PR value of signature links

[indihow]

Hi guys!

I have had my blogs' links in my WF signature since I joined the forum in Nov '10.

One of them became PR1 from PR0 in the Feb '11 PR update.

Now, I was wondering whether removing the links from my sig. could possibly bring it back to PR0.

I had another subdomain as PR1 since Jan '10, and have linked to the www subdomain from there, apart from 100s of dofollow comment-links.

Have any of you noticed a change in PR (not traffic) after adding or removing certain links from the sig?

[Will Edwards]

Well, looking at your sig, it look like you could easily fit another couple of links in there

Seriously though, I am not convinced of the value of forum links. I have over 3K posts here, but I don't think that Google sees them as 3K valuable links.

As far as your PR is concerned, I wouldn't worry too much about it either. In terms of a metric, if making money is what you want to do, focus instead on visitors.

My main site is PR4. A number of years ago it was PR5. But guess what, this year so far, it is making about double what it made last year.

There are plenty of low PR sites doing very well in terms of income.

Will

[LooseChange]

In my experience, forum signature links and blog comment don't carry as much weight as getting a link from an article or blog post but they do have some intrinsic value as far as generating traffic.

As Will said, PR does not dictate overall sales. I've learned to focus more on creating unique, informative content and let the link building take it's own course from there.

[seobro]

I have found that weight they do not carry. Yeah, nor traffic do they garner. Prized ones are FEW, but links are many.

[ankur420420]

Forum links do carry some weightage but not much

Web 2.0 and article pages would be much better to focus upon

Moreover, the Page Rank of a site doesn't matters much if it has traffic and earns the way you want

Few of my PR 2 sites earn more than PR 3 ones

thanks
Ankur

[indihow]

Originally Posted by Will Edwards

Well, looking at your sig, it look like you could easily fit another couple of links in there

Seriously though, I am not convinced of the value of forum links. I have over 3K posts here, but I don't think that Google sees them as 3K valuable links.

As far as your PR is concerned, I wouldn't worry too much about it either. In terms of a metric, if making money is what you want to do, focus instead on visitors.

My main site is PR4. A number of years ago it was PR5. But guess what, this year so far, it is making about double what it made last year.

There are plenty of low PR sites doing very well in terms of income.

Will

Hi Will!

Thanks for the input.

I wasn't convinced about their importance for SEO either! However, as many have said before me, these links help a lot in getting new sites indexed. So, probably I'll focus on adding new and IM related URLs only.

[indihow]

Originally Posted by LooseChange

In my experience, forum signature links and blog comment don't carry as much weight as getting a link from an article or blog post but they do have some intrinsic value as far as generating traffic.

As Will said, PR does not dictate overall sales. I've learned to focus more on creating unique, informative content and let the link building take it's own course from there.

I too have understood the point that PR has not much to do with income. My income hasn't changed that drastically after the blog became PR1!

However, for getting direct ads, it is better to have a higher PR!

I am rethinking my ads based income strategy.

[indihow]

Originally Posted by seobro

I have found that weight they do not carry. Yeah, nor traffic do they garner. Prized ones are FEW, but links are many.

Yep! Apparently they are like neutrinos(1/200 mass) to electrons(low OBL PR0 pages)!

I don't agree with you about traffic though. I built a 43+ list in under a week from my forum sig!

[indihow]

Originally Posted by ankur420420

Forum links do carry some weightage but not much

Web 2.0 and article pages would be much better to focus upon

Moreover, the Page Rank of a site doesn't matters much if it has traffic and earns the way you want

Few of my PR 2 sites earn more than PR 3 ones

thanks
Ankur

I have noticed a similar outcome in terms of direct income, though finding advertisers helps when it is a PR3!

[Fulltrip]

But I thought it works. In fact I get some result also. Is forum posting to relevant high pr dofollow links does not works so much?

[JeffBridges]

You have total of 422 posts, mean on 422 pages of WF you have a link. It may helps you in getting PR 1 but that only is not enough for getting PR1, your blog age is now about 1 1/2 year old, that is another reason. Also bookmarking , blog commenting on other blogs also give you PR1.You can add another link in your present signature.

[sakibjubayer]

forum posting is a method of seo. but only forum posting not able to increase ur page rank.

[Lee Murray]

Originally Posted by LooseChange

I've learned to focus more on creating unique, informative content and let the link building take it's own course from there.

Can you explain this a little more, please? Do you mean that you, yourself don't do any backlinking and that you rely on your readers to make this happen? Thanks.

[indihow]

Originally Posted by Lee Murray

Can you explain this a little more, please? Do you mean that you, yourself don't do any backlinking and that you rely on your readers to make this happen? Thanks.

Readers linking to your articles is one aspect of it.

I have experienced that when you write good content, in terms of readership/traffic as well as keyword density, the articles get picked up by RSS suckers (autoblogs) and you might get links from those thousands of sites.

[dburk]

Originally Posted by indihow

I have noticed a similar outcome in terms of direct income, though finding advertisers helps when it is a PR3!

Hi indihow,

PR isn't the best metric for advertisers. I do plenty of advertising and I don't give one hoot about PR. It's traffic that interests me.

I suggest that you use a third party verification service like Quantcast. You can supply traffic demographics from a trusted third party to your prospective advertisers.

[indihow]

Originally Posted by dburk

Hi indihow,

PR isn't the best metric for advertisers. I do plenty of advertising and I don't give one hoot about PR. It's traffic that interests me.

I suggest that you use a third party verification service like Quantcast. You can supply traffic demographics from a trusted third party to your prospective advertisers.

Thanks a lot!

But sites like BuySellAds.com give importance to PR (or that's what has been said to me), so I naturally assumed that advertisers too care for it

Thanks for the tip.

[dburk]

Originally Posted by indihow

Thanks a lot!

But sites like BuySellAds.com give importance to PR (or that's what has been said to me), so I naturally assumed that advertisers too care for it

Thanks for the tip.

I haven't noticed BuySellAds.com ever mentioning PR on their page about how to price ad space, have you?

Naturally, there are less sophisticated ad buyers who "think" PR is important, there is no point in trying to argue with them. I let them have all the PR and I take all the traffic. But that's just me, some advertisers aren't interested in traffic so it leaves more for me.

[indihow]

Originally Posted by dburk

I haven't noticed BuySellAds.com ever mentioning PR on their page about how to price ad space, have you?

Naturally, there are less sophisticated ad buyers who "think" PR is important, there is no point in trying to argue with them. I let them have all the PR and I take all the traffic. But that's just me, some advertisers aren't interested in traffic so it leaves more for me.

Thanks again!

By the time I'm ready to put ads on my site, hopefully there will be more advertisers like you

[Jeremy Banks]

The way I see it is that google gives forum links a multiple. So say 100 forum links carries the weight of 5 regular in text links.

I think it would be the same way for blogroll links, a link on a blog with 1000 pages might count as 20 in text links.

All the links help, but they just don't carry as much weight as other links.

[indihow]

Originally Posted by Jeremy Banks

The way I see it is that google gives forum links a multiple. So say 100 forum links carries the weight of 5 regular in text links.

I think it would be the same way for blogroll links, a link on a blog with 1000 pages might count as 20 in text links.

All the links help, but they just don't carry as much weight as other links.

You are probably pretty close...anyway PR gets divided among 100+ links on any given forum page doesn't it?

So, effectively the distinction is inherent.

[App Developers]

I agree, the signatures don't carry a ton of weight! I change up the links all the time to get items indexed or just put on the map to test out certain keywords. You don't have to keep the same signature links all the time as when I changed mine out I saw no change in any of my rankings.

[indihow]

Originally Posted by App Developers

I agree, the signatures don't carry a ton of weight! I change up the links all the time to get items indexed or just put on the map to test out certain keywords. You don't have to keep the same signature links all the time as when I changed mine out I saw no change in any of my rankings.

Cool!

btw do your traffic stats go down significantly on Sundays/Weekends in general?

Mine go down about 30% each weekend.

[TBInternetMarketing]

I'd say you will find most PR links from forum signature links will be PR0's. This is because it is likely that there are not other high PR links pointing back to it.

My advice would be focus on finding the high PR links. I'm talking PR3, PR4, and PR5 links. I use a keyword tool to find these be reverse engineering other sites. Seems to work well.

[indihow]

Originally Posted by TBInternetMarketing

I'd say you will find most PR links from forum signature links will be PR0's. This is because it is likely that there are not other high PR links pointing back to it.

My advice would be focus on finding the high PR links. I'm talking PR3, PR4, and PR5 links. I use a keyword tool to find these be reverse engineering other sites. Seems to work well.

Yep!

I reached the same conclusions as you, and I do rev-eng PR4+ blogs which are dofollow.

Thanks for the reply