When all competitor rank with cheap PBNs, what to do?

Builder_ok

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Hello Builders,
I'm having trouble with my industry, first, most terms are populated by GOV websites. The terms that GOV does not cover, are taken by competitors who all use aggressive PBNs. I literally couldn't find any real link building even across the biggest comeptitors.

I can't understand how google allows this,
What would be a realistic solution without PBN?
 
First of all, I would not use PBNs, because I think they're bad value for money, unless you're very experienced in judging their quality and now how to use them.

Second, if your niche is really populated by GOV websites, maybe you are in the wrong niche, is it a Your Money Your Life niche?

Third, maybe you're looking at the niche with the wrong angle, don't go right at the top keywords or main angles, but find a different, more personal, more niche approach and build up trust and topical relevance from the ground up.

Lastly, as far as linkbuilding goes, I would prioritize getting some good, real links, from newspapers etc, pay for them if you need to.

The SERPs that I am seeing have been dominated by sites with links from trustworthy sources for some time now. PBNs seem to be worth much less now than some years ago. This all ebbs and wanes though, but right now, I would focus on getting a few high quality links instead.
 
The real questions here, in my opinion, should be:
  • Can I actually compete here?
  • Do I want to compete here?
  • Should I compete here?
Can you as an individual compete with these government entities and spammers? Do you have the knowledge, skills, money, etc.? Do you even want to, knowing PBNs will cause you trouble and possibly sabotage your efforts? And should you even bother when there's probably easier and faster ways to make money?

All of that aside, you're calling them cheap PBNs. That makes them sound like they're not that powerful or voluminous. In which case you can probably match and exceed them with normal link building. Let's say you do. Do you think the aggressive PBN guys are going to allow it or do you suppose they're going to end up trying to spam you and all that?

A PBN isn't the deciding factor, though. They're just links you can't have. The entire internet has half a billion referring domains for you to use as your own PBN. It's just a question of if you're willing to compete.
 
Builder_ok said:
Hello Builders,
I'm having trouble with my industry, first, most terms are populated by GOV websites. The terms that GOV does not cover, are taken by competitors who all use aggressive PBNs. I literally couldn't find any real link building even across the biggest comeptitors.

I can't understand how google allows this,
What would be a realistic solution without PBN?
Click to expand...
If ur niche is not "problematic" (for example gambling/pharma) and u see a lot of gov/ maybe EDU? sites there, you might be able to create very interesting content that will with the right outreach angle lead a lot of free links from serious sites (EDU/gov), research some of the links those guys did: https://www.vpnmentor.com/ (focus on the EDU/organisations there)

Again, not sure if this is right for you, just assuming (this can work for a niche in the Your Money Your Life niche BTW)
 
It's easy build a real site and a brand. I think too many of us are way too short-term in our thinking and it's why we're posting here still instead of rich.

A client of ours from a long time ago was in the 'people who can't control their drink' space and sure there was tons of .gov and .edu. Sure there were tons of spammers. But 8 years into his campaign the spammers who frustrated him day to day were all gone and he was exiting for XXM$ and is set for life.

He built a real brand over a very long time and treated it like a real business not a 'why can't I rank after buying 10 links' nonsense. He bought 110 links/month from an agency that resold us for the last 3 of those 8 years and was doing similar with someone else the first 5...

Do real work, be patient. I need to learn that lesson too - it's easy to say but it's really hard to do when you just lost 80% of your traffic in the latest update. How many of us just park the site and go do something else? He just kept going (and that happened three times over the 8 years). I don't know if I have the stomach for that even if I pretend I would. But you need to.
 
byalik said:
110 links a month? that's like $25-30k/month in link building he was doing ?
Click to expand...
This is the reality of the toughest niches. Obviously that kind of on-going budget is in proportion to the income or it wouldn't be happening. The real problem is pumping out those kind of campaigns before you start achieving serious cashflow (in order to get onto the playing field). PPC can help in the mean time.

There's plenty of niches and entire verticals where budgets like this are standard and anything less is a waste of time and money. CBD, certain types of finance, law, to name a few. You can always go after the smaller, underserved keywords and win some short-lived income, but if you want to compete with the big boys, you have to do what it takes, and this is very often what it takes.
 
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