7 min read

When making a blog or a website, the first thing you should be planning is the domain name. There are plenty of ways to approach the domain planning. Everything ultimately depends on what you want to achieve. This article is specifically about the best domains for your PBN (Private blog network), where the intention is to build links that will help in organic search rankings. But this very same method is viable for creating any other website whose aim is to rank higher in search engines or get an edge over your competitors.

Let us first discuss the various types of domains that one can buy for starting a website.

Various Types of Domains

Keyword Optimized Domain

This is the full keyword domain that mainly targets a long tail keyword in its full capacity. In the past when the domain name was given a huge advantage in search engines’ organic rankings, a full long-tail keyword which covers the entire domain name, was used to get an unfair advantage in the serps. Needless to say, this SEO method was heavily misused in the past, and hence the search engines have cut down its influence over the SERPs.

The domain name is still a major ranking factor and having your main keyword in the domain is still a great idea, but chasing 4 longtail keywords with the domain name isn’t a huge advantage at this moment. If you are targeting something that is way too vertically closed in its niche market, then this idea can still be applied.

Keyword Brand Domain

Keyword brand domains have always been a good idea. Whatever business you are in, your main keyword – preferably one word, mixed with the brand name of your business – if combined with the domain name, gives you both an edge in the rankings and looks very brandable.

This method will fail if you try to put more than two words in the domain, as branding is something that needs to look and sound good, and having too many keywords in the domain will be counterproductive for building a brand around your domain name.

Premium Domain

Some domains are simply premium. They cost more, they sound good – they are just too good to have. If you have registered a domain – a really good domain in the past that consists of one or two meaningful words – then it is probably good enough to be counted as a premium domain. Such domains aren’t easily available anymore and they cost a ton if you try to buy them now. Do note that premium domains will be even more difficult to buy in the future as more and more domains are getting grabbed all the time. If you are planning to buy a premium domain then it is better to do it as soon as possible.

Regular Domain

Regular domains are one of the easiest ways to start any website. All you need to do is, to search for a domain name. If it is available – you register it, or else you search for a new one.

As time goes by, more and more domain names are being registered and taken – so the quality of domains that are available in terms of meaningful two to three words is getting away fast. This in turn makes the registration of regular domains difficult. However, as long as you search well, am sure there will be something good still left unclaimed.

Here’s a cool tip – when you look for a regular domain name, sit with a dictionary and look up similar meaning words. If the meaning stays the same and the word is still available – then grab it!

Dropped Domain

Dropped domains have always been a fancy thing to buy. Think in terms of an asset that has been built, worked on, and finally thrown away! There are so many businesses, colleges, government offices, etc. that get closed now and then. Every time such a thing happens, the assets such as chairs, tables, computers, etc. pretty much everything is auctioned off. It is always the domain name that finally runs its course and when it expires – it gets dropped. This is where smart people like yourself get benefit – you register a domain with plenty of links and authority, pretty much done by other people but you will be the one to take its full advantage.

The Dropped Domain is the most common method of starting a PBN network. So, let us dive straight into this dropped domain method of getting a PBN started. The first thing here is to start searching for a dropped domain. Here are some of the key metrics that you should look into when searching for the same.

How to Search For The Perfect Dropped Domain?

Google News Approved Domains

Google News index is a very choosy index of news-related information. It isn’t the organic SERPs where you can easily get listed with whatever you start writing. Google makes it difficult to get into the News listings, however, there are ways to get into it – which we will discuss in future posts, but for now, we are going to talk about an easier way to get into Google News.

Think about a website that is Google News approved – whatever articles are added to that website go directly into Google News. And one day, the owner of the news website decided to move on to something else and stopped renewing the Google News Approved domain. This is virtually a gold mine – that is if you claim this domain for yourself.

Plenty of things go into it as Google might have already removed the domain from their news listings – but if you manage to get yourself a domain name that is still Google News approved then you will get a really good head start for your PBN network.

Links Pointing To The Domain

The second metric that you should be looking into, is the amount and quality of links the domain is getting. One of those things about News, Educational, and University type of sites, or sites owned by reputed companies, etc. is that they are always talked about. It could be due to the press release they issue or any event they take part in, whatever the cause, they are always in the news. This in turn means that they get linked from various sources. These sources are often mainstream news sites which is otherwise almost impossible to get links from.

Make sure to check the links that are pointed to the domain that you want to buy. If those links are good then it is a good domain to buy. At the same time, if the links are questionable then it is best to leave that domain alone.

Past Authority of The Domain’s Website

Sometimes the domain that you want to buy isn’t a news website or does not really have a lot of link juice – but it still can be a good domain to buy. The simple reason for this is that some sites are great at attracting new links. If the domain in question looks like a site that can attract new links then it is worth buying.

With the above metrics in mind, it is now time to start searching for a suitable domain. You can start searching on the web in general but to make things easier, here are a few places where you can get started.

• GoDaddy Domain Auction
• Name Cheap Domain Marketplace
• DomCop
• Fresh Drop
• Expired Domains

This list can go on and on, but these are great places to get started and enough to build yourself a good network of powerful websites.

How to Make Your PBN Website

Now, before we begin, a few words of caution – sometimes the best of the domains will fail you because over the years there might be more people – just like you, who have discovered the domain’s true potential and have already missed it to create a questionable site like a casino, betting, etc. and have wasted whatever the domain had and finally dropped it again.

This is where your thorough research will help keep things in check. Once you finalize your domain, put it on Web Archive and check if the domain was registered in the past. It will show you when the domain was first registered when it was dropped, and if re-registered again. Check very carefully if the domain was changed to any casino or questionable website and dropped again. If you find anything wrong with the domain, it is best to leave it alone.

So, once you have completed the domain search, it is now time to start working on the website. The best tip here is to try and re-create the website that the domain was earlier before it got dropped. The easiest way to retain all the authority that it had, is to try and re-create the original website.

To do this – once again put the website on Archive and check how the original website was. Now, the idea isn’t about how easily you can copy down the original website but to re-create the same website with the same meaning, but with unique content. Get a graphic designer to build up your site with the same look and feel as the original website. Next, get a content writer and while keeping the same meaning – use unique words and voice to make it unique.

Finally, it is time to set up your website. This step too is tricky. You can’t use tracking software that leaves footprints that trace back to your websites or yourself. The best thing to do is to leave the tracking codes but PNB sites aren’t about how much traffic you can bring to it or how well it ranks – rather it is just a resource from where you can extract link juice. Don’t use any tracking codes, simply build up the site and leave it alone.

Once your PBN content is ready, make sure to schedule enough articles in advance so that new posts are published on your site at regular intervals. We have already discussed PBN Content in the previous post, feel free to check it out.

The more research and hard work you put into your PBN sites, the better they will become – but it will also take time. Try to build up 2 to 3 PBN sites a month and keep the process steady – that way, in time you will build yourself a very strong network of PBN sites.