Forum Signature Links

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by james0225

Hi,

Many SEO people offer a servive called 'Forum Backlinks' where they provide backlinks in the users 'signature'

I would like know how SE's provide credit to forum signatures, especially when many are irrelevant links, does anyone know the reasoning?

Thanks

When you are an active member in a community who is truly interacting with others, you will find that people want to know more about you and what you do. When this happens they are far more likely to click on your links. This can explode in a number of ways including folks wanting to share your sites with others using social media etc.

The true benefits to participating in a forum though are the wonderful connections you will make with others along with learning things that will help your site. Everything after that is icing on the cake.

[ScriptMan]

Originally Posted by greatar4

The truth is that since you are allowed to have signature you should be able to include any link as long it does not violate the guidelines of a particular forums. From my perspective selling signature links is not supposed to get someone ban, except if that person is just posting low quality posts, or engaging in spamming activities.

I am not in a very good mood but I will try to be respectful and a little more blunt than the nice Admin. Selling signature links is against this forum's rules and is a banable offense. Furthermore while you are entitled to your opinion it is not your place to tell the Admin how to run the place. Now if you want to see if our bite is equal to our bark, go for it one more time.

[JackDany]

It will help you in one case :
- The forum is having a PR higher than yours
- The forum is having Dofollow attribute on links

But before using this method, think about that a forum is made for talking, not selling/buying signature links

[curier]

the thing is to have links from many sites , not 1000 from one . so you may need more than 27 forums..

[Gautegr]

Yes indeed. Backlinks from forums with high Pagerank, and also forum that is similar to your site is good. Several forums are preferred. Though, you also have to do other things, like optimizing your site (SEO).

[ponvendhan]

Back link is a back link at all time, so wherever you can get just grab it. Still forum posting helps to SEO.

[tracy1983]

If the GOOGLE ranking of rules changes, then the signature backlink, it is no longer useful, because this is the most simple of BACKLINK to get

[Dreamrage]

Originally Posted by curier

the thing is to have links from many sites , not 1000 from one . so you may need more than 27 forums..

27? wow. That's a lot to be working on at one time. I could not post the way I do if I have to spread it that thinly. For me, I would say that its better to have fewer forums, so that people have the chance to get to know you, rather than focus on a specific area, like just posting for a signature link. (IMHO of course.)

Originally Posted by ponvendhan

Back link is a back link at all time, so wherever you can get just grab it. Still forum posting helps to SEO.

Where I do agree with you, I just don't think that that should be the only reason one takes part in a forum. Forums help with more than just SEO, they are a better platform than social media that shows potential clients exactly the kind of person you are and how you interact with people. That helps them make one important decision, and that's whether or not to follow your signature link, and become a client. (once again, IMHO)

Originally Posted by tracy1983

If the GOOGLE ranking of rules changes, then the signature backlink, it is no longer useful, because this is the most simple of BACKLINK to get

So, do you think that forums would be less popular, or maybe not used entirely? If you look at two threads here, namely "what are you listening to", and "what are you watching on youtube", you will find that there are hundreds of links, and they all point to youtube, or other music related sites (if any). These links, as well as the links in signatures are picked up on by search engines, and if you looked for them in an online search, you would find them. Powerful, I'd say, bound to be lessened in power because of one search engine, maybe, but that is not the real reason a forum is created, nor is it the only reason that admins will try make a forum popular.

As cricket has said, links being picked up by search engines are like the icing on the cake. I've also mentioned here that even though forum signature links can help with a site, its what you put into the forum itself. That's where the real benefit of a forum is. If you actively participate, help out, give advice, etc. you're bound to become popular on the forum as people will see that you are a real person that is there to help others, and that makes them curious enough to follow your linkage. If, on the other hand, you post merely to get that signature link, people are going to see right through you, and your link will only be useful to search engines. (IMHO yet again lol)

[supershoesclub]

I think forum signature is really a good way to promote the website.But Be sure to post quality post with no spammy content. and you should only put your own website link in the signature.
But if you want to improve your SERP obviously,you should combine several ways like blog comments.article submission and social bookmarking service etc..

[mikesideas]

I think forum spammed links are not signature links they are normally on your profile page as a url not an anchor text link, these are really bad any form of link spamming is bad. For real human people to use links in signatures is good as long as they are within the terms of the forum and not spammy threads/posts,I would not base my link strategie around forum links,You will need to do much more than this to compete with most sites capable of making low/average daily revenue.

I did link spam about 6 years ago i was banned from google within days dont do it, its not worth it, you would have to start fresh on on a new project,it could cost you many months work.

[robmac]

Personally they are good for indexing web2 buffer sites but no good for ranking anymore. I should know as i own the daddy of forum backlink software and dont use it anymore.

forum signatures though are a good idea 1. for webmasters that own sites let people ( within reason ) drop signature links in and they get content from the poster and more traffic and 2. The poster gets possibly more link juice and direct traffic.

forum profiles are dead and do nothing aprt from indexing sites.
This forum is possibly the best site for moderation of signatures and spam.

[ket]

yes, search engine(SE) considering irrelevant forum back links, because any one can participate any open forum. Maximum people think irrelevant back links are not considering by SE, but practically this is wrong thinking, but one thing we have to post comment related to the thread.

[andrew1]

Forum signature is best for getting back links but for this post should be genuine and relevant.

[Donnie]

Forum signatures are helpful in context. I am working on optimizing an SEO site, so I am targeting other SEOs to share information with. Other SEOs are more likely to share/bookmark/link to what I write about. Thats why I am here, if my signature is not relavent to the forum thread I dont feel like it will benefit me as much.

There are many benefits to forum links, if applied properly.

I would recommend giving some incentive. Check my signature for reference.

[qhoster]

Google's latest update Penguin seems penalizing web sites which has a lot of forum profile links with the same anchor text used. So may be blasting with Xrummer is not a good idea anymore. This is the way SEO companies are doing it by the way. It is not healthy for your web site's future.

[florra82]

Just blindly using the forums signature as a part of link building strategy is not much worth the time spent unless you get some real traffic from those.

[caspernick]

When I check the backlinks to my site, there are several hundred that were installed by my previous SEO guy, all from the same domain, irrelevant and simply signatures. However, Google has not punished me for them, and I hope it does not in the future. I continue to post on this and two other forums which are relevant, interest me and engage my mind. I constantly check my competitors for their links and see a bunch of junk that is added every few weeks, which makes me wonder. Let's be real, SEO's count on signature links as a way to backlink, but should be more concerned about where these links are coming from, and are they relevant. I could ask one of my kids to add my URL to their forum signatures in what interests them, but a link from a World Of Warcraft forum is a blatant abuse. I will stick with more legitimate linking and allow Google to see the quality versus the quantity of my efforts.

[SpiderZq]

Originally Posted by searchbliss

These so called "SEO experts" are just spammers. Sig links are ADVERTISING, NOT OPTIMIZATION.

i don't agree with you, dofollow signature links are still helpful in SERPs.

[Donnie]

Originally Posted by SpiderZq

i don't agree with you, dofollow signature links are still helpful in SERPs.

Not necessarily, Forums are classified a grey area of linking. Even if your link is a dofollow its still a signature link. Not a natural one. Im not saying that it holds 0 value however it is the lowest quality link out.

The reason I like my signature is... well... just read it... I have gotten a few guest post requests and link exchanges and those requests are from my new friends. Now I have more friends to link to. Oh and many of them are involved in SEO. Making relavent link exchanges easier to find.

[robmac]

The do have value ( if only minimal )
for instance this thread if i was selling backlinks etc and used this thread as a sales tool and there was a mix of content then there is weight, not a lot of weight but still its positive and not negative. IMO