Choosing domain names and setting up a private blog network (PBN) is fairly easy–the real challenge begins when you start to build it. Building a PBN needs to be done carefully. If your hosting service leaves footprints, Google and other search engines can easily detect your clever search engine optimization (SEO) tactics and derank all your sites immediately. If this happens, you’ll lose all your hard work in seconds. 

For that very reason, it’s best to buy PBN domains from footprint-free providers. Below is an explanation of how you can find a safe hosting service for your PBN, as well as other factors to consider.

What Are SEO Footprints?

SEO footprints refer to identifiers or imprints your website leaves on the internet that are evidence of your existence on the internet and how you engage with it.Your IP address, hosting service, content management system, domain name owner, content, and other identifiers act as your SEO footprints. 

Google and other search engines are constantly looking out for suspicious footprints to locate websites that are ranking by using black hat SEO techniques. As soon as they recognize that indexes are being manipulated, they demote the site, and it becomes difficult to regain traffic. Some of the types of footprints that can harm your website are:

  • Duplicate content
  • Same blog author for all posts or an Admin author
  • Multiple domains on one IP address
  • Domains registered on the same day
  • Blocked crawlers and spiders
  • Same hosting service for all your sites
  • Hidden domain registrants
  • Identical nameservers

Do Footprints of Expired Domains Matter?

Yes–remember, footprints aren’t a bad thing. Your goal is to leave behind the right “footprints” to make a domain look as legitimate as possible. In fact, you should look into buying expired domains with traffic and clean footprints. Just make sure the website isn’t being penalized for questionable practices.

Footprints are only bad for PBNs if they make it obvious that domains are being used as part of a privately-owned network. You don’t want Google to think you’ve taken a shortcut, so it is important to learn PBN link-building basics.

Types of PBN Hosting Services

There are three types of PBN hosting services:

Reseller Hosting

This is when a third party sells web hosting services to you. Basically, the third party buys an expensive plan directly from a hosting company and then resells each account separately—collecting a commission on each transaction.

The bottom line is you have to be careful when purchasing hosting services from resellers. Ask them for PBN accounts one at a time–if you ask them for three accounts at once, there’s a chance they may share accounts with the same address. This, in turn, could leave an undesirable footprint.

Reputable Shared Hosting

Reputable shared hosting services will assign you different IP addresses and servers for each website. This way, you will have multiple unrelated accounts and one address for each blog in your PBN. However, setup and continuous management can be a big hassle with this kind of setup.

SEO Hosting

SEO hosting services cater to marketing accounts. They work on hiding identities by hiding IP addresses; however, Google knows the tricks these services use. Therefore, it’s not a great option if you’re looking to build a PBN for long-term use.

Managed Hosting

By far, managed PBN hosting services are the best. Although they are more expensive, they arrange footprint-free, themed, and well-managed sites.

How to Choose the Best PBN Hosting Service

When looking for a PBN provider, you should opt for a service offering C-class IP addresses. It’s an added advantage if they also offer addresses from A-blocks and B-blocks.

In addition, you’ll know it’s a reputable hosting platform if they make setup and management easy. A good hosting service, such as Easy Blog Networks, will set up footprint-free blogs for you and bring all that you need to one platform. 

If you find yourself switching between platforms, adjusting themes, managing plugins, and struggling to keep your PBN intact, the platform is not the right service for you. What’s more, hosting sites that use Content Delivery Networks are relatively safe from Google’s grasp, so it’s a good idea to look for one of those.