Yeah you can get 1000 links to your site from a signature link, but really how much value can that really be for your site, arnt the search engines smart enough to know that they are all coming from a fourm full of 10,000's of other off site links? it seems to me 1 single PR 2 link from a page that only has 9 other off site links might be worth more than 1000 sig links.
sig links are worth next to nothing. Search engines know what they are and they know how easy it is to get them, So they don't seem them as a sign that the site is quality. They may help when it comes to getting the page indexed, But that is all they will do.
the only way they are helpful is if someone clicks on it to visit your site. there is really no seo advantage.
You do get SEO advanatages in that many engines will count even footer links as back links. They may not get as high of marks as other types of back links but quality sites they will add value.
If you have 18 PR1 links, your page rank will be PR1 If 200--300 PR1 links, your page rank will be PR2. Quantity counts even they are signature links
Ok i withdraw my comment slightly.. It does effect SEO but now that you see an example of numbers you see insignificance. It takes a lot to make a hoot.. Also Doing a little test it appears they only index your link per thread instead of per post..
there is a site on my recent blog section. it's only getting links from my profile and * google shows 143 backlinks and i'm also waiting the pr update to see which page rank will that site get. * there is one more important think for the signature links. it will bring search engine spiders to your site and will increase your indexed pages count on google. (this is a tested experience)
In my opinion, back links helps to get better PR. Now these back links may be either from sites or from signature that does not make a difference.
Traffic wise - people get to see your site and in terms of backlinks - I believe this does work as I have seen backlinks to sites in Google and others.
The way I see it, the impact may be minimal, but if I'm going to be posting anyway then I may as well get the benefit, no matter how small. I would never make a post, or join a forum, just for the extra backlink - I think that would be a waste of time, but if it's something I'm doing anyway for another reason, then the extra link won't hurt
My profile has a PR3, which would show your link on it. Add on a 1000++ posts to that, and it's pretty much a deal for $12 I can guarantee that a QUALITY sig link is worth FAR more then a random "links page" if that sig link is on a high traffic forum. Product recognition, a profile with PR, older posts (that have bump potential), and traffic. I'm getting more hits from my occult links in my sig, then I'm getting from any 5 "links page" sites I'm listed on and for no other reason then each time I post it's a "fresh link".
Sig links do have SOME weight from SEO point of view. It is definitely weaker than links on sites, but when many sig links accumulate, they do provide some help. I can be sure about of this because I have PR of one of my new site(templatenewtons.com) as 2 and predicted PR4 purely out of sig links from forums
You'd need to post in 200 pr1 threads to get that many pr1 links from a forum... Most threads/posts are PR0 or unranked. Links from various sources are always better then a single source.
Thanks for sharing this info, much appreciated. I always knew every quality link counts. Green rep given. Warkot