Do search engines count forum signatures as relevant links? Do SEs, which are now smarter, put much weight on forum signature links?
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Do search engines count forum signatures as relevant links? Do SEs, which are now smarter, put much weight on forum signature links?
They do, but I've heard rumors that the way they count signatures will change. Instead of 20 links from this forum, all of your posts will equal 1 link.
SE's seem to be looking at forums and directories fairly heavy in the past couple of months. Mainly paid links. The links do count I wouldn't make a business model out of it.
So, does that mean one must register to as many forums as possible instead of concentrating to just one forum?Quote:
Instead of 20 links from this forum, all of your posts will equal 1 link.
It probably won't yield the results you want, since I think you'll find many forums don't allow commercial links in signatures. For instance, of our 30 Internet forums that we publish, this is the only one that allows a signature for a brand-new user. Signature permissions on those forums are granted after the user has posted for a while, and even then, commercial links would be removed.
Well, how about if you were able to find forums that allow signatures even before you can make your first post, do you think it's right to register to as many forums as possible compared to concentrating to just one?
Do I think it's right? If you're asking me to evaluate the moral implications, I would have to say no, it's spamming. That's certainly how I would view it and treat it as administrator/manager of 30 Internet forums. Increasingly, spamming as a means of advertising is becoming like a stamp on the company that does it which reads "disreputable company". Personally, I think it's high time.
Forums do not exist so that we can paste and post our links on them. A nice side benefit, sure, but I think it's an abuse. And now that the SEs are leaning away from counting them so hightly, the forums might benefit.
You're right JPnyc. So what should one do in order to make the most out of forums without using any signature.
I think you've just given me the answer to my question The Old Sarge.
No one said you shouldn't use a signature at all, just that posting on each forum once just to drop your link is spamming. If you're a contributor to the forum as you are here, and the forum allows signatures as this one does, well that's fine. That's a give-and-take relationship, a symbiotic one, rather than parasitic.
Kind of like the salesman at his niece's wedding reception.
While he may "talk shop" with a few people, he doesn't go around indiscriminately passing out business cards ... unless he's a real Dilbert. :)
I see... So the best thing to make the most out of forums therefore is by making a name with what you say or contribute and not directly with your sig. Is that it?
Yep, a lot of our business comes now from referrals - if you can contribute to a discussion and offer otherwise paid-for advice (on SEO for example) it helps build your standing in this community.Quote:
Originally Posted by affearner
As far as I can see it networking whether online or down your local networking group meeting is far more about finding mutually beneficial partnerships as it is blindly handing out business cards.
On another popular forum (ed: not as good as this one obviously :rolleyes: ) we've built partnerships with graphic designers, an excellent CPC account management bod and a printers.
Yes. It's better to have a good reputation and to gain respect in two or three forums than to have signature links in a thousand. IMO, a big part of the reason the SEs have lowered the inportance of forum sigs is that, by themselves, they are meaningless, insincere and no better than spam.Quote:
Originally Posted by affearner
Search engines are smart :-) i doubt they count the links much at all right now or have been counting all your posts on a forum the same as one for a while. It is easy for an engine to tell if your site is only linked from a forum. It might help you a little more if your site is very new. It could quicken the rate at which a spider gets to your site. If the forum is crawled and finds your link it might get to your site (and hopefully you also have a site map) and then crawl your new site sooner then if you just submitted it directly to Google. However, there are plenty of ways to get your site indexed. If you are just looking for an SEO benefit i would think (and i have no real research to back this up) you would be much better with article submission on content relevant to your site/products/services/ and a link back to your site in the article or "about the author" section rather then forum posts. Another important reason for this is that the article would then get feed out through a larger number of sites and feeds compared to your forum post link.
opensourceforece: Are you saying that links on forums no longer count?
No....I did not mean to make it seem like forum signatures don’t "count" but I just think that some people feel like forum posts are like a score that directly relates to their search rank. "If I just make it to 1000 posts for my signature then it will be as if I have 1000 links back to my site, and I will then be in the top ten." The people that work at Google and other engines are bright ;-) Their success depends on their ability to accurately judge the relevance of search results. There is nothing too complicated in determining if a link comes from a forum post signature or that 1000 links to URL all come from the same forum, or that the links only come from forums.
I could go on…but I know there are people who know much more then I do on the subject. Do the links hurt? I doubt it. Do they help? Sure. My opinion though is that there is some magic point (and it is probably MUCH lower then you might think) where having multiple links on the same forum stop benefiting your site. Moreover, what matters most is relevance to engines. Having 100 links on a forum, especially if only in a signature might mean there is “some” value in your site, but it doesn’t necessarily make your site more relevant then one that has only one link on maybe 5 forums, but also has listings on shop compare sites, article links, press releases, blogs, AND great content, etc. However, since anyone can quickly generate 100 links from a forum signature…my guess (and guess only) is that the good people at Google HQ and others…have already accounted for that ease in determining relevance.
Really though…this is more based on an assumption…I don’t have any real SEO research to back it up. It would be interesting though if someone took too similar URLs with similar content and tried a bunch of signature links to one on a few forums and then one or two links for the other URL to see how much difference they can see between the two in a search rank.
You could do the same with two other URLs. Link like crazy with forum signature posts to one.....and just link once to the second URL but make sure that other URL has much more content that is relevant to your search terms. My money is on the URL with quality content and a single link over the one with "multiple drive by forum postings" to a less quality content site. In short, your time is better spent building quality and relevant and changing content rather then just spending all day going from one forum to another making posts with a signature.
Anyone have plenty of free time on their hands to test? :D
Thanks opensourceforce. I'm glad you have given me a reasonable response to my query. I'm just alarmed because I was once informed that a friend of mine was requested by her boss to sign up to forums related to the list of KW given to her. I really thought it was unreasonable because signing up to one forum and making a name there not only through sig but through valuable insights and questions posed is far better than signing up to a bunch of forums along with her sig. I also got confused because probably each sig is counted as one so I said why not give it a try. But then again, I said SEs aren't that dumb; otherwise other sites would compete with Google at the first rank right.
All this is future thing but at present yes forum signatures are weighed heavily in SE's.
Can you elaborate on that darsh99?
Forum signatures are not given any special rating by search engines, they are just counted another back-link to your web site.Quote:
Originally Posted by darsh999
It will be interesting to see if Google change the way they appraise forum links, if they do then I can also seeing it affecting social networking web site links, i.e. bookmarked pages on Facebook / MySpace etc which link back to your web site.
Thanks for the clarification QuikShop. But still I'm confused and doing my own research.
I agree to opensourceforce
I also doubt they count the links much at all right now .
They have to be smart
OK. But I'm really interested about their exact weight.
I think is is one of those where might as well do rather then not do it and have a regrets.
Thanks!
Demeter Apollo
Edit by admin: no contact info permitted on the forum, thank you
Most forums assign a "no follow" attribute to links. Putting links in forum signatures allows other users to know where to know where to find you. It's "branding" so to speak.
Sure Signature links are important for search engines as to your visibility. How relevant those are for search engines have nothing to do how many times they has been used. If used in the thread or page having relevant topic to your site and with relevant keywords as your link anchor text, they will increase your page rank.
Dear Old Sarge!Quote:
Originally Posted by The Old Sarge
Why ! they are counting our link without putting signature are SPAM?
:D
Like many others have said, the link value in the eyes of the search engines is questionable. I would not rely my link building efforts on forum sigs, but the great thing about forum sigs is the actual traffic you get from the sigs. Since the forums are very targeted traffic, your sig link will provide good traffic, assuming you leave interesting and relevant forum postings. The point of links is to rank higher to obtain traffic anyways.
Ok, I'll offer a little explanation as to how it works.
First, the importance of the link depends on various factors. I will list these factors in order of importance:
1) The PageRank of the page on which the link is placed.
2) How many other links are on the page.
3) Where on the page the link is located (higher up = more value).
4) How related is the information on the page to the information on the page of the link.
Your average forum post has a very low pagerank therefore the link you add is worth very little based on that factor alone.
Multiple links from the same site definitely are not worth as much as multiple links from different sites (assuming all conditions are equal).
Having said all of this, there is an example where posting multiple times will yield tremedous benefit. This is when your forum profile has a link.
I have seen posters on some forums with thousands of posts and when you look at their profile page it has a high pagerank. Then there is just 1 link on their profile page - boom, huge benefit.
So you can actually get a good link from a forum even without signature links as long as the profiles are linked to and as long as you can have a link on your profile.
Another thing you have to be careful with these days is not to have all your links use the same tags. For example if all your links use "Best Seo Company" in the text of the link Google will pick up on this. Be sure to diversify.
Hope this helps clarify.
I think if you writte a good article, the sign may usefull.or you should be a "sofa".
On of the way to increase Page Rank of your website is through building backlinks. There are several ways to build backlinks and adding signatures to your Forum posting is one of them. Forum signatures hyperlinked to your site serves as potential backlinks. SEs do give a lot of attention to forums and blogs which results in fast crawling of these kinds of websites and hence links on these site are indexed faster.
I think there is no harm in putting signatures, if its not done for spamming. I feel signatures makes your comments a legitimate one. As i feel they make you more responsible in replying to a thread, you just cant write something which is non relevant. Thanks
When you write a post to a message board, bulletin board or forum, most good systems allow you to have a signature on your every one of your posts. You can write a question, or answer a question on the forum and your signature appears just below what you added to the conversation.
There is one thing different about links in your forum signatures that sets them apart from links on other sites. It is not:
* Directly related to how the search engine sees the link
* The size of the link
* The text of the link
or any other linking technique. It comes down to the fact that forum signature links are editable.
Offer many resources - If you list a lot of helpful URLs that you have nothing to gain from, you are showing the reader your care about sharing helpful resources. Accidentally slipping in a link to your own resource is also suggested.
Updating - Forums have a lot of repeat traffic and people get used to blocking out familiar forum signatures. Update your signature often and add a new creative label to let people know it changed.
Forums are among the salutary place to boost your sites. These forum signatures are automatically connected into the post created by the member. There are two prominent points why you should make the best of applying forum signatures. The fist point is the direct traffic you are able to acquire, and second, the search engine optimization advantage.
I don't think so that "20 will be considered as 1". I am sure its just rumor because each signature or back link should be considered & treated with separate identity.
So both ways are effective as to make many posts on single forum or make posts in different forums.
NO i don't think forum signatures count too much in the eyes of search engines.
i think it is easy way to get high PR.
The forum signature is a block of information repeatedly appended at the bottom of each forum post. Signature Post in forums and newsgroups with related topics and include your blog URL in your forum signature.