URL in signature of discussion forum post
-
I used to see URL's in the signature part of discussion forum posts covering various topics but it does not seem popular anymore. It seems like a good way to build links and I am wondering why it is not used.
Suppose I ask a question about proper tooth brushing technique on the forum at "toothbrushingforum.com" and user "ToothBrushWizard" is nice enough to answer my question. I used to see signatures like this:
Good luck,
ToothBrushWizard
www.ToothBrushWizard.comIs this considered poor taste or are these links discounted by the search engines? Is it best to keep an updated profile with your URL and hope that forum users click through to it?
-
I think most of the responses addressed the question as if it concerned signatures on the SEOmoz forums. I believe Daniel was asking about signatures on forums in general.
I can share two observations regarding links in signatures:
-
some sites disable the links completely. If that is the case, you will know right away and there is your answer.
-
some sites allow the link, but add a "no follow" tag. It depends on the site preference and the software they use. You can always view the page source code and see if the no follow tag has been added, then you will know the answer for that site.
The topic is a double-edged sword. You want quality contributors to receive credit for their work. Then again, by allowing these links you will attract some poor quality responses.
-
-
Have no fear, EGOL. I am not a spammer. I was planning to offer meaningful contributions and build links at the same time. (Not here, I dont know much SEO yet.)
thanks to everyone for your replies!
-
LOL careful Steve - it took me just a couple months of answering questions here to skyrocket from a couple hundred points to "authority" level. Of course, I did have to provide a lot of answers that were given "good answer" status. But if that's all it took to get a sig link here...
Then again - if people really did stick around long enough (even a couple months) and really gave good enough answers to rise that way, I suppose everybody would win. Even if most bailed out after they got their link.
Then again - if they did it for the link, they could then possibly revert to crappy answers, knowing that the sig would be there even with crappy answers.
Yeah - before my head explodes, I'll just stick with the "hope they don't offer it" answer you guys gave.
-
There is also some discussion within the industry that links of that nature have been so seriously abused by spammers that Google now recognizes such link patterns and either devalues them (doesn't give them the link value to pass along) or may even ding the site where all those signature files are.
-
And that's not to mention the automated software that creates profiles and then spams signature links in forums everywhere with generic posts.
I'm with EGOL, no need to add an inventive for that stuff in here.
Having said that, I think it would be cool if Authority ranks, or Guru ranks or something were given the ability to have sig links. It's not like any spammer would stick around that long to get there.
-
It seems like a good way to build links and I am wondering why it is not used.
Lots of people enjoy getting that type of link.
However, a lot of those same people will participate in forums for no reason other than dropping those links.
The result is a lot of low-quality posts that really are nothing more than spam.
I hope that signature links are not planned for this forum.
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
-
What Should be the URL of third party blog for my website
Hi All, What Should be the URL of third party blog for my website. Lets say if i have a website xyz.com (which provide pest control services in New York City) and I want to create third party blogs on platforms like blogspot, weebly etc so should i create the blog url as xyz.blogspot.com or i can use a keyword in the blog URL such as pestcontrolnyc.blogspot.com? Which URL would be the best as per Google's guidelines. Note: I have already have a blog within the domain as xyz.com/blog/ and i do weekly posting on this blog. But at the same time i want to create 1-2 third party blogs to get some backlinks from other sources.
Link Building | | Mr.Suren0 -
HOW DOES A CANONICAL INFLUENCE OR IMPACT ON A URL WITH BACKLINKS?
I have url A with a canonical to URL B. How is the behavior of the backlinks profile on url A? If some put a backlink to url A count as a backlink for url B?
Link Building | | Linio0 -
Keyword Domain URL structure
Hello all, We have a domain with one of the primary keyword within the domain itself (audisite) and reading through some of the topics, having a keyword within the domain itself seems to be not as significant as we had assumed. We currently have a URL strucuture ( http://audisite.co.uk/new-audi/a4 ) which we were thinking of modifying to something like audisite.co.uk/a4 based on the premise that the 'audi' keyword is already in the domain itself. Also in terms of URL optimization, which of these will be the most effective URL (if the content is exactly the same). Or is my whole approach incorrect to URL optimization fundamentally incorrect? /a4 /new-audi-a4 /new/audi-a4 /new-audi/a4 /new/audi/a4 I will be very grateful for any advice/suggestions/pointers. Thank you very much for your time.
Link Building | | nirpan0 -
Getting links into forums
Hi guys Ive been try to get my links to my site in forums but when i post a comment , which includes a link,
Link Building | | Hardley
they are marked as spam. Can anyone suggest any techniques to getting links into forums?0 -
Where/should I post my press release/articles on my own website?
I have started a long-term article marketing campaign and press release distribution. I will have about 4 articles and press releases in total every month. Although the press releases will not be self-promotional, sometimes they will be talking about a certain product that we unveil. The question is, due to the high quality of these press releases, should I put them on my website as well as publish them on third party websites? If so, because they target a specific service/product which we already have a dedicated page on our website, wouldn't that put Google in the position of choosing between the two pages? I was thinking to put them on my blog and link internally from there with the keywords that I target on those pages as anchor text. The same question for articles. Any suggestions?
Link Building | | echo10 -
Canonicals Url question
I manage a computer repair company website, www.callnerds.com One of our main marketing strategies are blog articles and press releases to newspappers. Because of this, we have a subfolder for the author of the newspaper articles who is becoming well known, and we wanted a place for people to connect with her personally. on this site callnerds.com/andrea We only publish articles that Andrea writes. Then on the blog we publish all of the articles, including articles that andrea writes, in addition to articles written by everyone else on our staff. i would like suggestions on wether a canonical link on the /andrea site should be used. the canonical link wold point to our blog. Her site is starting to get high quality links from newspapers and magazines, however all of the content on the site is duplicate content of the same article on our blog. Any thoughts?
Link Building | | NerdsOnCall0 -
Do you think it's a good idea to try to find synergy between clients for blog posts/citations/links, or should you keep clients away from each other?
Say you have for example three (in this case) clients, and: Client A sells red widgets Client B is a doctor Client C sellls blue widgets With some research, you find that: Red widgets (A) can make the process of blue widget creation (C) even more effective. Red widgets (A) can protect you from harmful things that doctors (B) are qualified to recommend that you stay away from. Furthermore, there are things that doctors (B) recommend that you do in order to maximize the benefits of red widgets (A) Blue widgets (C) carry with them certain potential health risks, which according to doctors (B) can be minimized using the following means Sometimes blue widgets (C) can be used to effectively repair red widget (A) factories ...and so forth. Sure you're really writing these articles to generate links and exchange authority, and frankly you started with "how can I find synergy between these clients?" rather than a with a great article subject that needed a citation which luckily happened to be another client, but the citations are legitimate and the clients are qualified to speak on the subjects where their expertise and interests overlap. Would you consider going ahead with this? Does anyone have any experience doing it? I could see potential pitfalls if clients were to interact with each other, but keeping yourself as the intermediary might well work and overall it seems like a decent way to grab low-hanging fruit as they say. What do you guys think?
Link Building | | PathMarketing0 -
Press release site for posting article and get links, what do you think?
If find sites like: http://eon.businesswire.com/portal/site/eon/ and http://www.free-press-release.com/ where you have to pay to post article, they have very good domain autority, what is your advice on those site? eon.businesswire.com/ is asking 225$ for a lifetime registration but they have a DA of 91, is this a good investement for building incoming links and increasing DA? Thank you, Jean
Link Building | | BigBlaze2050