Forum Sig Links as Backlinks?

by Brad Spencer

Posted: 14 years ago 23 replies

Hey Warriors,

I'm pretty new at the SEO game and was wondering if anyone could answer if an anchor text link in a sig file counts as a backlink?

The reason I wonder is b/c forum threads are conversations and have lots of links so I would think Google wouldn't like them...since it's obviously easy to game.

Anyone clear on this?

Cheers and Thanks in Advance,

Brad

#backlinks #forum #links #sig

Matt Blake 14 years ago

Hi Brad,

Forum links do count as back links but from my tests (and I do a lot of tests) they aren't really good for anything by themselves except for indexing.

Also if you're just going to be using WF for your source of signature links don't expect to get the combined linking power of the 1.5K posts you have made. Since they're all from the same IP with a huge number of out bound links one each page Google will discount its effects by a lot.

Good Luck!
-Matt
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- lukemeister 14 years ago
  
  I guess I come from the school of thought that it can't hurt, but it's not something to rely on to drive your site up through the results pages - with forum backlinks you're better off relying on that to get targeted traffic to your site through the links rather than it affecting your positioning in the search engines, even though it might help give a small boost depending on the link type
  
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  CIKMarketing 14 years ago
  
  I would agree with lukemeister. Likely forum backlinks aren't going to count for much in the search rankings, but they can't hurt. Google has stated that they "like" forum posting, especially when done naturally to niche related forums. It can't hurt, but relying on forums as a major source of link building likely won't help you in the long run. Good luck with your projects!
  
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Brad Spencer 14 years ago

Thanks everyone for posting...I just wanted some clarification. I didn't expect them to really get anything but i have noticed threads I've started and replies to come up...and pages indexed only by forum sig links.

Cheers,

Brad
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- HCLee 14 years ago
  
  Another way to get backlinks which are better value is whenever you do your forum postings, try to optimize your post it like you are writing for an article on your blog. Add some keywords specific to your discussion and bold these text. But be careful not to have too many. I have seen this method work for me.
  
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InitialEffort 14 years ago

I've also notied forums are being much more picky and they aren't just letting you register with a username and then making a post. A lot of these backlinks are not sticking for me anymore.
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Groovystar 14 years ago

I normally let people post on my forum with their link in their sig, much like people do here. However, we delete/ban anyone who signs up immediately having a linked-up sig with stuff in it unrelated to our site's genres in any way at all and clearly done for only business and SEO, and then making a post that is not specific to our forum at all. It indicates to me that this is a spammer and we can't take any chances, we have minors on our forum and many spam bots post p0rn and yes we've had them do it on our site. Obviously we can't trust an automated account not to post that stuff so we ban them on sight. So, I know where the forums are coming from.

As for me I just post on forums like this when I want to promote my site, it is on topic here and welcome. I think if everyone just followed forums' rules about this stuff there would be less of a problem.
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kattima 14 years ago

If you are posting to forums to promote your website, ideally you are adding to discussions that are relevant to your website where your signature link might be interesting to the initial viewers of the thread.Also, if the thread ends up being popular and is linked to throughout the forum and even from other websites, that thread (where your link is placed) will undoubtedly grab search engine traffic, and then present more opportunities to draw people to your forum signature link (if it's relevant to the current discussion).
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Matt Blake 14 years ago

Hi Brad,

I just saw that you gave me a PM through WarriorForum.

However since I don't have 50 posts yet I can't reply to it.

Do you think you can shoot me an email at mattb (at) serpelite (dot) com?

Thanks,
Matt
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- SledgeHammer 14 years ago
  
  Forum signatures rate high as backlinks because Google considers forums with high regards especially from high traffic authority forums.
  
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tri 14 years ago

as long as the thread is indexed, a link is still a link no mater if it's a forum sig. In fact, the sig link will be just as valuable as any other high PR backlinks if that thread "somehow" got a lof of back links and became a high PR page
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mindya987 14 years ago

Hey all I am very new to all of this and have been reading this string. Would you say that it is better to build forum backlinks or to put more time in bloging ?
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jhonsean 14 years ago

Agreed with tri. It counts as a backlinks regarding forum signature links and blog commenting is one of my link building strategies.
@mindya987 building forum backlinks and blogging is also important in SEO i consider blogging is one of the most in demand in optimizing a particular site.
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Jordan Kovats 14 years ago

I have ranked sites on 1st page with longer tail terms using only forum links.
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- JoeWunschSEO 14 years ago
  
  They certainly will help you rank. All links are not equal, but they will give you some link juice. You can also use these lower quality links to target your longer tail keywords, your company name or your URL in order to "water down" your websites anchor text records without wasting a valuable link to do so. (if you follow the advice of only having a certain % of your links have your main anchor text, and have the rest varied -- personally I call BUNK on that myth)
  
  There are some very affordable companies which you can outsource your forum link building campaigns to as well.
  
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mascomasco 14 years ago

In a discussion like this,so many views.Whose view are we to follow cocerning forum backlinking?
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- JoeWunschSEO 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by mascomasco
  
  In a discussion like this,so many views.Whose view are we to follow cocerning forum backlinking?
  
  I personally feel you should take what everyone said with a grain of salt, try out some of the things discussed and see what works for you. Use a new or domain you do not care about, and see what happens.
  
  As the saying goes, there is more than one way to skin a cat--- and there is more than a thousand ways to do SEO.
  
  Nothing wrong with experimenting a little with throw away domains before putting it into action on your money sites.
  
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checkerpatterson 14 years ago

Thank you all for ... I just wanted a clarification. I do not really expect to get something, but I realized I started the discussions and answers to come ... and indexed by the ties of the GIS Forum.
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rajaiklanbaris 14 years ago

yeah...google counts it as back link..And it increase my rank at google too..And based on my experience..it will help our new site to get indexed soon..
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seoindiaforu 14 years ago

It just depends on the type of website you have chosen to get the backlinks..some of them would count while the others won't.
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usaimarketing 14 years ago

Yes Signature links are always counted as backlinks.If you post reply on those forums that allow do follow link or signature than you will get quality back link to your site by this forum and also your site rank is increase in search engine.
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shauryas 14 years ago

signature link from forums can be count as a backlink.
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Dreamsight 14 years ago

it can't hurt

Might not strictly be true. There’s a lot of theories out there about bad links hurting a sites search engine ranking position. The only people who know for sure is Google and they aint talking
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Forum Sig Links as Backlinks?

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