What WordPress maintenance actually involves: the weekly, monthly and yearly tasks, safe updates, backups that survive, security that matters, and what to do when something breaks.
Advanced Copywriting Techniques Are you looking for ways to make your copywriting stand out from the crowd? This article provides an in-depth look at the techniques used by experienced copywriters
Fun Facts About Buying Likes Did you know the option to get automatic Instagram likes is available? This is a marketing technique that people have been using for a few
Finding Free “Abandoned Content” That You Can Use On Your Site Tens of thousands of domains expire every day, but what happens to the content that’s on those sites? It
Buying High Authority Expired Domains: 11 Best Sites The necessity of domain names is non-ignorable when it comes to getting an online space for your website. And for this, we
The Ultimate Private Blog Network Guide for Dummies PBNs or Private blog networks are currently the best and most effective way to build backlinks that stick and bring results. This
WordPress maintenance is the work that keeps a site running after it is built: updates, backups, security, performance and the checks that catch a problem before a visitor does.
It gets skipped because a WordPress site keeps working for a long time without it. Then one update collides with one plugin, or a form stops sending and nobody notices for five weeks, and the cost of the skipped hour turns out to be considerable.
This is what the work actually is, how often each part needs doing, and which parts matter most if you only have an hour a month.
A WordPress site is not one piece of software. It is WordPress core, a theme, usually fifteen to thirty plugins, a PHP version, a database and a web server, all made by different people on different release schedules.
Every one of those moves. Plugins release fixes, core releases security updates, hosts upgrade PHP, browsers change what they accept. A site that is never touched is not standing still, it is drifting away from everything around it.
Two specific pressures make this urgent rather than theoretical. Known vulnerabilities in outdated plugins are published, which means an unpatched site is on a list that automated scanners work through. And an old PHP version eventually stops receiving security fixes, after which the host will move you whether you are ready or not.
Fifteen minutes, and most of it can be automated into alerts so you only look when something is wrong.
Uptime monitoring is free and it catches the failure that costs the most. Check the homepage, but also one inner page and one that runs a query, because a site can serve a cached homepage long after the database has stopped answering.
The most common silent failure on a business site. A plugin update, an SMTP token expiring or a host blocking mail is enough, and nothing visible breaks. Send a real test through every form that matters and confirm the message arrives in the inbox it should.
Read what each update says before applying it. A security release goes on immediately. A major version that rewrites a page builder waits for a moment when you can test it.
Clear the queue so genuine comments are not buried, and watch for a sudden jump, which usually means a form or a login endpoint has been found by a bot.
Not that it is scheduled. That it ran, and that the file has a plausible size. A backup plugin that has been failing quietly for two months is worse than no backup, because you believed you had one.
Minor core releases are safe and should not be left. Major ones are worth a staging test if the site is complex. Theme updates need care if the theme was customised, which is why those changes belong in a child theme rather than in the theme files. The WordPress documentation on updating covers the order and the rollback.
Post revisions, expired transients, spam comments, orphaned metadata and tables left behind by plugins that were removed years ago. On an older site this is often the single biggest easy win, and a database that has halved in size backs up and restores faster too.
Internal links break when pages are renamed, and external ones break on their own. Pull the 404 report, fix the internal ones at source rather than with redirects where you can, and redirect the ones that have inbound links.
Measure the same three pages every month so you have a trend rather than a number. A site that slowly degrades over a year is the normal pattern, and it is usually caused by added plugins, uncompressed images and a database that nobody has cleaned.
Check who still has an account and what they can do. The developer who left in March, the agency that finished last year, the subscriber account created by a bot. Everybody should have the lowest role that lets them do their job.
Count them, and for each one answer whether it is still used, still maintained and still worth the weight. A plugin with no update in two years and an open support forum full of unanswered threads is a liability waiting for its turn.
Check what your site runs and whether that version is still supported. The PHP project publishes its support dates, and running past them means security fixes have stopped. Test on staging before moving, because old code and old plugins are where the breakage lives.
Restore the backup to a staging site and look at it. This is the task everyone skips and it is the only one that proves the rest of the backup strategy works. Do it once a quarter and you will find the problem on a Tuesday afternoon instead of during an outage.
Premium plugins, the theme, the SSL certificate if it is not automatic, the domain. An expired plugin licence usually keeps working while quietly stopping updates, which is the worst possible failure mode because nothing appears to be wrong.
Which pages bring traffic, which ones have quietly died, what is out of date, and what the search console is complaining about. This is where maintenance stops being defensive and starts earning something.
Almost every maintenance disaster is an update applied without a way back. The method that avoids it is not complicated.
One more rule that saves more sites than any of the above: never edit theme or plugin files directly. The next update overwrites the change and the bug appears weeks later with no obvious cause. Use a child theme or a small custom plugin.
Almost every site has backups. Far fewer have backups that would survive the event they are for.
A reasonable target for a small business site is daily backups kept off site for thirty days, with a restore tested every quarter. That is not expensive and it removes the category of problem that ends companies.
Most WordPress compromises are not clever. They come through an outdated plugin, a weak password or a plugin downloaded from somewhere it should not have been.
The WordPress project keeps a hardening guide covering file permissions and server level settings for anyone who wants to go further.
Sites get slower by accretion. Nobody makes a decision to slow a site down, it just gathers weight.
A short list covers most emergencies, and knowing it in advance is the difference between ten minutes and a ruined day.
Usually a fatal PHP error from a plugin or theme. Turn on debug logging to a file rather than to the screen, read the last error, and deactivate the named plugin by renaming its folder over FTP or the file manager if you cannot reach the dashboard.
Often the server rather than WordPress. Check the host error log, and check whether a recent edit to .htaccess is the cause. Renaming that file and resaving permalinks resolves a surprising number of them.
Reset the password through the database or create a user through a hosting tool. A security plugin that has blocked your own address is a common cause, and the block is usually cleared from the same plugin’s tables.
Clear every cache, including the plugin cache, the host cache and the CDN. If it persists, roll the plugin back to its previous version and report it to the developer rather than living with it.
Something is loading over HTTP on an HTTPS page, almost always a hard coded image URL in old content. Fix it in the database with a search and replace rather than with a plugin that rewrites every page on the fly.
For a simple site with a handful of plugins, an hour a month is genuinely enough, and the checklist above is the hour.
It stops being enough when the site makes money, when downtime costs more than the fee, when there is a shop or a membership involved, or when nobody internally wants to be responsible for a restore at nine on a Sunday evening.
If you are buying it, the questions worth asking are specific:
A plan that cannot answer the first and the last of those is selling an update button with a subscription attached.
The least technical item here and the one that pays off most.
Write down what was updated, when, and what broke. Six months later it answers the only question that matters during an incident, which is what changed. It also makes handovers possible, and it turns maintenance from a vague obligation into a record of work that a client can see.
A dated list in a document is enough. The tool does not matter.
You do not need many, and adding more plugins to solve maintenance is its own problem. Five categories cover it.
One plugin or, better, a host level backup with off site storage. What matters is the destination and the retention, not the brand. If the only copy lives in the same hosting account, it is not a backup, it is a convenience.
External, so it is not running on the server it is watching. Set it to check more than the homepage, because a cached homepage can look healthy while everything behind it is failing.
Most decent hosts include one click staging. If yours does not, that is a reason to look at the hosting rather than a reason to update live and hope.
One plugin, not three. Two security plugins running scans against each other produce false alarms and a slow dashboard, and neither is better than one configured properly.
An activity log plugin, or just a document. When a site breaks, the first question is what changed, and a log answers it in seconds.
In practice, a monthly maintenance hour on a normal business site runs roughly like this.
The reason it fits in an hour is that the heavy work happened once, when backups, staging, monitoring and roles were set up properly. Sites where maintenance takes a whole morning every month are usually sites where that setup was never done.
The approach changes once you are past about three sites, because doing the same hour five times stops being realistic.
That standardisation is also what makes the work sellable. A process that is the same on every site can be explained, priced and handed to somebody else.
Updates to core, theme and plugins, backups that are stored off site and tested, security checks, database cleanup, performance monitoring, broken link fixes and confirmation that forms and key pages still work.
Weekly for uptime, forms, plugin updates and backup confirmation. Monthly for core and theme updates, database cleanup, 404s, performance and user accounts. Quarterly for PHP version, restore tests and licence renewals.
The site keeps working until it does not. Known plugin vulnerabilities are published and scanned for automatically, so an unpatched site is a target, and eventually the host will move you to a newer PHP version that old code may not survive.
For minor core releases and security fixes, yes. For major plugin versions and anything that touches a page builder or a shop, no, because those need a staging test and a way back.
Back up first, use staging for anything significant, apply updates in small batches, check the live site logged out afterwards, and keep a way to roll a single plugin back to its previous version.
Somewhere other than the hosting account, because a backup on the same server disappears with the account. Keep files and database together, hold several generations, and restore one every quarter to prove it works.
Usually accumulation: more plugins, uncompressed images, a database full of revisions and expired transients, and a caching setup that stopped matching the site. Measuring the same pages monthly shows the trend.
A fatal PHP error, almost always from a plugin or theme. Enable debug logging to a file, read the last error, and deactivate the named plugin by renaming its folder if you cannot reach the dashboard.
You can, and the next update will overwrite the change. Use a child theme for template changes and a small custom plugin for functionality so your work survives updates.
It depends on what downtime costs you. For a simple brochure site, an hour a month in house is enough. For anything that takes payments or generates leads, the fee is usually less than one lost day.
If you do nothing else from this page, do three things: get backups off the server, put two factor authentication on the administrator accounts, and send a test through your contact form. Those three cover the failures that cost the most and take about twenty minutes between them.
More from us: advanced copywriting techniques to boost your SEO.
Are you looking for ways to make your copywriting stand out from the crowd? This article provides an in-depth look at the techniques used by experienced copywriters to create effective, attention-grabbing content.
We’ll cover topics such as identifying your target audience, leveraging storytelling, using active voice, and testing and optimizing. By implementing these strategies, you can take your copywriting to the next level and capture more readers’ attention.
Read on to learn how you can write words that boost your SEO!
Knowing your target audience is a key element of effective copywriting. By understanding your readers’ needs, interests, and pain points, you can craft content that speaks to them directly and resonates strongly with their experiences.
Take time to research your target audience and what they want in your content. Consider the age range, gender, location, interests, and other factors that will help you develop an accurate picture of your readers to tailor your message to them.
When writing copy for SEO, one of the most important rules is to keep it simple. Don’t try to be too clever with your words – focus on making your message clear and concise.
Your content should be easy to read and understand so that your readers can quickly digest the information. Use short sentences and paragraphs, and avoid complex words or phrases. The goal is to ensure both search engine bots and human readers easily understand your message.
Keeping your copy simple will help ensure that your content is picked up by search engines, resulting in higher rankings and more website traffic.
A strong call-to-action (CTA) can differentiate between a successful website and one that fails to convert its visitors into customers. CTAs should be clear, concise, and relevant to your target audience to capture their attention and encourage them to take action.
To create an effective CTA, consider what you want people to do after reading your content, such as signing up for a newsletter or downloading a free report. Ensure the CTA is easy to understand and visible on the page, so it’s not overlooked.
Additionally, consider adding incentives to increase conversions, such as offering discounts or exclusive access.
With the right CTA, you can turn more of your website visitors into leads and customers.
Storytelling is a powerful tool for copywriters to capture their readers’ attention and draw them into the main message. Leveraging storytelling in your writing can help create an emotional connection with the reader, which can be especially useful in SEO. By crafting compelling stories around your keywords or subject matter, you can effectively increase the chances that readers will click through to your website.
Storytelling techniques such as creating vivid characters and settings, using sensory language, and establishing conflict can help make your content more engaging and memorable, thus boosting its SEO potential.
Regarding copywriting for SEO, including specific data can be an effective way to improve your ranking. Specific data from statistics, studies, and research findings can add authority and credibility to a website or blog post.
Not only does this help to demonstrate that you are knowledgeable about the topic at hand, but it also helps to give readers more confidence in the accuracy of your content. Furthermore, including specific data can help draw attention to key facts and figures and make them easier to remember. As such, using specific data as part of your copywriting strategy can be a great way to boost your SEO.
Using an active voice in your copywriting is essential for optimizing your SEO and ensuring your content gets noticed. Using an active voice lets you quickly and clearly communicate your message to readers.
When written correctly, using an active voice will help keep readers engaged, allowing them to understand better the point you’re trying to make without any confusion or ambiguity. Additionally, using an active voice helps make sentences shorter and easier to read, improving your search engine rankings.
Jargon can be confusing and off-putting for readers and likely cause them to lose interest in your writing. Instead, focus on using simple language that your readers can easily understand. This will make your content more accessible and help ensure that they read through to the end. Additionally, avoid using overly technical words or industry-specific terms, as these are also likely to alienate your audience.
One of the most important things you can do is focus on your product or service’s benefits. This helps potential customers understand what makes your offer unique and why they should choose you over a competitor.
By emphasizing the positive features and advantages of your products or services, you’ll be able to draw in more leads and convert them into sales. Additionally, focusing on the benefits will help to improve your SEO because people are more likely to search for words associated with the benefits than those related to features.
Consistency is an important element of effective copywriting. Not only does it help ensure that your message is clear and consistent throughout your entire piece, but it can also help boost your SEO.
For example, if you are writing about a particular topic or product, use the same terms and phrases throughout your content to create keyword consistency. This will help search engines easily recognize the relevance of your content and rank it higher in organic search results. Additionally, keep your style and tone consistent throughout your copy as well; this will make your piece more appealing and engaging to readers.
Consistent with your copywriting techniques can effectively increase your SEO rankings and draw more attention to your content.
Testing and optimizing your copywriting is an important part of boosting SEO. After you have written a piece, it’s best to test different versions to see what works best. You can do this through A/B testing or use software like Google Optimize to make changes quickly and easily.
For example, try changing the headline, sub-headings, images, or even the placement of CTA buttons. Then track the results to see which version performs better. This helps you determine what resonates with readers and keeps them engaged.
Including images in your blog posts can be a great way to draw attention and engage readers. Images are eye-catching and break up the text, making it more interesting for people to read.
People are visual creatures, so using images effectively gives them an understanding of the content you’re presenting. Not only that, but research has shown that content with images gets 94% more views than content without images.
Using images can also help boost your SEO rankings by increasing engagement levels and improving click-through rates from search engine results pages.
Did you know that headlines with questions get 73% more social shares than those without? According to research conducted by Conductor, crafting an effective headline for your copywriting can make a huge difference in terms of engagement.
By asking the right question in your title and creating intrigue, readers are likelier to click on it and share it across their social media channels. This is an advanced technique that can be used to boost SEO and help spread awareness about your content.
Even though it may seem intimidating at first, mastering this strategy can have positive long-term effects for your business.
Copywriting agencies offer a range of services that can help to boost your business. Investing in a copywriting agency is a great way to make sure that you are creating high-quality content for your website and other digital marketing platforms.
A copywriting agency will be able to provide unique, creative, and engaging copy tailored to meet the needs of your target audience. They also have the experience and knowledge necessary to ensure that the content they produce is optimized for search engine optimization (SEO) to help drive more traffic to your website.
Copywriting agencies understand the nuances of language, syntax, grammar, and punctuation, which are all important elements to consider when crafting interesting and informative content. Additionally, these professionals can review existing content to identify areas where it can be improved or updated for maximum effectiveness.
By investing in top copywriting agencies, you can rest assured that your business is putting its best foot forward online.
Copywriting is a powerful tool for engaging customers and creating successful marketing campaigns. You can create persuasive and compelling content that resonates with your target audience using advanced copywriting techniques.
Remember to identify your target audience, keep it simple, use strong calls-to-action, leverage storytelling, include specific data, use active voice, avoid jargon, focus on benefits, be consistent, and test and optimize.
With these tips, you can craft words that win and drive more conversions.
Did you know the option to get automatic Instagram likes is available? This is a marketing technique that people have been using for a few years now and those who do really enjoy the rewards that it brings. When you buy followers, it gets your name out there on a broader level so you can get the fame and success that you crave. Here are four more facts about this purchase important for you to know.
You control every aspect of this purchase from the beginning to the end. First, decide how many likes you wish to buy. Second, determine the budget that you are comfortable spending. Third, determine what photos you want to put the likes one, or if you’ll use just one. It feels good to be in control of the situation, especially when marketing. Now it is possible -and it is easy.
You can also review your marketing goals before making a purchase. Think about which posts represent your brand best and how you want your audience to perceive your content. Setting clear expectations can help you make more informed decisions and manage your social media marketing budget responsibly.
The amount of money that you will spend to buy likes is dependent on many factors. This includes the number of followers that you wish to buy. Make sure you request quotes and compare prices with three to four companies before you make your purchase. It is easy to get the best rates when you take the time to complete this step.
Before choosing a provider, check the service details, delivery terms, refund policies, and any additional fees. A lower price does not always mean better value. Compare what each package offers and make sure you understand the potential risks before spending money on Instagram marketing services.
The exciting benefits that you enjoy when you purchase likes to add to your IG page are sure to make your smile. First, you increase the awareness that people have of your company. That is the only way to get the fans and attention that you deserve. Second, you save time since it doesn’t take nearly as much time to build a fan base. Third, it is affordable to make this purchase. These benefits are just some of the many that come after you make this purchase. You can look at an example of someone doing this to their website here.
However, purchased likes do not guarantee genuine interest, meaningful conversations, or increased sales. For stronger long-term results, combine social media promotion with useful posts, relevant hashtags, consistent publishing, and authentic audience interaction. These practices can help build trust and encourage people to engage with your brand naturally.
Tons of followers companies exist but some of them aren’t worth your time. You should avoid these companies at all costs. Some companies want to make a quick dollar any way they can. They sell fake followers that can compromise the good standing of your account. Don’t let this scenario unravel in your life. Take the time to compare the options and finding a great company that makes you smile won’t be so hard.
Read customer reviews and examine each provider’s policies before making a decision. Be cautious of services that request your Instagram password or promise unrealistic results. Also, review Instagram’s current rules on artificial engagement, since certain services may put your account at risk. Choosing carefully helps you make a more informed marketing decision.
We hope that you’ve learned something from the information that we’ve provided here. Every day is a learning experience if you allow it to be. Buying likes is a great way to kick start your brand and get the edge over other companies that you want, need, and deserve. So many other people have already gone through with the purchase. Now it is your turn to get in on the fun. Use this information to ensure that you get the most out of this purchase. You will not be disappointed with the results and the name that you create for yourself.
Tens of thousands of domains expire every day, but what happens to the content that’s on those sites? It just disappears into nothingness, never to be seen again… right?
What if you could magically get the content that other people have abandoned, even after it’s gone from the search engines?
Well, you definitely can with hgint.com!
But (and here is where the magic happens) Google doesn’t crawl expired domains! If the original owner just let his site expire then obviously he doesn’t want it, and if it doesn’t appear anywhere in the search engines then we can use it without it being considered “duplicate content.”
Now before we go any further let’s talk about the ethics of this….
Is this stealing? It’s recycling.
No, I don’t consider it stealing. Taking unused webpages from Dropl.io is, to me, the same as taking something out of the trash. If I walked in your house and took a piece of furniture you made then that, of course, is stealing. But if I saw that same piece of furniture in your trash out by the curb then obviously you don’t want it, so taking it is fine.
I see websites the same way. Yes, the original owner created it, but if they let the site expire then they obviously don’t want it anymore, so I have no problem taking it!
To get started we will use ArticleMarket, it’s an awesome place to get pre-written blog articles for PBNs, blogs and more..
ArticleMarket is free to use, but you will need to create an account in order to use all the advanced features.
Once you’ve logged in to your free account the first step is to find the expired domains for your niche. Let’s say I’m looking for content for a food blog, I’ll start out by doing a search for the keyword “food.”
That gave us over 75000 results! There’s no way we can sort through that many sites, so we need to eliminate the junk domains that probably don’t have any good content.
Thankfully ArticleMarket has search filters we can use for that. To see all the filter options just hit the “Show Filter” link right above the search results.
Here are the things I look for to help me separate the junk sites from those that probably had good content.
High quality sites usually have…
So let’s add those filters onto our search. Under the “Common Filter” tab check the following options.
Now click the “Additional Filter” tab and choose these options…
If you want domains in other languages besides English then, of course, choose the appropriate language.
Now we can see that those 75,ooo domains have been narrowed down to 247, which is a much more manageable number.
All we have to do now to look up each domain at archive.org and see if there’s any content we can use. Yes, it will take some time, but your hard work will pay off!
Head over to archive.org and start looking up each site. Once you search for the site you’ll get a list of all the dates that site has been crawled by archive.org. The most recent ones might be “expired domain” messages, so you may have to look a few weeks or months back to get the actual site.
As you can see from the picture below I’ve found what looks to be a good expired site with some quality abandoned content, RealFoodFreaks.com.
In fact, it looks like that site has hundred of pages of unique recipes and health food related content.
But hold on! Before we start do anything else we need to make sure this content is actually abandoned. The owner could have let the site expire because they moved to a new domain, so let’s do a quick Google search using a random sentence from the page.
Everything looks good! This article isn’t found anywhere else, so it’s unique abandoned content we can use on our site.
Now it’s your turn… Try it yourself and let me know how it goes, and if you have any questions just ask them in the comment section down below.
1: When you choose your random sentence to search for make sure you pick one that is at least a few paragraphs down from the top of the page. If you choose a sentence near the top of the text you’ll pick up excerpts from social media sites in the search results. Short excerpts like this are fine, and they shouldn’t stop you from using the content.
2: Never pretend to be the original author. I always include a disclaimer at the bottom of my pages that says “Originally published on whatever.com by author’s name”
3: If someone contacts you claiming to be the original author and asks you to remove the content, do it! Even though it’s abandoned it is, after all, their copyrighted work and we shouldn’t use it if they still want it.
Explore..
The necessity of domain names is non-ignorable when it comes to getting an online space for your website. And for this, we do a lot with our domain names to prove our uniqueness but have we ever wondered about using the expired domain names? If not, just imagine how stress-free it could become, if we get an opportunity to buy a domain that already has amazing backlink profile and traffic. You can easily buy expired domains and can use them to harness your power on the internet.
Expired domain names are actually the domains that were once registered by the owner but were not renewed. Such domains become useless and can be smartly used by others. Citation Flow is a metric between 0 and 100 that calculates the backlinks of the particular expired domain from unique IPs and hence makes it easy for you to compare and choose among all.
Here I bring to you the Best expired domain list and websites that help you in buying reliable and strong Expired Domains.
I hope the aforementioned data helps you as it did to me. All the best and grab the best-expired domain name for your new online presence. If you need help building a website, Socialfuel is definitely recommended.
PBNs or Private blog networks are currently the best and most effective way to build backlinks that stick and bring results. This is actually a sneaky tactic that top-level SEOs have been using for quite some time. It’s just been a few months since I began to explore the perks of PBNs and the unfair advantage that they provide in the SEO game.
And from what I know, PBN backlinking is the single most important SEO tactic that brings result currently. This Private Blog Network Guide I’ve made for you covers all that you need to know about building PBNs.
But what are PBNs? And why do they work so well? How do we find the best domains for PBNs? What is the right and safest way to use them?
What are PBNs?
PBNs or Private blog networks are aged authoritative domains that are used by search engine optimizers as feeder sites that pass along link juice to their money sites. It is similar to the concept of building out Web 2.0 properties for the sole purpose of backlinking to the money site. There are two types of domains that are used as PBN sites:
Expiring Domains: When a domain owner doesn’t renew a domain at a registrar, the domain is said to be expiring, and the owner is allowed a period of about 42 days to renew the domain and retain his ownership. If the domain owner fails to renew the domain by day 25, the domain is auctioned in an expired domain name auction such as Go Daddy auctions. In this period, those who wish to buy the domain may bid on it, and if the domain owner still fails to renew the domain by the end of day 36 when the auction ends, the domain goes to the highest bidder. Although the ownership of the domain changes, the age of the domain is not lost as the domain was renewed before it was dropped from the registry.
Expired domains: If at the end of day 36, the previous owner fails to renew the domain, and there are no bidders, the domain is released to the registry, from where you may buy it again. Such domains are called expired domains or dropped domains. Although expired domains lose their age when they are released to the registry, they retain their backlinks and authority in the eyes of the search engines.
So why do PBNs work so well?
For understanding this, let us first look into how PBN backlinking is done. PBN backlink is done in such as way that a few number of contextual links pointing to the money site are dropped in an article on the homepage of the expired or expiring domain. An authoritative expired or dropped domain has hundreds or even thousands of links from diverse referring domains pointing to it. All this link juice is thus channeled through the few links on the homepage of the PBN to the money site. Take a look at this:
private blog network guide
This is exactly what makes PBN links so powerful. A large amount of link juice flows through a PBN link, and a dozen or so such links is all that a site needs to rank.
How to find the best domains for your PBN?
There are literally thousands of domains that expire every single day. Spotting and picking up good domains for use as PBNs is a skill in itself. It is extremely time consuming to spot PBNs on expired domain auctions such as Go Daddy auctions as they simply contain hundreds of thousands of sites. There are several domain search tools in the market today such as Register Compass, DomCop or ExpiredDomains.net that can be used to weed out low quality domains and zero in on good domains that we can use for PBNs. Both Register Compass and DomCop are paid services, but DomCop does offer a free trial. ExpiredDomains.net is free but offers lesser number of filtering options.
On a side note, I highly recommend Register Compass. Their Domain Database is one of the largest on the internet and all their metrics are up to date. Register Compass costs 37 USD a month, but they are well worth the price. I use PBNs for nearly all my sites. I’m willing to spend 37 bucks a month for finding good sites for my private blog network which will help in my rankings. If you’re thinking about signing up for Register Compass, you can do it here.
The method that we intend to use for finding good expired domains requires three tools: the Majestic Site Explorer, Open Site Explorer by Moz, and Google search. The first step is to set the filters in the domain search tool. The important metrics of value are Moz Domain Authority (DA), Moz Page Authority (PA), Majestic Trust Flow (TF) and Citation Flow (CF). Set the minimum DA as 20, and the TF and CF as 10. If the domain search tool doesn’t have Majestic filters available, leave it out. The only way around it is to manually check the results using Majestic Site Explorer. Weed out foreign domains by selecting only .com, .net and .org tlds in the filter. Set the minimum number of referring domains as 10. You may also enter the keywords that you would like to have in the domain name. Paid services like DomCop and Register Compass offer a Topical Trust Flow Filter that brings you domains from a niche of your choice based on the Tropical Trust Flow metric in Majestic Site Explorer.
When you search with the above filters, you will obtain a select group of domains that are quite authoritative and valuable. Now the manual work begins. From the obtained results, make a Google search with the query: site:domain.com. Make sure that the domain name is stripped i.e. without an ‘http’. If the first result obtained is the homepage of the domain i.e www.domain.com or http://domain.com, then the domain is indexed in Google and visibly does not have a Google penalty.
The next step is manual backlink analysis. Backlink analysis is the single most important step in finding good expired or dropped domains for your PBNs. The better the backlinks, better the domain. Majestic Site Explorer is one of the best tools for backlink analysis. Ahrefs.com is also an excellent tool for backlink analysis, but the Trust Flow and Citation Flow metrics are an easier and better way to determine the quality of a referring domain or backlink. Initially, look at the CF:TF ratio of the domain. The CF:TF ratio should always stay below 1.5, and the lower the ratio is, the better. CF or Citation Flow is basically the number of citations that the domain has received on other websites. Trust Flow is a metric that depends upon the authority and niche relevance of the backlinks. So a CF:TF ratio or 1 or lower would mean that most of the domains that link to the PBN is relevant and authoritative.
Now take a look at the backlinks of the domain. Check if the backlinks are from good authority domains. Take a look at the anchor text diversity. A very diverse anchor text profile is a good sign that the previous owner of the site hasn’t resorted to spamming. Avoid domains that have names of prescriptions drugs, foreign words, and adult terms in their anchor text profile at all costs. Also take a look at the referring domains tab in Majestic Site Explorer. The higher the number of referring domains, the better. A 1000 links all coming from 10 referring domains is just pure spam. If the number of backlinks is lesser than 10 for each referring domain, it is a good sign. Look out for backlinks from authority websites like Wikipedia or News Sites like Huffington Post and New York Times. Such sites are hard to come by, and make very good PBN sites if they pass through all the filters.
A good PBN site should cost anywhere between 35-50 USD. Try not to bid above this amount in an auction. Given that there is a lot of competition for auction domains, there can be a slight increase in this estimate. Finding good expired or dropped domains is a way to get much cheaper domains for your PBNs. For expired domains, the only cost incurred is the registration cost which is about 10-15 USD. Most good domains are picked up in the expiring period in auctions, so finding good expired domains may be a bit time consuming.
The right way to setup and use your PBNs
However good domains you find for setting up your PBNs, the only thing that matters is how you make use of it. There is a refined way to use PBNs for best results.
First and foremost, what you need to understand is that using PBNs for linking is a blackhat strategy. Now before you get all fired up, know that there are hundreds of internet marketers who have been using PBNs for ranking without any interference from Google for a decade now. What matters here is how well you can cover up your tracks. The golden rule here is to stay natural and maintain a low profile. Simply follow these steps and you won’t need to worry about Google de-indexing your valuable sites:
Hosting: The first way in which Google zeros in on Private blog networks is through the hosting that they are on. Imagine a site that is linked to by a dozen other sites all from the same IP address. Whenever you get a hosting account with a Hosting provider, all you get is a single IP address. So always host your PBNs on different C-class IPs. There are tons of hosting providers that offer this, but never go for SEO hosting providers. SEO hosting is used mainly for PBN domains and Google knows this too.
WHOIS data: Whenever you buy a domain for use as a PBN site, buy WHOIS privacy along with it. When all the sites linking to your money site belong to the same person, it is obvious what you are doing. Namecheap offers free WHOIS Privacy for the first year.
Content strategy: Improper and obvious content is another teller that the site is a PBN. Always have good and meaningful content on your PBN sites. The principle here is to make it look like any other blog on the internet. Always link out to your money site only twice or thrice from a single post on the homepage of the PBN site. Never link out from multiple articles to the same site. Never link out to your money site alone. Link out to authority sites like Wikipedia too once in a while. Mix up the links as contextual, non-contextual and image links. Keep in mind that only homepage links on the PBN are valuable. Never even think of selling links unless they are standalone PBN sites created solely for selling links.
Try to add some content to your PBN sites once in a while. This, apart from making the site look legitimate, can also help in retaining its authority. Create social media accounts for the sites. This helps gain trust and makes the site look legit.
CMS: Never use the same CMS or Content Management System for all you PBN sites. It is fine to stick with WordPress, but it is better to use others like Joomla or Blogger once in a while. There are a number of free CMSs in the Cpanels of most hosting providers. Also, if you stick with WordPress, never use the same plugins for all the sites as this can leave a footprint.
These are all you need to stay on a low profile and build a safe Private Blog Network to rank your sites.
Although many SEOs and internet marketing gurus point out that PBN backlinking is nothing but a blackhat strategy that can get you penalized, it is one that has been effective over a decade in ranking sites. There is no debate over the fact that excellent content, social media engagement and content strategy is the way forward for natural rankings in search engines. However, you would be losing out if you don’t use PBNs simply because they work well currently and are easy to get away with. You can compare your PBN build to this site here.
Now, as I always say- Just go and take action. MASSIVE IMPERFECT ACTION is the only way to success.
