PBN (private blog network)

A PBN (private blog network) is a group of websites controlled by one person or company and used mainly to link to a “money site” in order to raise its search rankings. The sites are often built on expired domains and disguised as independent blogs. Search engines treat this as a link scheme.

Updated: 2026-10-16 · Glossary: Links and link building

How a PBN usually looks

The operator buys expired domains that still have backlinks, puts thin or spun content on them, hides common ownership (different hosting, themes, registrars) and places links to the sites they want to rank. Readers are an afterthought: the network exists for search engines.

What search engines say

Google's spam policies list link schemes, including links intended to manipulate rankings, and separately describe expired domain abuse: buying an expired domain and repurposing it mainly to manipulate rankings with low-value content. Sites that rely on such links risk a manual action or the links being ignored. Yandex also warns against link manipulation in its webmaster recommendations.

Why it matters for small sites

Small sites meet PBNs mostly as sellers: cheap “high DR” guest posts on sites with no real audience. The link may stop counting, and the money is gone. Before buying or exchanging, look for real traffic, a coherent topic history and outbound links that are not all commercial. A practical checklist is in How to spot PBN sites before you buy a link.

How Satelo differs

Satelo is not a PBN. It does not create or own sites; every site in the network belongs to a verified owner who connected it with the WordPress plugin or a verification file. Articles are labelled as partner content, links carry rel="sponsored", and Satelo does not promise dofollow links or rankings. The word “satellites” in Satelo means its internal credits, not satellite sites; see Satellite sites vs Satelo satellites.

To see whether a site shows signs of real use, check it free on the Quality Score page.

Related terms

• Reciprocal link: A reciprocal link is a pair of links where site A links to site B and site B links back to site A, usually by agreement (“link to me and I'll link to you”).
• Backlink exchange: A backlink exchange is any arrangement in which websites trade links instead of earning them independently: direct reciprocal swaps, three-way loops, link-exchange platforms or article exchanges.
• rel="sponsored": rel="sponsored" is a value of the HTML rel attribute that marks a link as advertising, sponsorship or another kind of compensated placement.
• Satellites ◉ (Satelo credits): Satellites (◉) are the internal credits of the Satelo network.

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