Smith 6 months link building case study Hey mates, I hope you are doing awesome! Here is another one link building case study. Before I start talking about it, just to let you know that I have nothing against Private Blog Networks (PBN)s, I still use them in ranking other sites. This study is just to share with you this "fight" between PBNs and Niche Edits and to get your opinion about this. So let's start reviewing this case. 1-time period: As you can see on the left side of the Google Search Console (GSC) screenshot, daily traffic was between 200 and 250. The site had much more potential and I thought it's time to get serious and rank this thing. So, I started adding new content. After finishing adding content, I've ordered 200 Niche Edits backlinks from my supplier agency (I told them to drip feed my site on 5-10 links per day so I can avoid footprint). After a week or two, I saw that my site has started growing up, and at the middle of the first hill, the site was fully fed with 200 fresh links. 2-time period: The second time period starts on the first hill from the left side. At that point, I thought that it's time to add PBNs to the game. I ordered around 100 PBNs from another supplier. After a week or two, I saw a huge huge drop in ranking. At the first glance, I thought that PBNs were bad, so I took a look at each one of those, and there was nothing wrong. 3-time period: After a huge drop, I thought "I have to save the site, and still have some sales" (also I forget to note that the site is eCommerce type). As you can see I've run FB ads for about 20 days. To be honest, ads saved my site. For the time FB ads were running, I removed each PBNs and start a re-optimizing site just in case. In short, I saw that the site got stabilized, and I thought, let's run another batch of Niche Edits. 4-time period: So, as I said, I bought another batch of 50 links, and I did some outreach on my own. In a short time, the site has started growing again. After a while, I stopped adding links to it, and the site had a growing continuation. Conclusion: In this case, in my opinion, PBNs worked badly for this site. Which is not common to my sites, nor my cooperators, friends nor other SEO experts. Of course, I don't hate PBNs, I do have some sites which ranking is based ONLY on PBNs. I'll be grateful if you share your opinion, or even better, share your experience with a similar situation. Cheers guys! 120 👍🏽12695 💬🗨📰👈
Vicky those were your own Private Blog Network (PBN)? may be Google knows it. also make sure they not hosted on same hosting. anyway its a rare case that PBNs are affecting the growth. #imo
Smith ✍️ » Vicky I bought PBNs, also I've checked, those were not hosted on same hosting nor IP.
Micha I personally don't feel like a month or two is enough time to gauge what went wrong with the site. Also, 300 of any links to a site within 2 months is going to look unnatural, especially with a site that size. For example I would build between 2 – 5 links per month on a site that big.
Tim » feel like a month or two is enough time Micha I agree, I don't think the data is conclusive. Correlation is not causation.
Akinola I'd say the problem is too many links at a very short time. Would be more natural to have 3 links a month. Some months maybe 2 then 4, then 3. Just alternate.
Smith ✍️ » Akinola Target niche is competitive, so the 2-3 links per month won't do anything (already tried on past projects) Akinola » Smith Of course 2-3 links won't do anything, that's why you compound it. 2-3 in first month , then 3-5 in the next, then 4, then 6 then 3, then 7, then 10. As it goes
Javed Yup. Niche Edits Works well, But they should be in natural manner. Like You can drip feed 10 to 15 Links Per month.
Smith ✍️ » Javed Drip feed depends on niche, competition and time. For example, if your competition have very strong backlink profiles, you have to do the same. Or if you or client have short time for achieving better ranking, then you have to risk and get more in short time. Overall, thanks for advice. Cheers!
Buth I agree, PBNs work for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) under certain conditions. Also PBNs is often confused with microsites (using subdomains technicaly is using microsites). Microsites work better than PBNs but you can't use microsites for blogs or many other types of websites. As I can see niche edits work good. It seems logical because you put some links in content that is already ranked by search engines. Also this content drives some traffic and your site can get a few additional referral visits. These visits is the signal of trust for the search engines. But an SEO have to be careful not to overdo it.
Smith ✍️ » Buth I completely agree with you. I didn't say that PBNs never work, but at my circumstances those didn't work. Also, I always make sure to not over do any kind on Search Engine Optimization (SEO), cuz everything can fail apart. Cheers mate!
Robin What is the best link would you say? Guest post in a relevant site in same niche?
Smith ✍️ » Robin Well, that's kind a personal question. But here is what I think: I love to go with "one link from one site". I personally don't like 3 links from one site. And of course, site has to be relevant niche
Seyem So, what do you think about why traffic drops when you built 200 links and got up?
Smith ✍️ » Seyem It may happened that Google saw unnatural link building, BUT, as you can see in most recent period, I did the same thing again, and site still has growth continuation…
Žiulys How do you build these Niche Edits, I have no idea where to start or how to find someone that would like to do or exchange a guest post within my niche…
Smith ✍️ Well, mostly I buy edits, but as you can see I mention that I did outreach on my own. It's much easier to buy them, but make sure to you provider provide you long-term warranty, because "permanent" link is not permanent. Also make sure to join in popular SEO exchanging links groups, you will find there something for you, believe me. Cheers! Žiulys » Smith Thanks
