Note: This content has been developed for a case study that is part of another blog. The information here shouldn’t be treated as 100% accurate.
At one time, Private Blog Networks were all the rage. In fact, it wasn’t so much about being private, there were Public Blog Networks that were making gobs of money. That is until Google’s Panda and Penguin update hit the street, which soon put a stop to that.
So are there any best practices for a private blog network to stay under big G’s radar. Sure there are, and we’ll explore what some of those are in the next section.
Best Practices For a Private Blog Network
In simple terms, a private blog network is nothing more then a series of sites that you own that you use for SEO purposes. The theory goes, that if you have links from these various blogs, that all point back to your key blog, you should be able to leverage the link juice that is passed and that will benefit your primary blog, or your money blog.
So let’s take a look at some of the best practices for a private blog network.
- Ensure you have a sufficient number of domains that are hosted on different providers networks. This will ensure you have a different c class IP address
- Be sure you leverage purchasing expired domains that are in your niche. This will help you take advantage of any links that existed to those expiring domains
- You’ll need at least 5 – 10 different blogs as part of your network
- Treat these blogs with respect. Meaning, you’ll want to build content that looks real. This is probably one of the most important best practices for a private blog network. Google has penalized sites in the past that have “thin content”, meaning the content on these sites isn’t very good. If you build good content on your private network, and I mean content that has a minimum of 300 words per blog post, you’ll be fine.
- Post often. You’ll want to make this look like a normal blog
- Don’t link your private network together. Each should be a stand alone site, that all link back to your main site.
Those are some of the things that I’ve been able to come up with related to best practices for a private blog network. If you treat your network as a normal blog, which does take quite a bit of work, you shouldn’t have any issues with Google.