Can my PBN networks be reported by my competitors to Google

Many of you out there live in fear of your PBN’s being reported to google using the spam report. Many of you also wonder if this can and does happen?

I am going to share with you something from my own personal trials about this matter and hopefully clear this matter up once and for all.

I have seen this subject raised and spoken about many times over. But no one seems to answer it with any substance, facts or evidence at all. So I decided to run my own tests on the subject matter to really get the answers for myself.

Often, I think most people just base their answers on total paranoia and sadly this lacks the substance needed to be accurate. Therefore, I decided to establish a real-life test to gauge this matter properly.

So here are the experiments I set up:

Initial PBN Setup

Test Node 1 – Built 20th July 2014 – I built out a 30 strong PBN on average spec expired domains – 4 basic money sites built on various high spam topics – links to them placed at build time.

Test node 2 – Built 15th August 2014 – I built out a 50 strong PBN on a mix of expired domains (35) & 15 medium quality auction domains – 5 basic money sites built on various high spam topics – links to them placed at build time.

Test node 3 – Built February 5th 2015 – I built out a 15 strong PBN on all good quality PBN domains – 2 basic money sites built on various high spam topics – links to them placed at build time.

So once they were built, I left them 4/5 weeks to index up fully and then I started manually reporting my own network & money sites to Google! All reports where submitted to Google from a unique G-mail account and from separate IP’s all over the world.

Reports I filled to Google spam team about the PBN and the money sites they linked to.

Spam Reports filed again Test Node 1.
1st August 2014 – 73 spam reports filed against PBN network. 12 filed against the money sites.
15th August 2014 – 48 spam reports filed against PBN network. 36 filed against the money sites.
17th September 2014 – 30 spam reports filed against PBN network. 8 filed against the money sites.
5th November 2014 – 85 spam reports filed against PBN network. 9 filed against the money sites.
20th December 2014 – 103 spam reports filed against PBN network. 48 filed against the money sites.
8th February 2015 – 20 spam reports filed against PBN network. 5 filed against the money sites.
16th May 2015 – 20 spam reports filed against PBN network. 5 filed against the money sites.
7th October 2015 – 20 spam reports filed against PBN network. 5 filed against the money sites.
9th May 2016 – 100 spam reports filed against PBN network. 50 filed against the money sites.
19th November 2016 – 20 spam reports filed against PBN network. 5 filed against the money sites.
18th February 2017 – 20 spam reports filed against PBN network. 5 filed against the money sites.
3rd December 2017 – 20 spam reports filed against PBN network. 5 filed against the money sites.
27th March 2018 – 85 spam reports filed against PBN network. 75 filed against the money sites.
19th September 2018 – 20 spam reports filed against PBN network. 5 filed against the money sites.
16th April 2019 – 91 spam reports filed against PBN network. 85 filed against the money sites.
30th October 2019 – 20 spam reports filed against PBN network. 5 filed against the money sites.
17th January 2020 – 20 spam reports filed against PBN network. 5 filed against the money sites.
31st October 2020 – 150 spam reports filed against PBN network. 58 filed against the money sites.

Spam Reports filed again Test Node 2.
17th September 2014 – 110 spam reports filed against PBN network. 12 filed against the money sites.
5th November 2014 – 85 spam reports filed against PBN network. 9 filed against the money sites.
20th December 2014 – 103 spam reports filed against PBN network. 48 filed against the money sites.
8th February 2015 – 86 spam reports filed against PBN network. 57 filed against the money sites.
16th May 2015 – 20 spam reports filed against PBN network. 5 filed against the money sites.
7th October 2015 – 20 spam reports filed against PBN network. 5 filed against the money sites.
9th May 2016 – 100 spam reports filed against PBN network. 50 filed against the money sites.
19th November 2016 – 20 spam reports filed against PBN network. 5 filed against the money sites.
18th February 2017 – 20 spam reports filed against PBN network. 5 filed against the money sites.
3rd December 2017 – 90 spam reports filed against PBN network. 60 filed against the money sites.
27th March 2018 – 85 spam reports filed against PBN network. 75 filed against the money sites.
19th September 2018 – 20 spam reports filed against PBN network. 5 filed against the money sites.
16th April 2019 – 75 spam reports filed against PBN network. 100 filed against the money sites.
30th October 2019 – 20 spam reports filed against PBN network. 5 filed against the money sites.
17th January 2020 – 20 spam reports filed against PBN network. 5 filed against the money sites.
31st October 2020 – 150 spam reports filed against PBN network. 58 filed against the money sites.

Spam Reports filed again Test Node 3.
20th March 2015 – 80 spam reports filed against PBN network. 80 filed against the money sites.
8th April 2015 – 96 spam reports filed against PBN network. 37 filed against the money sites.
16th May 2015 – 28 spam reports filed against PBN network. 80 filed against the money sites.
7th October 2015 – 115 spam reports filed against PBN network. 45 filed against the money sites.
9th May 2016 – 100 spam reports filed against PBN network. 50 filed against the money sites.
19th November 2016 – 20 spam reports filed against PBN network. 5 filed against the money sites.
18th February 2017 – 81 spam reports filed against PBN network. 68 filed against the money sites.
3rd December 2017 – 90 spam reports filed against PBN network. 60 filed against the money sites.
27th March 2018 – 85 spam reports filed against PBN network. 75 filed against the money sites.
19th September 2018 – 80 spam reports filed against PBN network. 20 filed against the money sites.
16th April 2019 – 75 spam reports filed against PBN network. 100 filed against the money sites.
30th October 2019 – 45 spam reports filed against PBN network. 58 filed against the money sites.
17th January 2020 – 80 spam reports filed against PBN network. 48 filed against the money sites.
31st October 2020 – 78 spam reports filed against PBN network. 61 filed against the money sites.

Now for the part you have all been waiting for…. The outcome!

Well there is nothing to write about the outcome as absolutely NOTHING has happened to them. Reassuring my initial mindset that it’s just paranoia fuelled rubbish and your competitors can report you, but it means nothing. Google has said itself that it does not manually review the spam reports. It uses an algorithm of sorts to filter them and uses this data in certain ways in their core algorithms. This once again reaffirms my position that PBNs are the safest method of SEO out there.

I will add further for your information. That the sites that get deindexed are very often those that are caught up in a bigger link buying scheme, are badly built or have poor hosting for PBNs behind them. Bad design and such like that allows them to be easily detected because they are in the bottom half of low quality PBNs. If you build your sites correctly then you will stand the test of time & your rankings along with it!

So, as you can see, from my own factual real-life extensive testing. I can tell you that you do not need to lose any sleep over anyone reporting your PBNs to the spam team. Sleep well all!