I can appreciate that having your signature on a post can get you visitors from the forum but in the eyes of a search engine would it class as a backlink ?
It counts as a link yes and the spiders will follow it. However, it is debatable whether the link carries any weight. Personally I don't think they carry any weight at all.
Yes , ofcourse it will be counted as a backlink in any of the database, thats the reason most of the site maker do gie consinement to people to create posts in various number of forums with the URL of their site as their signature. It just increases their back links and in turn their traffic increases drasrtically
Yes it does. There is another powerful reason why you should use signatures. Did you realize that some of the forum threads are indexed well in the search engines? This indirectly gives you traffic when someone searches the related topic.
Yes, this is important. Every forums handle their signature display differently.. For example, Sitepoint does not show the sig to the search engine bots..
It depends on the forum owner. This forum, for example, allows the links to be spidered. Some other forums won't allow visitors to see the links, they need a specific number of posts to be allowed that privelege. Others use the no follow tag.
If they are clear links and are added on search engine spider-able pages then they definitely count as backlinks to your site.
I would rather think of forum signatures as a way to get some traffic and not for backlinks since I personally don't think it carries much weight.
TNX.net is a great example, you are bound to see someone with his signature and therefore people will click or go to tnx.net
Yes it does count as a backlink as long as the forums do not use the nofollow tag you should get some juice from them, but not much.
"It counts as a link yes and the spiders will follow it. However, it is debatable whether the link carries any weight. Personally I don't think they carry any weight at all." Ditto.
Yes surely it does, your all the links in your signature will be counted as a back link each time u`ll post in any of the web page.
Signatures should be seen and routinely used as a way to: > Generate some free easy traffic. > Getting indexed in popular search engines...that point traffic to your site, when someone does a search on a related topic. > Can count as a back link that Google and other search engines will spider and rate you for having. Plug in one or more (the more the merrier) of the these sig tips... #1 Include a signature file on all the e-mails you send out. Provide your business name, phone number, e-mail and web address, etc. Also include a brief blurb for your business or the product you're selling. For example, you could say, "How To Wash Your Car In Two Minutes or Less! #2 Advertise a product you're reselling in your signature file. Use an attention-getting headline and a good reason for them to visit your affiliate site. Make sure your sig file doesn't go over 5 lines. Also include your name, occupation, business name and e-mail address. #3 encourage your visitors to sign up for a chance to get a web site award. Have them e-mail you their contact and web site information. You can e-mail the webmaster and tell him/her if they are the winner or not. Include your signature file at the end of your e-mail mentioning a product you sell. #4 Forward interesting e-mails to your online friends with your signature file included. They may end up forwarding it to their friends and so on. It's like a chain reaction, your message will just keep multiplying in everyone's e-mail box. It could possible reach millions of people. #5 Add a guest book to your web site. People will visit your web site to leave their opinions about your business and to list their signature file. Yes, they may only be doing it to get free advertising but it could be a visitor who might eventually buy your product. #6 Add a free classified ad section to your web site. You could then trade banner ads with other web sites that have free classified ad sections. You could also send a ‘thank you’ e-mail to people who submit their classified ad to your web site. Just include a brief ad or signature file about the product you're selling. #7 Post answers to other people's questions, ask questions and post appropriate information. Include your signature file at the end of all your postings. Some message boards let you include a text link at the end of your message. Plus you can learn great tips reading all the postings. I trust these tips will help stimulate ideas for even more signatures uses by all DP members. Enjoy...more to come soon L. Johnson