Sig Links Don't Count that Much

[bigcat1967]

I read a lot of crap from a whole lot of ppl pretending they know all about backlinking. The first thing they always talk about is that you want to get thousands of backlinks from sig links (basically from forums). I'm not going to say that I totally disagree with them, after all, the two sites listed as my sig links, I backlink from various SEO sites such as this. BUT, I know that MOST sig links are not helping these two sites organically, but I put them there because it doesn't hurt neither. I do believe they help a little, but not a whole lot.

First of all, these same ppl don't talk about linking from relevant sites. You have to link from sites that are relevant to yours. The more high PR relevant sites that are linking to your own site - the better off you'll be in the SERPs. This is one of the secrets to building links.

Secondly, these so called "SEO Wizards" always talk about getting thousands of backlinks (and they are referring to sig links) - and if you get this many, you'll be on page one in no time. Nothing could be further from the truth. The next time you leave a sig link - look at the PR of the page (not the site's index page). It's usually 0 or N/A. That's not going to help you. On top of that, the same page where you are leaving your sig link, other ppl have commented and leave their sig links as well - therefore, bleeding the page of link juice.

Look - I'm not trying to bash ppl for leaving sig links...like I said, I do it as well. I think it does help a little - but not much at all. I really think if you have good content and keep posting new stuff on your site (and try to leave it as link bait), I really do believe that ppl will link to you and this will help you in the SERPs.

One question you have to ask yourself in the end - Don't you think Google doesn't know about DoFollow forums such as this one and do you think Google will really reward you for leaving 5,000 sig links??? I don't think so.

[Intrepreneur]

Originally Posted by bigcat1967

One question you have to ask yourself in the end - Don't you think Google doesn't know about DoFollow forums such as this one and do you think Google will really reward you for leaving 5,000 sig links??? I don't think so.

Having 5,000 links in one forum does have more benifit than having only 1 but the problem is, those 5,000 links are nothing compared to 5,000 links from 5,000 different Ip's.

[Joe118]

Right, and sig links are easy for goofle (not a missspelling ) to recognize and hence to discount. You want contextual links in the middle of the paragraph, those are more valuable than sig links.

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by bigcat1967

First of all, these same ppl don't talk about linking from relevant sites. You have to link from sites that are relevant to yours. The more high PR relevant sites that are linking to your own site - the better off you'll be in the SERPs.

But, most people just sit around waiting to get that perfect relevant link and end up building few, if any, links at all and getting little or no traffic to their site. No doubt, having a great relevant link will help you, perhaps a lot, but don't ignore getting lower value links while you're waiting for "Mr PerfectLink" to fall from the sky.

[Jeff Hollyhand]

They may not count that much but I think they are worth doing, along with all of your other backlinking.

TIP – You may know this already.

I have an out-tasker that is a paid forum starter.
When someone starts a new forum they pay him to register several accounts, start new threads and posts with good content. Then he does a few articles and social bookmarks the forum to help the forum started.
Anytime a forum relates to one of my sites, he put my signature link in one of the account and makes a few good posts.
He is doing the work anyway, so he does not charge me much at all and it is another IP address linking to my site.

[ShanghaiTours]

Sig link is just one of the ways in link building. Having 5000 sig links is not so good as having them from diversified sources.

[Angela V. Edwards]

Originally Posted by bgmacaw

But, most people just sit around waiting to get that perfect relevant link and end up building few, if any, links at all and getting little or no traffic to their site. No doubt, having a great relevant link will help you, perhaps a lot, but don't ignore getting lower value links while you're waiting for "Mr PerfectLink" to fall from the sky.

'

Exactly. And what is a "relevant link", anyway?

That is another myth that gets passed around a lot. Sure, it's good to have relevant links and Google recommends it, but links that are not "relevant" also count.

The Drudge Report was put on the "map" the day he broke the news that
President Clinton was having an...er, indiscretion with a young intern named Monica Lewinsky. THOUSANDS (maybe even HUNDREDS of thousands) of sites linked to him that day. Many of them were not in his "niche".

About six months ago I challenged my Physical Therapist (I have an old ankle injury) that I could get him on Page One of Google for his keywords. He was at the bottom of Page 6. I did his links one night and then went to bed. The next day I got up and checked and he was NUMBER ONE in Google for ALL his keywords. Not one of the sites I added his link to was "relevant" for Physical Therapy or even Health and Wellness. Yet they still worked that well that fast. And his site is STILL in the number one position; this many months later.


You often see "Yellow Page" sites linking to major businesses. Now, you and I, being humans, can understand why a site like that might link to a business' website, but do you really think a Search Engine's algorithm can make that determination? What if there was a "community portal" site that linked to all the businesses in the area? What about directories? What "niche" are they in? Search Engines do not and cannot determine whether all the sites linking to other sites "make sense" (relevant) or not.

The search engines would have to know what is "relevant" and that will take a LOT of human interaction. A site for parents might link to a veterinarian's website because the site has a warning about a certain flea medication being poisonous to children, Yellow Pages websites might link to businesses in the area, the Fire Department's website might link to the PUD (Electric Company) because of a warning about electrical sparks, the Food Bank might link to the local High School because of a huge food drive the kids did...see what I mean? To determine "relevance" would take CONSTANT human interaction on all the TRILLION webpages on the Internet. Many Web 2.0 sites' only "relevance" to anybody is the 'community factor' that they provide. Theme-wise, many of those sites aren't "relevant" to most niches.

Relevance is all...well, relevant.

[XFactor]

Originally Posted by bigcat1967

I read a lot of crap from a whole lot of ppl pretending they know all about backlinking. The first thing they always talk about is that you want to get thousands of backlinks from sig links (basically from forums). I'm not going to say that I totally disagree with them, after all, the two sites listed as my sig links, I backlink from various SEO sites such as this. BUT, I know that MOST sig links are not helping these two sites organically, but I put them there because it doesn't hurt neither. I do believe they help a little, but not a whole lot.

First of all, these same ppl don't talk about linking from relevant sites. You have to link from sites that are relevant to yours. The more high PR relevant sites that are linking to your own site - the better off you'll be in the SERPs. This is one of the secrets to building links.

Secondly, these so called "SEO Wizards" always talk about getting thousands of backlinks (and they are referring to sig links) - and if you get this many, you'll be on page one in no time. Nothing could be further from the truth. The next time you leave a sig link - look at the PR of the page (not the site's index page). It's usually 0 or N/A. That's not going to help you. On top of that, the same page where you are leaving your sig link, other ppl have commented and leave their sig links as well - therefore, bleeding the page of link juice.

Look - I'm not trying to bash ppl for leaving sig links...like I said, I do it as well. I think it does help a little - but not much at all. I really think if you have good content and keep posting new stuff on your site (and try to leave it as link bait), I really do believe that ppl will link to you and this will help you in the SERPs.

One question you have to ask yourself in the end - Don't you think Google doesn't know about DoFollow forums such as this one and do you think Google will really reward you for leaving 5,000 sig links??? I don't think so.

You are right, I tested sig-links out a while back and it did nothing
for my sites long-term.

- John

[Hafiz Zo]

Originally Posted by Angela V. Edwards

'

Exactly. And what is a "relevant link", anyway?



Relevance is all...well, relevant.

Thanks Angela for the thumbs up!

[saggy23]

Very interesting discussion and useful indeed! It might be true that sig links don't do much, but it's also true that still it's considered as one of the good steps of link building.

[dangrant]

I'm just curious, if Sig links don't count that much then why do all these "helpful" sites preach that that is the key to building your page ranking? Thanks

[AggieMom]

Originally Posted by Intrepreneur

Having 5,000 links in one forum does have more benifit than having only 1 but the problem is, those 5,000 links are nothing compared to 5,000 links from 5,000 different Ip's.

It is always better to have your links come form various recources, it is true.

But, if u can have then all from the relevant site, then it better IMO.

Correct me if I am wrong!

[Tom Johnston]

Yep, agreed. Forum signatures is a silly strategy to use for backlinking. It's great for sales, at least in my experience, but not so much for link juice.

[dp40oz]

Originally Posted by bigcat1967

I read a lot of crap from a whole lot of ppl pretending they know all about backlinking. The first thing they always talk about is that you want to get thousands of backlinks from sig links (basically from forums). I'm not going to say that I totally disagree with them, after all, the two sites listed as my sig links, I backlink from various SEO sites such as this. BUT, I know that MOST sig links are not helping these two sites organically, but I put them there because it doesn't hurt neither. I do believe they help a little, but not a whole lot.

First of all, these same ppl don't talk about linking from relevant sites. You have to link from sites that are relevant to yours. The more high PR relevant sites that are linking to your own site - the better off you'll be in the SERPs. This is one of the secrets to building links.

Secondly, these so called "SEO Wizards" always talk about getting thousands of backlinks (and they are referring to sig links) - and if you get this many, you'll be on page one in no time. Nothing could be further from the truth. The next time you leave a sig link - look at the PR of the page (not the site's index page). It's usually 0 or N/A. That's not going to help you. On top of that, the same page where you are leaving your sig link, other ppl have commented and leave their sig links as well - therefore, bleeding the page of link juice.

Look - I'm not trying to bash ppl for leaving sig links...like I said, I do it as well. I think it does help a little - but not much at all. I really think if you have good content and keep posting new stuff on your site (and try to leave it as link bait), I really do believe that ppl will link to you and this will help you in the SERPs.

One question you have to ask yourself in the end - Don't you think Google doesn't know about DoFollow forums such as this one and do you think Google will really reward you for leaving 5,000 sig links??? I don't think so.

Once you learn how to use forum links and guide the flow of link juice effectively you'll realize what you're saying is wrong. Those who talk about forum links being powerful are those who realize that just throwing 5000 forum links at your money site isn't the most effective way to use them. In the last month I just ranked 5 sites on page one for tons of keywords and without forum links I would have been nowhere. I personally think when you know how to use forum links they might be the most powerful and important part of any link building process.

[nasiporky]

Once you learn how to use forum links and guide the flow of link juice effectively you'll realize what you're saying is wrong. Those who talk about forum links being powerful are those who realize that just throwing 5000 forum links at your money site isn't the most effective way to use them. In the last month I just ranked 5 sites on page one for tons of keywords and without forum links I would have been nowhere. I personally think when you know how to use forum links they might be the most powerful and important part of any link building process.

Definitely I agree with you mate I got some sig links indexed by google on other forums and they are doing wonders. Sig link is a powerful tool if you could only utilize its power

[prasanth5]

It is nice observation and it is indeed true that signature links may not count that much to the link popularity. I think content writing is the best way of promoting the site or blog.

[ajrwestrop]

A lot of links on the same forum, yes, but say a max of 20 links from any one forum, then they are useful.