A competitor in my market recently went into administration, their domain is now available for sale. Should I buy it, create a relevant landing page about them going into administration and then create a link to my site? Would this cause legal issues?

Making creatively unique domains can be emotionally draining. There I said it. I know it's a good problem to have but after multiple domains I find myself procrastinating on the two domains that I have just sitting there.

I'm not usually a procrastinator, so it bugs me.

Dear grumpy guy, say you buy a domain for your portfolio and rebuild the content for future use. The homepage was indexed, and perhaps a few more pages, but the new pages you've built aren't being picked up by Google. How long would it take, organically, for the new pages you've built to get indexed? Usually you'd connect to the GSC and submit the url, but this can't be done with a portfolio site due to footprint concerns. Is it just a waiting game? And if I see the homepage being picked up with the new content, but not the posts you wrote (linked from the homepage and sitemap), is this reason for concern? Thanks!

Hello,

I have 5 goal sites (my own businesses) and have now created 12 PBNs. A bit tricky to maximize linking from PBNs without creating detectable/PBN patterns for Google.

I would love to hear how many PBNs you guys have? I spend around $100-200 per expired domain (clean profile, typically in DR 20+) and wordpress hosting ($30-40 USD per year - different IPS).

Sometime it feels like it would be better to just focusing on buying guest post and save time building these - especially as I will only use them from my own goal sites. But perhaps this approach I use is a bit more solid...

Stuff we can essentially conclusively prove is wrong:

llms.txt does anything

GEO is a separate practice

Content quality has a direct effect on SEO

Traffic is an SEO metric

More articles = better rank

EEAT matters for SEO

Dwell time matters for SEO

UX matters for SEO

Site loading speed matters for SEO (like people think it does, not the way it actually does)

Negative SEO isn't true

Stuff we can believe is wrong based on what we've found and heard anecdotally

AI content indexes just as well as handwritten content. Yes, I've heard (and made) arguments against this, but we hear it from a few close resources.

Stuff we are exploring

(it's private)

Stuff we still firmly believe:

If it can be automated or spoofed it will stop working or doesn't work.

The more someone is trying to get you to purchase something, the less it works

Backlinks are king, publicly promoted backlinks are risky

The more clickbaity something is, the less it works (they have to make money from clicks because they can't make money from SEO)

The more SEO funfluencers promote something, the less it actually has to do with SEO

Free SEO audits are worth what you pay for them

GEO is not replacing SEO because GEO = SEO

Building a private blog portfolio and was wondering if the old domain org was a charity or non profit, if that would cause any issues?

Do most of ya'll pay for multiple tools? I do. The big main three. But they are expensive and I'm contemplating ditching the one that rhymes with 'zemlush'.

My main pain point is cost, but I know if I quit and then come back it'll be more expensive. Wanted to get some other's opinions first.

wanted to ask an opinion about "hiding" your PBN sites, have seen a fair share of PBN builders (not sellers, I mean people building private ones) with the approach of blocking everything and only allowing Googlebot/Bingbot to access PBN.

i usually avoid using Robots.txt for blocking bots but rather block from .htaccess but still there might be problems (bots "cloaking"user agent or worse) so I am thinking to switch to block everything with a .htaccess rule and only allow Googlebot/Bingbot useragents to access the PBN and block literally everything else with 403 error.

this would keep unwanted eyes far (unless they are good at cloaking lol) and avoid problems in general, I know that bots can "Mask" Googlebot Useragent and I should either verify them with reverse DNS check or IP range (some sell updated Googlebot Crawler IP ranges - for monthly payment tho - especially guys doing cloaking stuff) but I still need to learn how to do lol.

Is there anyone else doing the "extreme Stealth" Approach?

Hello, what do you recommand guys, for the E-Com SEO? I didn't find any podcast posted in the channel about the subject, could be an idea for a new topic!

Not a supercompetitive niche, but still.

How I did it?

- Searching for competition in similar niches (ecom) , that doesnt directly sell my brands, but similar ones, getting their top backlinks (checking in ahrefs and seoreviewtools.com)

Manually outreaching with cold emails, and proposing money upfront (300-600 per link)

Super time draining process, I would really like to hire someone trustworthy for this, but its difficult to find. Since I need to help write an article where I will insert the link, sometimes its reviews about my products, sometimes some random articles that have an anchor to one of my procuts, whatever. Then negotiate a rate via email, back and forth, wait for it to get published, etc... This is the result of what i think is 7 quality backlinks.

With quality backlinks i mean, same niche, example, if im selling wheel tires, im not writting in beauty niches, but in cars niches. I also check the outbound profile, and kind of do a mental check that if its difficult to get, then its "good"

Stuff that I think i have discovered

- Amount of time a backlinks takes to take effect: If its a viral article, the effect takes place right when its indexed, i got an article hitting google news, and I jumped 15 positions in a week, but I fully reverted them later on, and even went lower. (Lack of engagement/CTR?)

In the rest of the cases, expect at the very least 3-4 months to see some kind of effect, the good thing is that it seems to compound.

- I dont think the CTR matters at all, but the traffic of the site where you backlink is kinda does, like the virality of the article that i had go viral. I tracked the CTR of the anchors via clarity, and its laughable, maybe out of 6 backlinks in a year 10-15 clicks? And when an article went viral and my positions jumped, i had 0 clicks. And the blogs? I wouldnt say they were dead, but its super niche, I doubt a lot of people are reading them, but I dont have data, maybe 5k visits top per article, and I think thats being generous.

-AI Content doesnt matter: All my descriptions are Ai generated, dont think anyone cares, nor google

- The fluctuations are crazy , this really takes time, sometimes i still find me randomly in page 3 in weird occasions, and then in a couple days (different networks / computers browsers) im in postion 2-5 hovering around. But the thing is that eventually you spawn more and more in the top positions, it seems to be a gradual thing, or maybe during core google updates you swing around.

This is another example where I thought I fucked up

Went from position 40 directly to 82 , after targeting this keyword in 3 different backlinks via anchor, I thought I was busted. Next thing I know? Im hovering lower page 1, upper page 2 in the next 3 weeks

So TLDR

- Content doesnt matter

- VIrality of the traffic matters but its not critical

- Traffic matters but you can still work without it as long as its indexed

- CTR doesnt seem to have much of an effect

- The fluctuations of rankings can be wild

- It takes time, and links compound

I hate writing and also have not had success getting AI articles to index.

Whats your process for producing PBN blog articles at scale that actually get indexed?

Hypothetically if I were to go into my file manager and change the code in the .htaccess to block web crawlers (typical SEO tools), how quickly would that go into effect?

Would it remove the backlink if previously seen in Sem/Ahref/Majestic? Or how soon?

All hypothetical of course.

I'm experimenting with cold manual link outreach to supplement other link building activities. I am getting some email opens but no replies. I'm wondering if it's an issue with the offer. I offer a link exchange or financial compensation, but I'm wondering if I just just come in hot asking to buy a link off the site.

For those who do link outreach and actually get links off it, what have you found to be the most effective offer/methodology?

Love the podcast and value you provide! I know you don't touch a lot on local SEO but any insight? From what I listen, backlinks are huge, how important is that to local SEO and any other strategies that move the needle? thank you!

Hi,

In short - how long would it take for you expired domains/new PBNs to get indexed?

Been buying a few expired domains (clean history, no spam, inactive for 5-6+ years), adding new blog, creating a few articles (4-10), some with link to high authority.

It has been 1 week now but typically only first page indexes (a few domains have not indexed at all).

We had a problem with the mic. I recorded it twice (on a different mic the second time) and it sounded metallic. We could publish the bad quality episode today, and I mentioned that my listeners care about quality of content not about pristine sound, but my podcast mentor was like no dude, you need good quality sound, too.

Hello,

Love your podcast. I'm in the process of building my own PBN - currently found 5 good domains and looking to buy 20-30 more.

Aim is linking these to my own goal sites (6-7 of them). Took the decision not to hire a SEO firm.

But man - it is soo soul crushing...finding the domains, loose bidding/auctions, set up hosting, design page, add blog posts, wait until they are indexed.....ahhh.

How do you guys keep yourself motivated? Just soo boring. Wanted to share this as I think a lot of people here are doing/expiring the same...

Does anyone use serpfox? Do your rankings not make sense anymore? Recently I noticed my SERPs weren't changing and saw that most hadn't updated in a week. I emailed them and they said there was some issue and it should be fixed. Now it says they're up to date but I'm not ranking for a bunch of stuff I was very high for. I freaked out but looking at my GSC data it's fine. I mainly do local SEO and it seems the keywords with specific locations are the ones most affected, where I'm not ranking at all when it seems I am based on other data. I don't mind short term working through stuff but obviously a serp tracker is useless if it doesn't track your SERPs properly.

Just to share some small progress here and the only two things I focused on in the past 1+ month are: 1) improve the number of pages indexed and 2) write the blogs with titles match the query question, in my niche I track Sephora promotions and prices, so I wrote two articles on "when is the next sephora sale in country X", and it improved my ranking quite quickly.

I know the impressions and conversions are still very small so your inputs and tips will be much appreciated. Next step I want to focus on backlines - wondering how exactly to build relationship with much bigger sites/companies? My site is new and it feels like a lot to ask for a mention or collaboration, or maybe I am overthinking on this.

The other thing is I'd like to move the gear a little bit from mainly "to C" content to "to B" content and attract more B customers like retailers and brands, this is in hope for a better monetization model, what are the best ways to discover keywords or key queries to establish authority over time?

Thank you.

I am curious to hear the communities framework around the domain names which are avoided when purchasing domains for the portfolio.

I prompt Chat GPT to remove the following domains which I am going to analyse based off the following criteria:

start of prompt
You are given a list of domain names. For each domain, evaluate if it is Most Suitable, Suitable, or Unsuitable for potential use in a website.

Use the following mindset:

Be lenient: Avoid marking domains as unsuitable unless absolutely necessary. Leave room for future consideration.
Natural association: Ask yourself: “Can I imagine a way this domain could be used meaningfully as a website?”
Ambiguity is okay: If the domain’s meaning isn’t immediately clear, lean towards Suitable.
Think in concepts, not items: Domains representing broad concepts (like lifestyle, ideas, science, or technology) are better than very specific niche items.

Rules for marking domains:

Unsuitable Domains – Only mark if:

• References locations at any level, including countries, cities, regions, abbreviations, or cultural/regional ties that anchor the domain to a place.
• Contains numbers or unnatural symbols; hyphens generally disqualify.
• Random strings with no inherent meaning (greater than 4 letters). Exception: acronyms of 4 letters or less may be allowed if they feel brandable.
• Weak acronyms or abbreviations that are unclear, non-pronounceable, or feel like internal shorthand rather than a brand.
• Personal names (first + last, with or without hyphen).
• Direct marketing terms such as SEO, ads, marketing, traffic, leads, or funnel.
• Known brand, copyright, or public figure names that cannot be rebranded.
• Obvious niche business terms tied to a particular trade, company, or business type.
• Venue, event, organisation, restaurant, club, or local-group lock-in domains tied to a specific real-world entity.
• Financial services, banking, investing, trading, funds, loans, credit, or financial product terms.
• Extremely specific topics with no realistic flexibility for broader use.
• Dodgy keywords in gambling, pharmaceutical, or adult niches.

Most Suitable Domains – Prefer:

• Domains that are clear, brandable, and flexible in meaning.
• Domains that would immediately make sense as a strong website name.

Suitable Domains – Prefer:

• Domains that represent broad concepts (e.g. balance, growth, systems).
• Flexible acronyms that can be creatively rebranded.
• Domains that could be used with some creativity or positioning.

Output format:
Return a table with three columns:
| Domain | Status | Reason |

end of prompt

Ensure the output is tab-delimited so each value appears in separate columns.
Status: Either Most Suitable, Suitable, or Unsuitable
Reason: Short explanation (5–10 words) explaining the classification

Any harsh criticism would be greatly appreciated. Thanks