Forum Links

[craig96]

Most people on this forum are using their signature and putting links there as this is why it is there for basically. Some people like the added benefit and contribute more while others are just it it for the free links basically.

Now to Google, they could look at it two ways:

Obviously they trust this domain so that means it is not easy to spam the site so people who do posts meaningful posts will get there signature show so that tells Google that such links are not spam.

Links could seem a little spammy when people have 3 or more links per signature. I myself have 3 and I am unsure whether to keep them or stick to just one.

Google does not like paid links but if you can get a link for free then surely it is ok? Also, with signatures being a little self promoting, which they are then surly these links are ok as we did not pay for them, we contribute and we can not get links without this forum knowing.

After some think......(me thinking) I reckon that having two links in the same sig to the same site although different pages would not be very natural so I am going to just stick to the two.

[WinYourWayKyle]

Hi Craig,
I will agree with you on this one.
I think for the people who are real contributing members of the forum, they should be allowed to earn the link backs, since they have actually put in some effort to earn that link in their sig...

With that said, I do not feel everyone in here would be deserving of a signature link...
But, hands off to all the mods for keeping most of the stuff here in line...

This is one of my favorite forums to read and to contribute too.

[craig96]

Hey Kyle thanks for your response. Yeah, I think Google knows that some forums can be spammed and you can get free links but forums such as these are higher quality and the spam is filtered out.

I think a 2 per sig link is actually enough when I come to think about it and maybe implementing that would benefit everyone.

On another note, I have heard one SEO in the past say that buying links such as the Yahoo Directory is a signal to Google that your site is not spam, the reason being is that spammers want links for free and would not pay for such links. That being said why isn't the Yahoo directory being penalised for selling links?

[universal4]

Yea it's too bad some people are posting such crap in order to earn a link back and the mods here are becoming more aggressive all the time in deleting the spam and pruning out more of the BS posts.

There are even times when I will delete short posts that appear to be on topic if there is a pattern of posting material that has been copied from other sources or if there is a clear indication that the posts are made strictly to get links.

If the posts end up stimulating a discussion in a thread then they are often left alone.

Rick
Universal4

[universal4]

The above two posts are borderline useless so it's quite ironic that one of them states that.

In reality they make the cut because this particular thread is going the direction of others popsting an opinion and they both did just that.

HOWEVER what neither of the posters will admit to is that their posts were made strictly for wanting a link and not because they have anything of value to add to the discussion or our community.

Casthy you state the post should be relevant, but neither of your sig links have anything at all to do with our community so why did you even create an account here except to spam your links in the forum?

Rick
Universal4

[Richard (OLBG)]

For me there is a big benefit to other members here having links to their sites. If i see someone say something interesting, constructive i can check their site out and may get some other ideas.

On our forum we are really tight on links though but really genuine users of our forum are unlikely to have a site to promote. Some may have their own blogs, for which we have a www link rather than a sig link, which is less intrusive and the spammers/ungenuine people dont bother with.

What we do now do though is let people post their twitter addresses in their sigs, as its nice for our members to connect + and of course great for us if they chat about our site on twitter!

[Digitized]

participating in forums is very effective way in SEO to get back link of website but if you want better results you should participate in those forums which are related with your business

[universal4]

Digitized,

A perfect example of how a forum sig link holds little value to the reader (or the search engine) is your own sig link. (it points at a totally unrelated site)

Please don't take this wrong since I am the main supporter of allowing you the choice to use that link in your sig.

You are correct, actually participating in the forums of your choice will lead to seo benefits, but "drive-by" type of forum posting (such as signing up making a few "I aggree" type of posts and never returning) are the type of postings that we are against and the type of postings we want to limit.

My problem is that the link even shows at all since at this time you have only posted 2 posts in total. (Anthony not sure why this continues to happen)

Rick
Universal4

[craig96]

participating in forums is very effective way in SEO to get back link of website but if you want better results you should participate in those forums which are related with your business

This is what I mean with irrelevant forum links. Sorry but someone who wants money for gold is not going to participate in threads that are related to bingo or poker really as there main interest is gold. That being said there will be 100s of dedicated forums to jewellery were not only will you be able to participate more but your links will be worth more in the eyes of Google.

Sorry, I am not trying to blatantly slate you but you commenting on an SEO post tells me that you know how to SEO and is the main reason why you joined just for the boost.

[davemerry]

Googles link algorithm has no doubt been refined thousands of times over the years, I would be EXTREMELY suprised if their semantics could not work out the difference between a relevant forum link and some dirty spam based on text content of that page.

Even if it couldn't recognise this on a page by page basis, it would take a blind man to not see the anomalies presented in the domain outbound link profile on any niche targetted forum being hit by spammers - only a fool would think that Google is stupid enough to pass on positive credility to their site using the tactics seen by some here.

I have always viewed forum linking (in the signature section) as purely promotional with little to no affect on search engine ranking. Put as many links in as you want, use whatever anchor text catches peoples eyes - search engines may pass on a bit of juice but its not anything to worry about.

Would I rather the 100 people who viewed the thread to see and possibly remember my brand? Or should I not give them that opportunity and link to it with keyword spam for a 0.001% boost in credibility that will make no difference? Easy choice.

Sorry if I got carried away - I realise half way through some of my posts that I can't even remember what the original post was referring to

[universal4]

Uhhhh Dave, were you making a point?......just kidding....

I agree, I think the sig link here is more important as a promo tool than the seo benefit it provides.

And like someone mentioned in a thread earlier (whether this one or another) it helps other know our sites and styles and helps us connect to our fellow webmasters as well.

Rick
Universal4

[PremTips]

From a link building point of view I reckon forum links have very minimal impact, but at the end of the day a link is a link! For example, this forum is PR0 and has a limited number of good inbound links coming into it. Therefore, the link juice given out from a sub-page on this domain (ie a forum post) must send out very limited juice. Add to that, that most users have a signature (often with more than 1 link in), sometimes their posts contain a link, and therefore your signature link is often 1 of 10+ links on a single, low quality page. I think it's fair to say there's limited link value passed from the average forum post...

[universal4]

You post clearly defines that PR has little value in ranking.

The GPWA ranks very well in the SERPS with a PR0.

However, this forum does in fact have an ever growing list of links pointing at it.

Rick
Universal4

[PremTips]

You post clearly defines that PR has little value in ranking.

The GPWA ranks very well in the SERPS with a PR0.

However, this forum does in fact have an ever growing list of links pointing at it.

Rick
Universal4

Apologies, that seemed to touch a nerve! I was using GPWA as an example; my point being I believe links on forums with few inbound links but several outbound will pass minimal value

[universal4]

I think forum links pass little pr value whether the forum has a lot of inbound links or not.

My statement was an attempt to state that I felt you were incorrect that the GPWA has few inbound links, and IMO proves that toolbar pr has little value. (except for the seo people that keep pounding this metric into their clients)

Thankfully a number of the more respected seo people are a bit more honest about toolbar pr.

Rick
Universal4

[PremTips]

I think forum links pass little pr value whether the forum has a lot of inbound links or not.

My statement was an attempt to state that I felt you were incorrect that the GPWA has few inbound links, and IMO proves that toolbar pr has little value. (except for the seo people that keep pounding this metric into their clients)

Thankfully a number of the more respected seo people are a bit more honest about toolbar pr.

Rick
Universal4

That's cool - my original post only had 1 mention of Page Rank and it wasn't in the final sentence/main point of my post

[tipsfreebets]

I agree. I think after all if you do post some good content and also if you partecipate in the forum there shouldn't be no harm in promoting yourself. I think the signature has this purpose. Now, there are a lot of spammers like there like they are a lot of people that just write articles because they have to rather than passion. I always liked forum and I think people are getting a bit too nervous about banning users. Obviously you don't want people leaving porn messages or viagra, etc. but I have seen good posts disappear in the past (not here) just because there were links. After all nobody gets paid to post and the forum owners do receive an income on the back of it, so what is the harm of allowing some links? Also, nowdays there are not even that powerful. What do you think? Having said that I wouldn't put more than 3 links otherwise the balance I was talking about before is not right.