Forum Signature Links
-
After the new update from google, are Forum Signature Links still very good to use linkbuliding or?
-
**Hey, this is exactly right: **chase the marketing, not the algorithm
If you search around your topic and find frequent forum listings in the search results then get in on those pages and help out and that link back to your site is some good solid branding that will drive referral traffic.
On the flipside, if someone stumbles across that post and you have chipped in with:
"Yes, very good information, I am thanking you muchley"
And have a signature like
Keyword Spam | more Keyword Links | Blarghh SEO Puke
Then all you are doing is indicating to Google that you are trying to manipulate the results for those keywords so you will likely do more harm than good.
The spammy link algorithm aspects like Penguin are only going to get more aggressive so as Corey said above: chase the marketing, not the algorithm!
Marcus
-
And of course, you should not join all the forums that come along the way. I have seen people skipping reputed forums because they do not give instant back link from the signature section. This is a sickening mentality. Participating in forum is about helping others and not just getting a link back from them. So, if you wish you can add a link back to your website with Branded Keyword, avoid exact matched anchor texts like plague and you will be just fine.
-
They do get indexed and they can help as much as any other link. And, like everything, you're best off doing it without embarrassing your brand. So,
YES: If you want to plop a PR rep on a forum to make a good 15 or so useful contributions to the conversation, with a real signature, like you might attach to an email, compliant with that particular forum's signature guidelines.
NO: If you want to buy 100,000 forum signature links blasted using a piece of software.
As with everything, chase the marketing, not the algorithm. That will get you a lot further than worrying about what Google will be doing in 2013, because even if you dodge a bullet in the short-term, Google's end goals are always the same.
-
If your idea is to slap on your signature with anchor text heavy links on every forum possible, then no they are not a very good thing to be doing post-2012.
There's a place for them though. If you're participating on a forum that's relevant to your website then I don't see why you can't place a link or two to your website in the signature. But I would avoid trying to put manipulative anchor text in there. Just use the plain URL or a branded term like your business or domain name.
Also, google recently updated their webmaster guidelines with a forum signature example of what you should not be doing:
Forum comments with optimized links in the post or signature, for example:
_Thanks, that’s great info!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Ran a backlink competitor analysis and found that the competitor has their links coming from various linkedin and youtube posts but my client does the same thing and im not seeing any links coming from those sources for them?
Ran a backlink competitor analysis and found that the competitor has their links coming from various linkedin and youtube posts but my client does the same thing and im not seeing any links coming from those sources for them?
Link Building | | Stongex0 -
Would it be a valid "link building' strategy to pay youtube video owners, to link to our company website in the decription of a certain video. ( For popular video's that are relevant )
I was wondering if it would it be a valid "link building' strategy to pay / work out a deal with youtube video owners, to link to our company website in the decription of a certain video they posted? ( For popular video's that are relevant to our business. ) Anyone have any thoughts on this? Thanks in advance! Steven
Link Building | | RockyMountainFlyboard0 -
Tracking New Links
Hello, We are looking for tools to be able to track new links to one of our pages. I've explored OSE, Google Search Console, ahrefs, and Majestic. I've noticed that there is a delay in which new links are found; that not all the links are reported; and that many of these tools do not provide info on which links are new (vs. old). Are there certain tools you recommend over others to track new links as they come in? Any insights or best practices on link building tracking would also be much appreciated. Many thanks!
Link Building | | CuriosityMedia0 -
AllTop Linking Me to Other Sites Feeds, Webmasters Reporting Lots of Broken Links
I submitted my blog to All Top awhile ago and something seems to be wrong with their feed. They're sending people to mysite.com/truth-o-meter.com/this-is-a-post. It's not just truth-o-meter either. I'm getting links that are supposed to go to all kinds of political blogs. As a result, I'm getting a ton of broken links reported on Google Webmasters. I couldn't find any real support option on alltop.com, and when I log in, there are no sites for me to manage. Instead, I resubmitted the site with the correct feed address and in the comments, I mentioned the problem. All I got was a message saying the site was rejected. I believe because I already added the site. But I'm thinking they didn't pay attention to the comments. (In fact the message may have gone through an auto-filter considering how quickly it was rejected.) Is there a way to solve this? Is this a situation in which I would use the disavow tool? If All Top continues to create bad links, how do I stop the issue once and for all? Thanks!
Link Building | | eglove0 -
How much time does it take for the links to be forwarded to redirected link?
Hi there,
Link Building | | MoeezLodhi
Thank you for taking out some time for this question; I have changed the permalinks last week for a website.. I forgot to redirect old permalinks to the new one.. So I did 301 redirection, it has been 4-5 days since I did that but the links are not forwarded to the new Permalink so far.
How much time should I wait for the links to be forwarded to the new permalinks? Secondly, I am sure I have done the 301 redirect correctly, as when I go to the old url / permalink it directs me to the new permalink. So I am sure 301 is done correctly. Do I need to submit the sitemap again?0 -
Link Detox and Link Removal
I have a question about which links to remove after running a link detox from Link Research Tools. First a little back story. I had had an SEO company link building for one of the websites I own. But I have recently stopped working with them. In the last month my rankings have near dropped off the charts. I have just recently gotten access to Google webmaster tools and noticed an unnatural link warning from back in March. So yesterday I ran link detox and it reported 19 toxic links, 120 suspicious links, and 24 healthy links. It's rather obvious that I should remove all of the toxic links. They all from sites that have been deindexed by google. But my question is a about the suspicious links. What should my criteria be for removing them? Am I better off removing them all and leaving my site with only 24 healthy links or should I personally comb through them and remove only the worst of the worst so that I leave my site with a few more links? I'd really like to get the site ready to resubmit to google as soon as I can. Thoughts? yyCOf.png
Link Building | | CobraJones950 -
Link exchange Trick?
As a lot of you people doing link building may have encountered most people we approach want a link exchange Ex: "I am willing to put a link on my site if you put one on yours." Now the question I had from this ... if I link to a specific website with rel="nofollow" and they link to me normally. Would it be of any value or because the 2 websites link to each other regardless of follow or nofollow the links have no value?
Link Building | | mosaicpro0 -
Link Building
I've been hearing about going after niche directories, and my question is most of them have a ton of links on any given page. Is it even worth taking the time to approach these sites knowing they won't pass a lot of link juice?
Link Building | | azguy0