWESOME Private Blog Network..

But:

Are you taking care of your Private Blog Network and avoiding all the possible PBN footprints?

In this PBN Footprint checklist, we will cover all the possible footprints your PBN can leave.

Two types of Private Blog Network Checklist:

PBN Checklist – Server Level

1) Avoid Using SEO Hosting, Use PBN Hosting Instead

Let me explain and why..

Here:

What is SEO Hosting?

When a hosting company is providing their servers on different “A” “B” or “C” Class IP address with their own nameservers they are termed as a hosting company.

What is private blog network hosting?

Simple:

Private Blog Network Hosting is hosting your different Content Management System (CMS) with various top cloud providers around the world.

How is it different?

You are hosting on those top nameservers where millions of other websites are hosted.

So?

You are hiding your Private Blog Network among million of other legit sites.

2) Stay away from Cheap Hosting companies

Cheap Hosting companies exist everywhere..

..but stay away from them because there is a big possibility of them having a bad network due to their cost..

You might find many of your neighbours as your fellow Private Blog Network owner 🙂

3) Block Crawlers and Spiders

Here:

How you can block SEO bots using robots.txt

You might be wondering, why?

The answer is very simple, you don’t want your competitors to find out about your blog network and possibly either spam it or report your network..

4) Have multiple SOA records

Here is how it looks:

Make sure you have each of your domains with different Primary nameserver & Hostmaster E-mail address..

5) Have different MX Records

MX entries can be tricky and a lot of times you could miss on this setting.

Here:

Make sure to have different ones to avoid any possibility of leaving your MX entries as your footprint.

6) Have different A records

Do you know that anyone can find out where you are hosting just by looking at your A records?

If you look above, you can easily find out the real IP address of the hosting company.

Make sure each Blog Network of yours is hosted on a Unique IP address

7) Have your servers in Different Locations

You might wonder:

how does server location affect my SEO?

In a real world, a blogger or a legit website could be located in any corner of the world..

Hence:

It’s crucial to have different locations for every single blog network of yours to have maximum diversity.

GoPBN is at rescue again as it offers wide range of locations to choose..

8) Have a fantastic uptime

As important as having quality contents..

..maintaining and having proper uptime is equally important.

Avoid Cheap Hosting at all cost because they never offer 100% Uptime.

Ensure to have nothing less than 99.99% Uptime for all your PBN

PBN Checklist – Website Level

9) Don’t write articles write a blog post!

Thinking to get those regular articles?

Don’t bother..

Start writing regular blog posts that look REAL..

Google is getting smarter with its PANDA algorithm every day.

I understand investing into quality writers can get expensive, but in the long run, it will get paid off when you see your keywords ranking #1 in Google.

10) Avoid thin contents

What is thin content?

Contents that adds no value, but are written with the intention to target a particular keyword are termed as thin contents..

These types of contents are surrounded around the targeted keywords..

Also:

The articles are stuffed with the targeted keywords..

Matt Cutts explains it well:

11) Better & Real Silo Site Structure

Understand how real sites are structured, don’t just through your posts on a newly registered WordPress Blog..

Make Categories have a nice menu structure, have your footers in place.

Plan our the topics you would be covering (Also referred as Silo Site Structure).

Here is a typical example:

12) Avoid the typical 500 Words Articles

All your 10 articles on your blog network are 500 words?

There!

You have just left a footprint..

Mix your article length, have some of them as 300+ words, some as 850+ words, and some even 1500+ words..

13) Say NO to SPUN contents

What is a SPUN content?

Spun contents or Spinning contents is defined as copying contents from any existing website and re-writing it with the help of software..

Don’t rip off other people’s work.

Also, most of the available software generates unrealistic, and unreadable contents which are bad for your blog..

Invest on good quality articles, if you are looking for a long term stable ranking.

14) Link Just Once to your Money Site for Every Blog Network you create

I have seen a lot of people talking about pointing their PBN with multiple money sites..

..or..

They use the same blog network to link back to the same money site money times for different anchor text..

Avoid doing that at all cost..

Link your blog network to your money site just once.

Pro Tip: Ensure that your keyword is on the home page for the best possible link juice

15) Use Multiple CMS, not just WordPress

YES!

I know about 26.6% of the Internet world is using WordPress and about 59.2% of all website using a content management system

Look:

Most of the other blogs recommend using all the PBN sites as WordPress that’s because WordPress makes thing easy and Private Blog Networks are not for lazy.

Also, think about it this way:

“All your High-Quality backlinks are coming from “ONLY” WordPress?”

To me, this sounds very unnatural.

No Worries!

I will help the lazy to remain lazy 🙂

…while building the PBN the right way!

With GoPBN’s Multi Application Channel System, you can setup multiple CMS with a click of your button.

Pro Tip: If you only plan to use WordPress then make sure to delete the “SAMPLE PAGE” and “HELLO WORLD” post.

16) LSI Keywords or Long Tail Keywords

I use this strategy all the time…

I generall look for keywords that has got only 10-100 monthly searches with less to no competition..

What’s the benefit?

I can naturally rank for those keywords instantly on my blog network that helps me to drive natural traffic..

Hence:

It helps your blog to look natural.

17) Give a name to your Author:

It’s time!

A majority of the people leave their blog to the default author name as admin!

Time to get a REAL NAME for your admin author..

Pro Tip: Make sure to have different authors across all your blogs, to make it even more unique, get some stock images of people and use them. You want to look as natural as possible!

18) Use Different Themes & Plugins

Don’t stick yourself with those cheap and free themes all the time.

There are multiple sites available now a days on membership basis offering you 100-200+ WordPress themes for less than $100..

Grab few of those membership and get yourself variety of nice premium looking themes.

Imagine the same with the plugins..

I know you love Yoast’s SEO plugin but, if you have 100+ WordPress Blog, each of them having the same plugin.

Look:

You want to look natural in Google’s eye..

WordPress’s Plugin directory is full of free range of plugins..

..so install different plugin for different blogs in your network.

19) Re-Create your Website

You can thank the awesome wayback machine

Key:

If you happen to have found some good expired domains for your PBN then..

Re-create few of those domains using Wayback Machine..

Here is an example of a wayback machine archive:

Pro Tip:(We are building a free tool for you very soon.. so watch out for this section and subscribe to our blog..)

20) Have Images & YouTube Videos

We say Images speaks thousands words, while..

Video speaks millions of words..

Rich media is very important, as that makes your blog article more accomplished as it looks natural..

Pro Tip #1: Make sure to include multiple videos and images, but do not overdo either

Pro Tip #2: Save your images with your LSI keywords and add the same LSI keyword in your ALT tag in your images

21) Avoid Using Google Analytics And Webmasters Tool

I know you love Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools..

I will confess..I love it equally..

But let’s accept this:

Google doesn’t love Private Blog Networks as they are being used very often to manipulate the search results..

Avoid using Google Analytics And Webmasters Tool..

But..if you still want to use them, make a new account for every single blog in your network andw use proxies to manage them..

Clear your cookies and cache, before switching (Use Incognite Window if you are lazy).

22) Get your LOGO done!

You said you want to look natural, right?

Look:

When you started your money site, the first thing you got done was your LOGO..

Get your PBN Blog a custom designed logo as well..

You can head over to Fiverr and quickly get some logos done for few dollars..

23)Avoid using the same Images & Videos

What?

Yes! I recently discovered one of my competitor’s PBN in the marketing niche.

It was easy for me to detect his entire PBN through AHREFS alone..

Not only that, he had the same pattern of writing all his blog posts

Having One Image & a video YouTube..

THERE..

A possible footprint, take your blog to a new level, add Videos from multiple sources and have multiple images.

Pro Tip: Do not scrape images from Google and use them because if you search using Google Images you will find you are duplicating that image.

Head over to Pablo from buffer or head over to Pixlr Web App and create some unique images.

Another Pro Tip: Save your images as your LSI keywords

Example: My Keyword is how to build a better PBN so I will save my image as how-to-build-a-web-2-0.jpg

24) Get Natural traffic!

Look:

The sole AIM for any blog is to write blog articles to attract traffic..

So?

Why shouldn’t your PBN have contents targeting LSI keywords aiming for natural traffic?

Pro Tip: You can use Keywordtool.io to generate some LSI keywords

25) Fix Your Broken Links NOW!

No one likes BROKEN LINKS, not even Google..

Here:

You can use broken link checker from Screaming Frog and run the program on Power Up Hosting’s Windows VPS to find all the broken links on your site..

26) Don’t use Advertisement codes

Look:

Your Blog Network that you have built for SEO purpose..

..don’t use Adsense or any other advertisement code.

27) Avoid using Google Chrome

This one is little hypothetical..

But..

It’s a Google product, so try and stay away, take precaution and use Mozilla Firefox.

28) Create Social Media Accounts:

Because you don’t want to look like a BLOG NETWORK..

..but instead look like a real blog, with real blog posts, with real social media accounts where you are sharing your blog posts with your audience.

PBN Checklist – Domain Level

29) Use Multiple Registrars

How can it be possible for a user to have all their Blog Network or Godaddy or Namecheap?

Very unlikely, as ICANN has 1000s over registrar approved.

The price might vary a little..

..but get your domains from DIFFERENT registrars to avoid any possible footprint at the domain registration level.

Here is a list of some of the list of top domain registrar in 2016:

name.com  enom.com  godaddy.com  register.com  namecheap.com  gandi.net  dreamhost.com  register.it  1and1.com  

30) Mix Up Your Whois Details:

Confused?

I will solve the puzzle for you..

As per Anonwhois.org:

Approximately around 60% of the domains in the world are using WHOIS protection..

…so let’s play safe and use WHOIS protection for only 20-30% of your domains.

Rest, mix it up with Fake Name Generator.

Fake Name Generator the above help you generate multiple generic real names that you can use to be shown for whois.

HOLD ON!

Make sure to double check your whois details after you have done the purchase

31) Unique Email in WHOIS

Look:

You did everything right, but then you did this..

Used your primary email for your WHOIS details that are publicaly available..

Create unique email addresses for every domain..

Pro Tip: While doing this, make sure not to use Gmail or use the same email providers. Try using a domain level email and mix the domain with [email protected] or [email protected].

..or anything related..

32) Expired Domains:

Make sure that your domain has got some decent Domain Authority, Page Authority, Trust Flow & Citation flow.

Also, double check the history of your domain using waybackmachine to ensure the domains were never used as a PBN in the past or were spammed with links.

33) Different Domain Registrar:

Look:

In a real world, there are multiple domain registrar companies and in that real world, they all sell domains.

Have a LOT of different registrars

Here is the entire list of ICANN accredited domain registrars

34) Different Domain Registration Dates:

Give yourself a breathing time..

AND..

to your domain as well!

That means you need to different registration dates for your all your domains.

So:

Slow down your horses.

Pro Tip:Have some of your domains registered for two years; while some of your 3, 4 or even five years

35) New, Expiring & Expired Domains

TOSS it UP!

Grab some expiring domains with good stats, as you will retain the age of the domain.

While..

You will have higher chances of getting a good amount of expired domains.

You might be wondering why a brand new domain? Let me tell you something..

Think it like this..

How come all your PBN sites has got so many exact match anchor text with good stats pointing towards your Money site?

Does that even make sense?

For me, I want to look as natural as possible, so I do toss-up new domains at time..

36) Backlink Profile For your PBN

Backlinks! AWWW

The magical word to rank your money sites..

But do you know you could be purchasing a site with spamming links?

Make sure to hop on to Ahrefs and do your due diligence for your domain’s backlink profile.

…and if you find anything SPAMMY or spammy links? Then screw that domain right away from your list.

Here:

37) Use Different TLDs

What’s a TLD?

They stand for Top Level Domain!

Do not Restrict yourself to only .com domains!

Because:

You cannot fool the Google!

With so many TLDs out there;

..mix your TLDs and build your PBN on different domain extension

38) Have these pages!

• Contact Us
• About Us
• Legal
• Privacy Policy

Pro Tip: Do not use the same contents on the above four pages again and again. Keep your contents & design of the page unique.

PBN Checklist – General

39) Avoid Using Public Blog Networks

Popular among many marketers..

There are hundreds or maybe thousands of Public Blog Network, link providers in the market..

One of advice? Avoid using them as they are likely to get de-indexed sooner or later.

In Short! Always build your own Private Blog Network, even if it’s time-consuming, it’s well worth the time and money you are going to invest.

Do deindexed links still pass juice?

NO..

It doesn’t!

40) Have a REAL address

You heard me RIGHT..

Have you ever seen a real blog that is not registered or has no address? I bet NONE..

So be REAL..

..and generate some REAL address and you can use the the following website for your help

Private Blog Network aka PBN Footprint Checklist Infographics

Want to use it on your website?

Use the following code

<a href="https://gopbn.com/blog/private-blog-network-footprint-checklist/"><img alt="pbn footprint checklist infographics" src="https://gopbn.com/wp-content/uploads/blog/images/2016/10/pbn-footprint-checklist-infographics.jpg" /></ahref>

Final Conclusion

After going through this massive footprint list…

I hope I could help you save your Private Blog Network from getting deindexed.

Found any footprint that I have missed or love the article?

Leave your comment below and let me know your thoughts…

and..

..share our AWESOME blog with your friends and subscribe to get the awesome new contents!