Satellite Sites in SEO (PBNs) vs Satelo Satellites: Two Different Things
In SEO, satellite sites are secondary websites built or bought mainly to link to a "money site" and push its rankings up; a network of them is usually called a PBN (private blog network). Satelo also uses the word "satellites", but for something unrelated: an internal credit unit you earn by publishing labelled partner articles on your real site. This page explains both, what Google and Yandex say about the first, and how to tell them apart in thirty seconds.
What satellite sites are in SEO
A satellite site orbits a main site. Its job is not to serve its own readers but to send links (and sometimes traffic) to the main project. The classic setup looks like this:
- One owner controls the main site and a handful to hundreds of smaller sites.
- The smaller sites have thin or rewritten content, often on loosely related topics.
- Each one links to the main site with keyword-rich anchors, usually as plain followed links.
- Ownership is hidden: different hosting, different registrars, private WHOIS, different themes.
When the satellites are built on expired domains that still carry old backlinks, and the owner works hard to make them look unconnected, the network is called a PBN. Russian-speaking SEOs say сателлиты, саты or сетка. The names differ; the idea is the same: links that exist because the owner wants them to, not because an independent editor chose to cite something useful.
Not every second site is a satellite. A company with a main site, a separate help center and a regional site for another country is not running a PBN. The test is purpose: does the site exist for its own audience, or mainly to pass links?
Why people build them
The appeal is control. Editorial links are slow and unpredictable; links from your own network appear the day you publish. Owners can choose the anchor text, the target page and the timing. For a while, in competitive niches, this worked often enough that a whole service market grew around it: expired domain auctions, "PBN hosting" with scattered IP addresses, and sellers of "PBN links".
The cost is risk, plus the time and money it takes to keep dozens of sites alive and hidden. And the risk is not hypothetical, because both major search engines describe this behavior in their rules.
What Google says
Google's spam policies for Google web search define link spam as creating links to or from a site primarily for the purpose of manipulating search rankings. The listed examples include buying or selling links for ranking purposes, excessive link exchanges, and using automated programs or services to create links to your site.
The policy page does not use the phrase "private blog network". It does not need to: a network built so its links lift a money site matches the definition of link spam directly. The same page also describes expired domain abuse, where an expired domain is bought and repurposed primarily to manipulate search rankings. That is the raw material of most PBNs.
The same page also shows the honest alternative. Paid or exchanged links are not a violation when they are qualified, and Google's guide to qualifying outbound links asks you to mark advertisements and paid placements with rel="sponsored". A PBN does the opposite: its whole value depends on links that look editorial and are not labelled.
For a plain-language walkthrough of the rules around exchanges, see our guide to link exchanges and Google's rules.
What Yandex says
Yandex is just as direct. In May 2015 it announced the Minusinsk algorithm against link spam: sites promoted with SEO links may rank lower, and the post warns that this can noticeably cut search traffic for up to several months. Yandex's advice was to drop SEO links without waiting for consequences and to work on the site itself.
Yandex's recommendations for site owners also list, among violations, external links placed to deceive the search engine rather than as an author's recommendation, and groups of sites created to fill several positions in search results and collect traffic. The help page also asks owners not to add links just because someone asked for them.
How satellite networks get spotted
Search engines do not publish their detection methods, so treat this as the practical checklist that SEO practitioners and link buyers use, not as a list of confirmed signals:
- Little or no real traffic, while third-party authority scores look high.
- A backlink history from an earlier, unrelated life of the domain.
- Posts on random topics, each with one outbound link to a commercial page.
- Exact-match anchors repeated across several small sites.
- No real author, no contact page, no comments, no social presence.
- Many sites sharing footprints: the same theme, analytics ID or hosting quirks.
We go through each of these in detail, with what to check and where, in how to spot PBN sites.
What "satellites" mean at Satelo
Satelo is a network for mutual promotion of small and mid-sized sites, currently in public beta with a small number of sites. The name nods to satellites, and so does its internal unit, which causes the confusion. Here is what a Satelo satellite (◉) actually is:
- A credit, not a website. Satellites are a balance in your account. Nobody builds or buys extra sites to get them.
- Earned by hosting. You publish a partner article on your own real site and receive satellites. How many depends on your site's value, which is based on its Quality Score and verified traffic.
- Spent on coverage. You spend satellites to have an article about your site published on another real site in the network.
- Moves in circles. Articles travel A→B→C→A. The site that writes about you is not the site you wrote about, so there are no direct swaps.
- Labelled. Exchange articles are published as partner content, and their links carry
rel="sponsored". - Not money. Satellites can be bought, but they cannot be withdrawn or cashed out. Satelo takes a 10% fee on exchanges.
In other words, a Satelo satellite is closer to a point in a barter system than to a satellite site. It measures how much partner content you have hosted for others, so you can receive about the same value back.
Satellite sites vs Satelo satellites: side by side
| Satellite sites / PBN | Satelo satellites ◉ | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Websites built or bought to link to a money site | An internal credit unit in your account |
| Who owns the sites | Usually one owner, hidden | Separate, verified owners of real sites |
| Audience | Little or none; the site exists for its links | The host's own readers; the article has to be useful to them |
| Link labelling | Disguised as editorial, unlabelled | Partner content with rel="sponsored" |
| Link pattern | Many sites pointing at one target | A circle A→B→C→A, no direct swaps |
| Stated goal | Lift rankings through links | Get mentioned on relevant sites and reach their readers |
| Status under Google and Yandex rules | Matches the link spam definition | Qualified paid placement, the format Google describes for such links |
| Can be cashed out | Sites can be sold | No; satellites cannot be withdrawn |
Why the network keeps PBN-like sites out
A network of real sites only works if the sites are real. That is a practical concern, not just a principle: if PBNs joined, the articles you pay for in satellites would land on pages nobody reads, and the whole network would start to look like a link scheme. So Satelo's rules work against them in several ways:
- Parked and empty sites score near zero. The checker detects parked domains ("domain for sale" pages) and sites with almost no content and caps their Quality Score at a near-zero level, so they are not offered as hosts worth paying for.
- Quality Score from mostly open data. The score combines signals such as Tranco rank, domain age, Common Crawl size, PageSpeed and verified traffic. A brand-new site scores 0. A network site with inflated link metrics but no visible audience does not get a high score just because its third-party authority number looks good.
- Value follows the score. What a site earns for hosting an article scales with its value. A site with no traffic and no history earns the minimum, so building throwaway sites to farm satellites does not pay.
- The owner decides. A host owner can switch on manual approval, so every incoming article waits for their review, and they can reject any article; unapproved articles expire and the buyer is refunded.
- Evidence is visible. The check page shows where each number comes from, so anyone can see why a site scored the way it did.
None of this is a promise of rankings. A labelled rel="sponsored" link is not meant to pass ranking credit; the value is the mention, the readers of a relevant site, and a page that search engines and AI assistants can find. If you want the background on link attributes, read nofollow vs sponsored vs UGC.
How to tell which "satellite" someone means
If you see the word in a forum post, a cold email or a client brief, three questions settle it:
- Is it a site or a number? "We have 40 satellites" from an SEO agency means sites. "You earned 6 ◉" means credits.
- Are the links labelled? If the offer insists on followed links with exact-match anchors and "no sponsored tag", it is a PBN-style link sale, whatever it is called.
- Who owns the sites? If one seller controls all the sites and won't show traffic, treat it as a network built to pass links. Our article on whether link exchange is bad for SEO covers the gray zone in between.
An illustrative example
For illustration only, with made-up sites. A small hiking blog joins Satelo and publishes a partner article for a camping gear review site; the article is about choosing a sleeping bag, it is useful to the blog's readers, and its one link to the gear site is marked rel="sponsored". The blog earns satellites. It spends them on an article about itself on a regional travel site. The gear site, in turn, hosts an article for someone else. Three owners, three real audiences, no direct swap, and every link labelled.
Compare that with a PBN: the same person owns the "hiking blog", the "travel site" and the gear store, the two smaller sites have no readers, and every post ends with an unlabelled link to the store. The shape can even look similar. The purpose and the labelling are what separate them, and those are exactly what Google's and Yandex's rules focus on.
What to do next
- If you run satellite sites today, read the Google and Yandex pages linked above and decide whether the risk is worth it for your main site.
- If you buy links, check each site's traffic and history first, and require labelling. Our sponsored content disclosure guide explains what readers and regulators expect.
- If you want honest exposure on real sites, start with an independent look at where your site stands.
Check your site's Quality Score for free: in about 30 seconds you get a 0–100 score with the evidence behind each number, plus similar sites at your level you could exchange articles with.
FAQ
What is a satellite site in SEO?
A secondary website created or bought mainly to link to a main ("money") site and improve its rankings. A hidden network of such sites, often built on expired domains, is called a PBN (private blog network).
Are satellite sites and PBNs against Google's rules?
Google's spam policies define link spam as creating links primarily to manipulate search rankings, and a network built for that purpose fits the definition. The policy also covers expired domain abuse, which many PBNs rely on.
Does Yandex penalize satellite sites?
Yandex's Minusinsk algorithm, announced in 2015, can lower the rankings of sites promoted with SEO links. Yandex's site owner recommendations also list groups of sites created to occupy several search positions as a violation.
Are Satelo satellites websites?
No. Satelo satellites (◉) are an internal credit unit. You earn them by publishing labelled partner articles on your own real site and spend them on articles about your site on other real sites in the network.
Can I withdraw Satelo satellites as money?
No. Satellites can be bought, but they cannot be withdrawn or cashed out. They exist only to exchange articles inside the network.
Are Satelo exchange links dofollow?
No. Exchange articles are labelled as partner content and their links use rel="sponsored", the attribute Google asks for on paid or exchanged placements.
Can a PBN site join Satelo?
It can technically sign up, but parked and empty sites score near zero, and a site with no real audience gets a low Quality Score, so it earns the minimum for hosting. Host owners can also review and reject every incoming article.
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