Google Penalizes PBN users

PBNs stands for Private Blog Networks and despite the name, these blog networks are not private. The pages from these sites are indexed and can be viewed by the public. However, the private aspect of these groups of sites is that the content comes from a sole content producer and those content target search engine algorithms rather than a real audience. The aim of having several websites is to feed links to each other in order to generate an artificial pageRank increase.

Google’s recent algorithm change is targeting sites involved in the manipulation of search algorithms such as the copying or artificial production of content with solely an SEO intent. Assumptions are that Google would not penalize a content producer running several sites as long as the content produced is legitimately useful and researched.

This recent algorithm change has hit several sites, especially those who have used PBNs as a SEO tactic. On the other hand, some might argue that certain webmasters might not be aware of the fact that they are indulging in PBN tactics. An example of this could be someone owning several businesses with unique domains and websites. If some of those sites are linked to each other and share some of the same contents, then this can be tagged as a PBN from Google’s point of view.

This goes to show that the most effective way of avoid penalty from Google is to produce original and informative content.