What I look for in PBN hosts

There are five main things I look for in PBN hosts and I’m also reviewing all the hosts on this site based on these five things.

IP Diversity

As many A- and B-Block IPs as possible. Registered to actual different hosting providers, not just proxied from one server or from companies not actually hosting websites on the IPs. If you ask the SEO host who they host with and who owns the IPs and they’re iffy with their answers, just turn and walk away.

Nameserver Addresses

Ideally, I want nameservers provided by other hosting companies, not the PBN host. This makes it look natural and is untraceable. If there are nameservers provided by a different company, I’d like to see them from large DNS providers.

Footprints

Probably obvious but I really don’t want to see footprints on my host – be the platform itself, DNS, IPs, error pages, server headers, or anything else really. The blogs I host must be clean.

Ease of Use

First of all – I really don’t like cPanel (or WHMCS). It looks like something out of the 90s and while I’m used to it, the user interface leaves a lot to be desired. So I welcome providers that have their own dashboards which are usually a lot better designed (and which, honestly, is not that hard). That said, it has to conform to at least the basic user-friendliness concepts. Back when I started this blog in 2017, I still reviewed way too many hosts with downright stupid user interfaces. It has to look at least like someone took 10 minutes to think about user experience. Since then some have improved a bit better though most of the providers have not changed one bit.

I’m also looking for any kind of automation features, like automatic updates, backups, and anything else that can make my, and my VA’s, life easier. We’re in the year 2021 when cars drive themselves, so I really shouldn’t waste time manually updating my blogs or setting up backups.

Price

We should all be aware that hosting for serious sites costs serious money. That said, I usually don’t host my popular money sites on PBN hosts and therefore only expect solid reliability and speed for my barely-visited PBN blogs. Anything around $2-2.5 per IP (usually per domain) is great, anything above $3.5 is a bit expensive. However, I avoid hosts for $1 since I had a lot of bad experiences with them.

Summary

I also add my own subjective “overall” score with which I rate the general experience I have with the host, be it support, responsiveness, or their general cooperation. If you have any other stuff you look for in your PBN hosts, let me know in the comments or email me!

>>> Check out my Current Favorite PBN Host <<<

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What providers does your PBN host use?

It won’t come as a big surprise I’m a big Easy Blog Networks fan. But do you know why?

The main reason is they clearly state who their hosting and DNS providers are.

And why is that important? Well, let’s start with a bit of history.

ServersFirst Generation SEO Hosts

First generation SEO hosts were companies that bought a few servers and rented (or maybe even bought) a lot of C-Block IPs from different providers. Then they rented those servers to anyone looking for SEO hosting with different IPs. They of course used their own nameservers.

Once Google penalized the industry evolved.

Second Generation SEO Hosts

Second generation hosts don’t use sequential C-Block IPs anymore. Everything moved to A-Block and how many A-Block IPs you can get. Most of them also promise they host with different providers and no nameserver footprints.

…but wait…

There aren’t very many SEO hosts that provide you with clear answers on where they host and whose IPs they’re using.

The thing is – not all IPs are created equal. There are IPs used for gaming, IPs used for proxies and IPs used for hosting websites. Do you know which IPs your SEO host is using? How about whose data centers they’re using?

Cloak Hosting says they use “many” hosts but don’t provide a list (I was given mostly really cheap cPanel hosts). They don’t tell you whose nameservers they’re using but I found out it’s not that diverse. NoNameInternet looks like it’s using their own, as is IPX. I have no idea who they host with because they don’t say.

Do *you* know where your provider hosts your blogs?

I’m using EBN because it provides me with clear information about the server, IP and nameservers. It’s all very transparent and it’s very clear they’re using quality providers for everything. That’s why I’m a big fan. See my review.