PBN Hosting – 4 Ways to Create a Network Without Leaving a Trace

  • 06 апреля 2021

Building PBNs is a rather labor-intensive work that consists of many stages from looking for a domain to posting the content and distributing the projects among hosting services.

All that takes a lot of effort, money, and time. Now imagine spending several thousand dollars, months of team efforts on searching for drops and recovering them only for Google to reduce your whole resource to nothing rendering all the work you’ve done worthless.

Your PBN sites that are incorrectly hosted on the same service are akin to:

  • All eggs in one basket
  • A house of cards
  • Domino effect

By tracing the footprints that link all the sites into one PBN, Google pessimizes them. You can be sure of that.

In this article, we will tell you how to preserve the work you put into creating a PBN.

Obvious Footprints

 

1. Services That Advertise PBN Hosting

First of all, it’s important to understand that search engines do not approve of creating PBNs. They say as much right in their blog.

Therefore, it is unwise to use platforms that boldly advertise their PBN hosting services.

Employees of Google, Bing, and other search engines are most likely registered on such platforms. The list of their IP address ranges will be the first to be deindexed. That much is obvious.

pbn hosting

2. Blocking Majestic, Moz, and Ahrefs Web Crawlers

There are many companies that offer services of blocking search indexing by Majestic, Moz, and Ahrefs robots. You can also achieve this using robots.txt and other ways. But it’s a double-edged sword.

On the one hand, this should protect your network of sites from being scanned by competitors who might file a complaint against you with Google.

On the other hand, it’s a highly specialized practice used by SEO specialists to cover their tracks. How often do you think such blocks are implemented on ordinary sites?

That’s right. Ordinary sites don’t use them at all.

Moreover, Google already uses another user agent to scan content hidden from the Googlebot crawler.

Thus, in an attempt to hide PBN links from competitors, you end up making them appear suspicious to search engines and more likely to be sanctioned.

3. Specialists’ MO

Ideally, one network of sites should be created by several different specialists. A single specialist tends to do things on autopilot without even noticing, leaving footprints behind as a result.

4. Analytics systems

The use of analytics systems on PBN sites is kind of like bringing a spy through all the lines of defense to your HQ, where you’re devising a plan of attack on the enemy. Analytics systems track and transmit all the data related to your site by default.

5. Groundhog Day

All the work and changes done to different sites of the same PBN on the same day are footprints. Starting from drop catching and registering domains and ending with adding content. Work on the sites of the same network on different days.

pbn mem

6. Contact Info

Using the same phone numbers, emails, and addresses on different sites of the same network is also a footprint that will quickly be recognized by search engines.

7. Copying Projects

Using the same algorithms for creating PBNs on all sites. Namely:

  1. Site structure
  2. Number of pages
  3. Contact form
  4. Design template

If you keep using the same templates, your network will be deindexed. It’s just a matter of time.

“Less mindless monotony, more personal touches.”

8. Domain Name Registrars

Working with a single domain name registrar also leaves traces when creating networks. Try to diversify the list using different services.

9. “All Roads Lead to Rome Ban”

When all your PBN sites have just one external link to your money site

pbn facepalm 1

When in addition to that all the links have the same anchor text.

pbn facepalm 2

If you combine the two, prepare to receive a medal from the professional community and get deindexed by Google.

Don’t hesitate to place links to reputable sites on each PBN in different quantities and with different anchor texts.

10. One-armed Bandit

Do not use the same set of programs, devices, and software when working with PBNs. Create a spreadsheet to keep track of which IPs, browsers, and devices you use to make changes on particular sites. Accessing the Internet from the same IP, browser, and device is a footprint when working with PBNs.

 

Types of PBN Hosting

Currently, the market offers the following PBN hosting options. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Everything is quite subjective. Therefore, let your needs and capabilities guide your choice. Based on their structure, the offers can be classified into the following types:

  1. Shared Web Hosting
  2. Virtual Private Servers (VPS)
  3. Cloud Hosting
  4. Dedicated Server

Shared Web Hosting

This is a great option if you have a small number of projects.

Advantages of shared hosting:

  1. No need to set up a VPS
  2. A good way to protect the network. Such hosting services are used by thousands of companies around the world.
  3. All sites in the network will not go down at the same time.
  4. Different hosting services, hence unique IPs, NS records, and provider names.

 

Disadvantages of shared hosting:

  1. Cost
  2. Projects will be difficult to manage due to the number of hosting services
  3. Maintaining a large PBN is labor-intensive
  4. Can go down a couple of times a month due to poor quality

  

Available Options

GoDaddy, Bluehost, HostGator. HostMonster.

 

Unit Economics

Cost of maintaining 10 PBN sites

10 sites * $5 * 12 months = $600

 

Virtual Private Servers

A great option for hosting a large number of PBN sites.

Advantages of VPS:

  1. You will not share the same IP address with other sites
  2. You can buy a variety of IP addresses
  3. They are reliable providers that host thousands of high-quality sites
  4. Due to fierce competition, dumping has brought down the cost of services of the largest providers. Low prices starting from $3-10 a month

 

Disadvantages of VPS:

  1. Experience in managing VPS hosting is required
  2. All IP addresses can be on the same subnet
  3. Managing projects will pose significant challenges for a beginner
  4. If the server fails, PBNs can leave a footprint by going down and recovering all at the same time.
  5. Identical NS records and name of the hosting company for all the sites on the network

 

Available Options

Vultr, OVH, digitalocean, Linode,

 

Unit Economics

On average 1 VPS can handle 10 PBN sites

VPS price = $8 * 12 months = $96 / year

 

Where Else to Look

lowendbox.com, vpsboard.com, and lowendstock.com

When choosing a provider, pay attention to the number of years in the industry. Unfortunately, many companies go broke or resell their customers to competitors, unable to withstand the price wars.

 

Cloud Hosting

Cloud hosting allows to configure and host static websites on powerful servers such as Amazon S3 and Google Cloud

 

Advantages of Cloud Hosting:

  1. Costs $6 per year

 

Disadvantages of Cloud Hosting:

  1. Having to figure out how to configure a static website on S3 using Route 53.

 

Unit Economics

Cost of maintaining 10 PBN sites

10 sites * $6 * 12 months = $720

 

Dedicated Server

Worth considering for large projects from 100 to 1000 PBN sites. Running a dedicated server involves using Cloudflare to mask the IP address.

Many PBN builders have started using Cloudflare to hide the real IP address. This is due to the fact that setting up a separate hosting for each PBN site takes a lot of effort.

A decent solution was found – to configure all PBN sites to run on a single IP address and additionally use Cloudflare to hide the real IP address.

This solution still works. But! Just for now. The word is that you can track real IP addresses on Cloudflare. There is a project called CrimeFlare that can reveal the real IP address of your hidden PBN site. They also allow you to download their entire database.

 

Advantages of Server + Cloudflare:

  1. Different NS records and IPs
  2. Advanced configuration options
  3. Almost wholesale price of $70-120 for 100 projects

 

Disadvantages of Server + Cloudflare:

  1. CrimeFlare can track real IP addresses (all on the same subnet)
  2. All PBNs will go down at the same time
  3. Heavy traffic requires additional payment.

 

Unit Economics

Cost of maintaining 200 PBNs (capacity for 1 server)

1server * $80 * 12 months = $960 / year (200 PBNs)

960 / 20 = $48 / year (10 PBNs)

 

Available Options

OVH, Hetzner, kimsufi, soyoustart,

 

Where Else to Look

vds.menu

 

Please note that you must first connect the server to Cloudflare and only then attach the domain.

Summing Up

Choose PBN hosting based on:

  1. The number of your projects
  2. The size of your team
  3. The profit you want to generate with 1 PBN
  4. Your obligations to customers

 

Remember!

If you configure everything correctly, keep all the footprints in mind, and don’t cheap out on the hosting, then no manual reviewer will be able to determine that a link to your site is from a PBN site.

Unless you tell them yourself:)

A PBN site should look like it's just a regular website. Therefore, do not block crawlers, follow all the recommendations, and the network will serve you and generate income for a long time. Leave all the backlinks out in the open. Don't hide them.

If you did everything right, no one will figure out which sites and links are part of a PBN.

Good luck with your projects.