How to Make a PBN (Correctly), a Review - Episode 111

Summary

Podcast Summary: Grumpy SEO Guy – Episode 111: How to Make a PBN (Correctly), a Review

Podcast Information:

• Title: Grumpy SEO Guy
• Host: Grumpy SEO Guy
• Episode: How to Make a PBN (Correctly), a Review - Episode 111
• Release Date: June 4, 2025
• Description: Everything I've learned in 14 years of running an SEO agency. Learn how to get, and keep, websites at the top of the search engines. If you listen to this podcast you will know more about how the SEO industry works than 99% of SEO "professionals."

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Introduction and Context

In Episode 111, Grumpy SEO Guy delves into the intricacies of building a Private Blog Network (PBN), also referred to as a Private Blog Portfolio (PBP). The host emphasizes the episode’s goal: to provide a comprehensive and correct approach to constructing a PBN, a strategy crucial for enhancing website authority and search engine rankings.

Notable Quote:

“I'm grumpy today because a lot of people make their PBNs wrong. Let's talk about how to not do it that way.”
[00:00]

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Understanding PBNs vs. Private Blog Portfolios

Grumpy SEO Guy differentiates between the traditional term "Private Blog Network" and his preferred term "Private Blog Portfolio." He argues that "network" implies interconnectedness between sites, which can create noticeable footprints leading to penalties from search engines. In contrast, a portfolio suggests a collection of independent sites without direct connections, minimizing the risk of detection.

Notable Quote:

“I prefer the term private blog portfolio because it really is a portfolio of domains that you're using. It is not a network.”
[07:31]

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Importance of Authority in SEO

A central theme of the episode is the critical role of authority in achieving high search engine rankings. Grumpy SEO Guy dispels the misconception that content alone reigns supreme in SEO. Instead, he emphasizes that backlinks are the primary driver of authority, which in turn influences rankings.

Notable Quote:

“The only place to get authority is backlinks from other websites.”
[10:38]

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The Four Key SEO Factors

Grumpy SEO Guy outlines four essential elements required to rank effectively:

1. No Penalties: Ensuring the website is free from search engine penalties is the top priority.
2. Content: While content quality isn’t a direct ranking factor, having content is necessary.
3. Relevancy: The website's content must be relevant to the search queries it aims to rank for.
4. Authority: Acquired primarily through backlinks from authoritative sites.

Notable Quote:

“There are four things. One, no penalties… Two, you need content… Three, you need relevancy… And four, you need authority.”
[07:47]

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Methods to Obtain Backlinks

Grumpy SEO Guy discusses four primary methods to acquire backlinks, each with its own set of challenges and effectiveness:

1. Do Nothing: Relying on organic backlink acquisition is generally ineffective for new or low-authority sites.
2. Buy Backlinks: Caution is advised as many sellers offer low-quality or spammy links.
3. Link Outreach and Guest Posting: Typically yields a low success rate (~5%) and requires significant effort.
4. Build a Private Blog Portfolio: Despite being considered "black hat" by some, this method is widely used by successful SEO professionals for its reliability in sharing authority.

Notable Quote:

“If you are serious about doing SEO, you're not gonna learn how to be successful in a 10 minute episode.”
[05:52]

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Building Your Private Blog Portfolio

Acquiring Domains

The foundation of a PBN lies in the selection of authoritative domains. Grumpy SEO Guy advises purchasing expired or existing domains with prior authority rather than starting with new, low-authority domains.

Key Considerations:

• Authority: Prefer domains that have existing backlinks and a history of reputable use.
• Cost: High-authority domains are more expensive, often fetching higher prices at auctions.
• Due Diligence: Thoroughly vet domains to avoid those previously associated with spam or irrelevant content.

Notable Quote:

“It's like starting from a strong foundation instead of being a noob."
[16:09]

Hosting Considerations

To avoid creating footprints, each site in the PBN should be hosted on separate IP addresses and servers. Grumpy SEO Guy warns against using shared hosting services or SEO-specific hosting providers that might cluster all PBN sites together, making them easily identifiable to search engines.

Key Points:

• Unique Hosting: Ensure each site has its own hosting environment.
• IP Diversity: Avoid "C class hosting" where multiple sites share the same IP block.
• Avoid SEO Hosting Providers: These services often inadvertently signal that multiple sites are part of a PBN.

Notable Quote:

“You need different hosting for every site, and there's more specifics that you need to pay attention to when it comes to IP addresses and hosting.”
[21:05]

Content Strategy

Population of the PBN sites with unique, regular-looking content is crucial. Duplicate content or overly optimized posts can reveal the network's artificial nature. The content should mimic natural websites to prevent detection and ensure longevity.

Best Practices:

• Use WordPress: Preferred for its flexibility and widespread use, minimizing footprint concerns.
• Unique Themes and Designs: Avoid uniform appearances across all PBN sites.
• Diverse Content Lengths and Styles: Vary post lengths and writing styles to enhance authenticity.
• Initial Content Population: Upload several posts before adding outbound links to make the site appear established.

Notable Quote:

“A good private blog network site should look like a regular website that you would see on the Internet.”
[27:20]

Avoiding Footprints

Maintaining the anonymity of the PBN is paramount. This involves ensuring that no common elements (like shared hosting, identical themes, or similar content patterns) link the sites back to each other or to the portfolio owner.

Key Strategies:

• Unique Data: Each site should have distinct WHOIS information, hosting providers, and design elements.
• Consistent Monitoring: Regularly check for potential footprints and adjust strategies accordingly.
• Redirect Management: Use 301 redirects for old or broken links to maintain the site's authority without exposing the network.

Notable Quote:

“Do not work with any hosting company who even offers or mentions SEO hosting on their website.”
[23:07]

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Best Practices and Common Mistakes

Grumpy SEO Guy highlights several best practices and pitfalls to avoid when building and managing a PBN:

• Avoid Duplicate Content: Each site should offer unique value and content.
• Steer Clear of Spammy Niches: Domains previously used for spam can carry negative SEO implications.
• Monitor Link Interconnectivity: Ensure that PBN sites do not link to each other, which can create identifiable patterns.
• Regular Updates: Keep PBN sites active with fresh content to sustain their authority and appearance of legitimacy.

Notable Quote:

“Don’t create content or links on a site that makes it look like you're doing the same thing on multiple sites.”
[27:42]

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Conclusion and Further Resources

Grumpy SEO Guy wraps up the episode by reiterating the importance of understanding and correctly implementing PBN strategies. He encourages listeners to delve deeper by revisiting previous episodes that cover specific aspects in greater detail, such as domain acquisition and hosting configurations. Additionally, he offers advisory services for those seeking personalized guidance.

Notable Quote:

“If you made it this far and you want to book an advisory call, you can email [e-mail] you have to pay because I charge for my time, but I don't charge for my information, which is why the podcast is free.”
[29:44]

Additional Resources:

• Episode 3: Detailed guide on acquiring authoritative domains.
• Episode 4: Comprehensive overview of hosting strategies to avoid footprints.
• Episode 5: Managing and maintaining PBN sites effectively.
• Episode 21: Understanding the role of authority in SEO.
• Episodes 37 & 39: Differentiating between good and bad backlinks.

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Final Thoughts:

Episode 111 of Grumpy SEO Guy serves as a thorough guide for both beginners and experienced SEO professionals looking to build effective Private Blog Networks. By emphasizing the importance of authority, meticulous domain selection, unique hosting, and authentic content creation, the episode provides actionable insights to elevate SEO strategies while mitigating risks associated with PBNs.

Transcript

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

This is Grumpy SEO Guy Episode 111 how to Build a PBN or Private Blog Network or Private Blog Portfolio A quick review. You're listening to Grumpy SEO Guy, the SEO podcast that doesn't waste your time with nonsense that doesn't work. I'm the grumpy SEO Guy and I'm sharing with you the strategies that have helped me successfully run my SEO agency for the last 14 years. In this podcast, I'll be sharing my knowledge and experience, discussing tips and strategies, and trying to help you cut through the confusion that permeates this industry. If you listen to this podcast, you will know more about SEO than 99% of people on the planet. Ready? Let's get started. I'm the Grumpy SEO Guy. Let me tell you why I'm grumpy today. I'm grumpy today because a lot of people make their PBNs wrong. Let's talk about how to not do it that way. But before we do that, my lawyer tells me that I have to say this right now. A quick disclaimer before we get started. Everything I say here is based on my experience and opinion from 14 years in the industry. I don't officially know how Google or any other search engines work. Everything I say here is hypothetical and based on my experience. This podcast does not constitute advice or services. What worked for me may or may not work for you. Okay, back to the show reminders. New episodes come out on Wednesday, 9am Central Standard Time. That's for the podcast. If you're following us on YouTube, it's gonna be a little bit after that. If you'd like to support the podcast and help keep it free, you can do [e-mail] grumpyseoguy by the way, shout out to my Patreon subscribers. I really want to say thanks to you. If you are caught up in an SEO problem and you are unsure of what you should do and you want to set up a zoom advisory, call and talk through it. You can email [e-mail] and we can talk about getting that scheduled. This episode today is a somewhat controversial topic. The most popular episodes I have made so far are the how to create your own portfolio of authoritative blogs to rank your client sites or your site's episodes. So basically it's a three. Well, it started as a three part episode, but then there was more episodes that we did later. Anyway, it's three parts. It's episodes three, four and five and it tells you how to build your own private blog portfolio or PBN or private blog network or whatever you want to call it, okay? Because this is a large part of SEO and they've been the most popular episodes, with one exception. There's another episode that we did called everything you need to know about SEO in 38 minutes. This is episode 21. This episode details the the reason you need authority in order to rank. Because most people who position themselves as SEO educators aren't really familiar with SEO and they tell you stuff that is mistaken, like content is king or just write content and you will rank and other stuff that doesn't work. And you know it doesn't work because you probably have good content on your site and you don't rank. So clearly that's not the reason you rank.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

We have talked in many episodes about why not only is the quality of content content not king, but it's also not a ranking factor.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

And I'm not really going to talk much about that in this episode because we have many other episodes that explain this in detail and some people still don't believe it. And that's all right. The cool thing about this is that you can do whatever you want and you know if it works or not. So if writing really good content is making you rank, by the way, if writing really good content is making you rank, it probably just means that you have a lot of authority already or you don't have very much competition. But if writing really good content is making you rank, you should write really good content and you should continue ranking.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

But for the rest of everybody, where that doesn't work, okay, it's because you don't have enough authority usually. So anyways, episodes 3, 4 and 5 talk about how to build a private blog portfolio, okay? And episode 21 tells why you need authority. So I would suggest that you go play those episodes if you are not familiar with them. But look, I wanna do another episode talking about private blog portfolios, because first of all, those are episodes three, four and five. And some people haven't been listening to the show for that long and they don't wanna go back to the beginning and listen to them. And that's fine. But I'm gonna be honest with you, this is kind of gonna be like a high level summary episode because those episodes together are like 2.5 hours or something, right? So, like, I'm not gonna make a 2.5 hour episode when I've already done that, okay? Just literally go listen to those episodes. Okay? But also, some people want like an overview. And they want to understand how to do it or why to do it or whatever. And that's fine. And so. And second, some people are like, well, I'm not gonna spend two and a half hours listening to your episodes, grumpy SEO guy. Just tell me in 10 minutes how to build a private blog portfolio. That's like saying, look guys, I really wanna be a mechanical engineer, okay? But I don't wanna go to university for it.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

Just tell me in 10 minutes tell me how to be a mechanical engineer, okay? Like, come on, man. Look, SEO is simple, but it's not easy, okay? Like there's a reason this is complicated. There's a reason it takes three full episodes, all right, that are very long episodes. And then I have more episodes about it, okay? If you are serious about doing SEO, you're not gonna learn how to be successful in a 10 minute episode. Like, my episodes are very helpful, but they're not that helpful.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

So, but anyway, let's get into it. Cause people are already about to click off and they're complaining. He hasn't told me how to do it yet perfectly in five minutes. So I'm gonna go listen to a different pod also listen to whatever you want to. That's cool. So we're gonna talk general overview of private blog portfolios or PBNs or private blog networks or whatever you wanna call them. However, let me say this first. I don't like the term. Most of you know this already. I don't like the term private blog network and PBN because a network suggests that each site is connected, okay? And that would be a footprint. That would be a very silly idea to connect all of your sites together, okay? Do not do that. By the way. A footprint is something that designates a group of your sites as being owned by the same person, okay? It's a pattern. It's something that makes you identifiable, okay? It's something that shows what you're doing, okay? So some of what you need to do in SEO is not have a footprint, okay? Anyway, we might talk more about that later. Okay? So anyways, I prefer the term private blog portfolio because it really is a portfolio of domains that you're using. It is not a network. Okay, let me be very clear. It is not a network, okay? So I don't know if people are actually linking together their PBNs. I think they are, because I've seen people talk about this kind of thing. I am telling you it is a bad idea to link your sites together, okay? It is a Bad idea. So it's a portfolio, not a network. So let's kind of talk about now why you might want to do this.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

This is going to be a nice episode. So as you know, maybe there are four things that you need to rank.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

There are four things. One, no penalties.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

No penalties. That's the top. And by the way, this is how to prioritize these things, okay? So first one is no penalties. That is the top priority is no penalties, okay? We have another episode on penalties. It's episode two. Okay? Second number two, you need content, okay? You need content. And now it doesn't have to be super high quality content because search engines cannot determine the quality of content, okay? But you need content. If you don't have content, go make a website and then come back and listen to the rest of this episode, okay? So two, you need content. Three, you need relevancy, okay? Three, you need relevancy. Relevancy just means what is the topic of your site, okay? Here's a quick example for relevancy. Let's say you have a site that's talking about dishwashers, okay? And then let's say a different person has a website that's talking about refrigerators, okay? If somebody searches for dishwashers, whose website should appear? Yours or the other person's? Obviously yours, because yours is relevant for dishwashers, okay? So relevancy just means what is the purpose of the content on your site, right? Yours talks about dishwashers, so you should appear in a search for dishwashers, okay? The other person's is not about dishwashers. Theirs should not appear in a search for dishwashers, okay? That's relevancy. And four, you need authority, okay? If you have. And remember, this is how. And this is how you need to do them. If you have no penalties and you have content and you have relevancy, what you're missing is authority, okay? If you're not ranking and you have those three things, you are missing authority, okay? This is part of the reason that we build private blog portfolios, okay? So why do we build private blog portfolios, though? Most people need more authority, okay? And authority only comes from backlinks, okay? So let's just. Let's just discuss something right now. Because people, because people get a little bit like, mixed up when it comes to authority, okay? So let's talk about things that do not build authority, okay? These things do not build authority, okay? User experience does not build authority. Dwell time does not build authority, okay? Site loading speed does not build Authority, Okay. Impressions does not build authority.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

Clicks does not build authority.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

Are you seeing where I'm going with this? Title tags do not actually, let's say content. Content does not build authority, okay? The only place to get authority is backlinks from other websites. All right? So a backlink is when a website links from their website to your website or to another website. Backlinks pass authority, okay? So if somebody links to you, they are providing you some authority. Now, the amount of authority that they provide is going to vary based on how much authority their website has. Most websites on the Internet have authority, so you'll get at least a little bit. Sometimes you get a lot. So there are cases where that's not true, but let's not worry about that for now. Okay? So you need backlinks to get authority.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

So as you know from another episode, there are four ways to get backlinks.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

There are four ways to get backlinks dot. Number one, do nothing and wait for people to link to you. This is a great strategy. However, if you're not already ranking, nobody's gonna find you and nobody's gonna link to you. So that probably isn't going to be a great choice for you. Okay. Number two, you can buy backlinks. I would be very cautious buying backlinks. Not because it doesn't work, because many backlink sellers are selling rubbish.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

Not all backlinks are the same. We have a two part episode on the difference between good backlinks and bad backlinks.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

So they're kind of long. You probably want to listen to them. It's episodes 37 and 39.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

And again, somebody's gonna be like, I just wanna know. I want you to take, I want you to take one minute and tell me the difference. No, it's two episodes for a reason.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

Okay. But most backlinks are not so great. No, no, no, no. Most backlinks people are selling.

[Listener]

Okay.

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

Are maybe reduced quality compared to what you want.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

So that's the second option. Number three, you can do link outreach and guest posting. The these are basically when you email somebody and request that they give you a backlink. Trying these methods has about a 5% success rate.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

So if you email a lot of people, you might get backlinks from about 5% of them.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

It works, but it might not be like the best method depending on what you're looking for. Okay? So the fourth way to get backlinks is build your own portfolio and use those. Now, some people don't like this because they think that this is black hat. It is black hat. Manipulative SEO. It is. I'm gonna be. Well, I wouldn't say it's black hat, but it's definitely not something you're supposed to do. With that said, it is what most successful SEO consultants and agencies do.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

I've been in the industry for 15 years. At this point, I know who gets results and who doesn't get results. And the people who get results use backlinks. And most of the people who get good results using backlinks are using a portfolio of blogs, okay? Because it's the most reliable way to share authority with your clients.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

Cause otherwise you're gonna be buying backlinks from who knows where, or you're going to be guest posting and link outreaching all day with a 5% success or whatever. So most people do this. Okay? Now are you with me so far? People are like clicking off. They're like, I don't want to do that. That is against the rules. Okay? Well, I don't know, man. Look, I'm not telling you that you need to do it this way. I'm just telling you that it works this way, and I'm going to tell you how to do it.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

So let's talk about how building a private blog portfolio works. So the reason you build a private blog portfolio is because you need a collection of websites that you can use to link to your clients.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

If you have a client and you determine they need backlinks because they don't have enough authority, okay? You have only four options for getting backlinks. We just talked about what those four options are.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

You have only four options to get backlinks. And probably the best option if you are an actual SEO provider is to build your own portfolio and use that. Now, people do this themselves too, by the way. If you have a website that you're trying to rank, you can build your own portfolio and do that. You don't have to be an SEO consultant.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

I'm just telling you. What I'm describing is a plan for SEO that a lot of people do.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

So the first thing you need to do is find the websites you're going to use. So generally speaking, for this, you are going to either buy existing websites, meaning existing domains, or you're going to buy expired domains. So the purpose of this is existing domains, and expired domains often have authority already.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

Because if you start with a brand new domain, well, it's going to have very little authority. It's not going to have none, but it's going to have very little.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

It's gonna have very little. It's like, think of like a person who's never lifted weights before compared to somebody who's been lifting weights for a decade and has big muscles and is very strong. Right? Which one of those people is stronger? Probably the second person.

[Listener]

Okay.

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

That's like an expired domain, okay? You're basically starting from that point instead of having to start as a noob who's never been in a gym before.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

Now to be fair, it's also gonna cost you money. You can buy a brand new domain for like $15 DEP what registrar you use, right? But if you're buying an expired domain or an existing domain with lots of authority, it's going to be a lot more than $15. So just FYI, kind of costs money. Obviously the reason they cost money is because they have authority and everybody wants them. There is a demand for them. When there is a demand for something, it costs more money, okay? It's like a stock. When a stock company becomes more valuable. Well, you know, kind of when the price of a stock is going up because everybody wants to buy it, that makes the price of the stock go up, okay? When a domain has authority because everybody wants to buy it, its price goes up, okay? So often you will get these at auctions, for example, GoDaddy. And I'm not recommending them, I'm just telling you GoDaddy has auctions where you can buy expired domains. There are different websites you can use where you can find expired domains for sale at multiple registrars, okay? They are usually, but not always auctions, okay? You're probably going to bid a lot for the good ones because other people know that they are good. So I want you to be aware, that's how it happens. And as a side note here, there's another option. And that is, well, this is, this is kind of like option two, which is to buy backlinks, right? But you can, you can rent backlinks on other people's private blog portfolios, okay? It can be expensive, but in the short term it's much cheaper than buying your own. If, for example, you're going to buy a domain for $500, okay, you could probably rent links on a $500 domain for less than $500 per year, okay? Now in the long run that's going to cost more than than it would be if you had bought it yourself outright from the beginning. But maybe you want to save money in the short Term. I'm just telling you that's an option. That's how my agency does it, okay? A lot of what we do is rent backlinks on our portfolio of authoritative domains, okay? We've been doing this for a very long time because it is a good way to do SEO. So, I mean, like, I'm just being honest with you guys. Anyways, so you have to buy the domains auction and if you want to know the specifics of things to look for, go listen to episode three, okay? But there's a lot of stuff that you need to look for. You need to see how much authority it has. You need to see how old it is. You need to see how many previous owners it has had. You need to make sure there is nothing suspicious going on. You need to look at what kind of content was on that site before you bought it. You need to look at what kind of terms are in the links that are linking to it. And you need to look at what kind of links it made to other sites, okay? Because many guys, this is, this is very significant. Pay attention. There are many sites on the Internet that have been used for spam and different things that you are not interested in, okay? So you need to rule out all of these things. Many websites have been used for things like gambling and pharmacy and other adult type topics and you do not want to use those in your portfolio, okay? So you need to do a thorough check into any domain before you even consider buying it. And we talk about that in episode three if you're interested. But I'm trying to keep this episode short, so we're not going to go into that now, okay? So you find some sites and it's very hard. Most of the websites that have expired and that are at auction are trash and you do not want them, okay? And the reason they expired is because they were used for things that, that probably are not going to be the best choice moving forward for a portfolio of authoritative blogs, okay? So you need to make sure sometimes you won't find any for a while. Sometimes you might find a lot. But I want you to be very clear, don't think that there's a huge selection and you can just take your pick because nobody wants the bad ones and everybody wants the good ones.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

So anyway, you eventually identify these domains and you buy them. Okay? Cool. Yay. Now you own some domains. Now what are you going to do? The next thing you have to do is find hosting for these domains. This is very important. Do not skip this section or you're probably not going to do it the way you're supposed to. Listen, you remember in the beginning of this episode when I talked about a footprint?

[Listener]

Okay.

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

One of the things that so many people don't do, right, is they will host all of the sites on the same shared hosting account. Why is this a problem? If you have all of your sites, let's say, for example, you have five sites. Just picking a number, right? If you have five sites and they're all on a shared hosting account, what does that mean? It means they're all on the same IP address and they're all on the same server.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

If they're all on the same IP address that says, hey, these are all owned by the same person, that's a footprint.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

The short version is you need different hosting for every site, and there's more specifics that you need to pay attention to when it comes to IP addresses and hosting.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

But that's episode four. If you want to learn more about this in specific detail, listen to episode four, okay? Because we're trying to keep this episode short. Okay? But basically, you need to make sure that you're not on what's called C class hosting, okay? And to be clear, not the technical definition of C class hosting, there's a difference. Different definition that's used for SEO. So let me explain this really quick. An IP address is four numbers, okay? It's something dot something, dot something, dot something.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

It's four numbers. All right? Let's say, for example, you have an IP address that is 200.180.40. I just made that up. I don't even know what website that is. I literally just made that up. Okay, so what did I say? 200. 180.40. Okay, great. So that first number in this case is referred to. And this is not the legitimate definition. This is how it's used in the SEO industry.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

So you don't need to email me and say, grumpy SEO guy, you're wrong. I know that. This is not what it means. This is the way it's used in the SEO industry. So the first number is referred to as the A class.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

So in this case, it would be 200. The second number is referred to as the B class.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

So we have 100. The third number is referred to as the C class 80. And the fourth number is referred to as the D class 40. Okay? So it's A, B, C, D. Okay? C class hosting refers to IP addresses for numerous sites where the first two numbers are the same. And they don't change until the third number.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

People think that this is like a clever way to build their private blog portfolios, but it's not, because it just means that you have a block of IP addresses on a certain server and it's obvious that some person owns all of them. So don't do it that way. A lot of SEO hosting companies offer this, by the way. Stay away from SEO hosting companies. I gave this advice on episode four when I was talking about hosting, and I'm gonna give this advice again. I do not care what the website says. I do not care what your rationality is. Not work with any hosting company who even offers or mentions SEO hosting on their website.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

You can do it if you want, but I am strongly suggesting not to because it might undermine all of your efforts. We don't need to go into it any more than that.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

So you need different hosting for all of your sites so it doesn't look like they're run by the same person. Because if they are run by the same person, they. That's a footprint. And if the same person has a lot of sites that are all linking to some other site, that's a footprint. Your SEO efforts are going to backfire and you're not going to rank. You might get a penalty, and then you're going to be frustrated because you didn't do it correctly. So just make sure you have different IP addresses. Okay? Now let's assume you have your sites and they're all hosted correctly.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

The next thing that you need to do is put content on them correctly. I heavily recommend that you do not duplicate the previous site.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

Fans of the podcast always ask this question. They say, hey, so should we just, like, copy the other site that was on the domain before? No. That sounds like a lawsuit. I would definitely not do that.

[Listener]

Okay.

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

I would definitely not do it. I would not. Let me say this again, do not do it.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

It's a bad idea anyways. So now you've got your sites, you've got your domains, and you've got them hosted.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

It's time to put content on your site. We recommend using WordPress, but you can do whatever you want. You can do anything you want. I just say use WordPress because it's easy and numerous people know how to use it. So I don't know, maybe you don't, but it's not really that hard. Even though they keep changing it and whatever. Just use WordPress or don't. It doesn't matter. Somebody's gonna say, is WordPress on all your sites a footprint? I don't think so. Cause like, I think like half the sites on the Internet use WordPress. It's not half, but like, you know, it's like multiple websites on the Internet use WordPress. It's very trendy for a reason. I don't think it's a problem if you build a portfolio and every site uses WordPress. Now obviously put a different theme on all your sites. Here's the main thing people don't do correctly, okay? The advice I always give is make a regular looking website. For some reason and I don't know why people make weird looking PBN sites or private blog portfolio sites or whatever. They just, I, I can't even explain it, but I can tell when I view their site. If I can tell from looking at your site that it's part of a PBN or it was built to build backlinks. Okay, how about that? If I can tell that it was, that it was built to create backlinks, probably so can anybody else who's analyzing it and it's probably not going to work.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

So what's the difference? Okay, so, so a good private blog network site should look like a regular website that you would see on the Internet.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

That's my best advice to you. With that said, here's some general advice. You're gonna want to start putting some posts on the site before you build links to your client sites.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

It could be 2, it could be 10, it could be whatever. But you should put some posts on the site before you start linking out because otherwise it would look weird if your first post on every site goes to a specific site that you're trying to rank higher. Do you think this is a footprint? Probably. Try not to do it that way. Okay, great. So I don't want this to be a really long episode, so I'm just gonna do this kind of quickly right now. You do not want to create content or links on a site that makes it look like you're doing the same thing on multiple sites.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

So do them differently. Make your posts different lengths. Well, how many words should a post be? How many words is a post on a normal site? I don't give people specific numbers because then everybody creates PBN sites that look exactly the same and that would give it away, wouldn't it? So, no. How many words does a post on a normal site have? I don't know. Figure it out and that's the answer.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

I don't want a bunch of robots Making identical sites, that would be bad for everybody. Everybody. It's the same reason I don't recommend WordPress themes or plugins or anything. Oh, plugins. Okay, let's talk about plugins for a second. When you create your site on WordPress or whatever, you need to look again. I don't care what you do with the site, but you need a plugin that will do the following. You need a plugin that will 301.

[Listener]

Okay.

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

You know 301 is a redirection. It means when somebody lands on a page and you don't want them on that page for some reason, you redirect them to another page.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

You need a plugin that will redirect all pages that are not there.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

All 404 errors to the homepage. Why? Because there's gonna be a lot of pages that used to exist when the site was managed by the last owner.

[Listener]

Okay.

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

They're not gonna be there anymore because you're not duplicating the site. So there are still going to be links to those pages. And you don't want somebody to get a page not found message. So you are going to redirect those to the homepage. This will provide authority back to the homepage.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

Are you with me? Does this make sense so far? Anyways, I feel like what I've said so far is a good intro to building a private blog portfolio. Let me know what else you want. If you want to know more about managing the blogs, listen to episode five. Okay, so anyway, look, I think the amount of information that I've provided in those episodes is sufficient for you to do this. We have at least a few listeners, and I know, because I've talked to them, we have at least a few listeners who have done this for themselves and for SEO companies. They have started. Okay, Sometimes they have specific questions and they want to book an advisory call, okay, which is a paid call where they ask me questions and I answer their questions. But those were like very specific cases where they had questions about things that maybe we didn't cover that, you know, don't necessarily have significance to everybody. But if you want. I don't really advertise this very much, but if you actually listen to this much of the podcast, because I feel like this is a long one and even though people say they want longer up and they don't actually listen to the entire thing, if you made it this far and you want to book an advisory call, you can email [e-mail] youm have to pay because I charge for my time, but I don't charge for my information, which is why the podcast is free. At least for right now. So anyway, like half joking anyways, okay, so this is a lot of information and if you are a beginner feasibly you understand better how building a private blog portfolio works. Those of you that are more experienced, maybe this was a good review. Anyway, I hope this was helpful. Thanks for listening. Don't forget to subscribe and if you enjoy this podcast, please leave a review. It would really help the show out. I hope this episode was helpful. If you have any questions or want to suggest a subject for a future episode, you can contact me on Reddit. My username is Grumpy SEO Guy. You can visit the Grumpy SEO Guy subreddit or you can email [e-mail] if you email me, please either whitelist my email address or check your junk folders because I've been told that my replies are going into the junk folder and it's probably because we're talking about things like SEO and backlinks, and I think those words will classify an email as spam. And if you want to support the podcast because it's the best source of SEO information on the planet and it's free, you can do [e-mail] grumpy SEO guy and I will talk to you later. You're listening to Grumpy SEO Guy, the SEO podcast that doesn't waste your time with nonsense that doesn't work. Join us next Wednesday for another episode. Sam.