PBNs are a black hat SEO technique whereby network owners build links to their own sites and use them to improve the search rankings of other websites. This goes against Google’s Webmaster guidelines, which recommend that you only acquire links organically.

The problem with this is that if you’re not careful, you might find that your pbn site is discovered by Google and penalized. This can range from a ranking demotion to being removed from the Google index altogether. It’s possible that you might be able to recover from this by fixing the problems and submitting a reconsideration request, but the process is time-consuming and expensive.

PBN Sites: How to Use Them for Maximum SEO Benefits

This is why it’s important to check your backlink profile regularly using tools like Ahrefs. You’ll want to look for links that seem unnatural and have a disproportionate number of exact-match keywords. In addition, you’ll want to check the domains of the sites that are linking to yours. If they’re registered through privacy protection services, it’s a red flag that they may be PBNs.

In short, pbn sites are networks of blogs that are used to manipulate search engine results by manually creating links. They’re risky, unethical, and can be extremely costly if Google discovers them. In addition, they put the credibility and long-term sustainability of your website at risk. Luckily, search engines are constantly improving their algorithms to detect and punish these types of manipulative tactics. This is good news for consumers but bad news for those who use PBNs to gain a competitive advantage.