1. Advertising
    y u no do it?

    Advertising (learn more)

    Advertise virtually anything here, with CPM banner ads, CPM email ads and CPC contextual links. You can target relevant areas of the site and show ads based on geographical location of the user if you wish.

    Starts at just $1 per CPM or $0.10 per CPC.

Are Forum Signature Links Good For SEO?

Discussion in 'Search Engine Optimization' started by Ameena, Jun 16, 2009.

  1. #1
    I’ve heard over recent years that forum signature links do not hold much value with regards to SEO and getting ranked in the search engines. To test this out myself I carried out a little experiement. I added a link to my forum signature of a popular internet marketing forum. With this forum I currently have about 500 posts which means that there will be a few hundreds individual threads / pages within this forum that contains this backlink.

    The link that I added pointed to a product page within a relatively new website which I had recently developed. This website and product is completely unrelated to Internet Marketing! With this being a non relevant forum for this product page it would really put it to the test to see whether my forum signature would make a difference to rankings.

    The product page in question is for a Bic Media Clic Digital Ballpen which is a very popular pen within the promotional industry. For this reason I chose ‘bic media clic’ for the anchor text. This wasn’t TOO much of a long tail so thought it would be a good keyword phrase to base this experiment on. Prior to adding the link to my forum signature I checked the current rankings over about 5 or 6 days and it was ranked solidly at 12th place in Google UK. After 3 days of adding the link the ranking moved up to 7th place. I took a screen shot showing before and after and have included them below so you can see for yourself the power that forum signatures can give, even if they are unrelated and include no other relevant text.

    This is by no means fantastic results but it does show that forum signatures do hold some weight and can make a difference to your rankings within just a few days. Particularly for long tailed keywords. This improvement with ranking was down to multiple backlinks from just ONE website. I’ll leave the link there for another week to see if there are any further improvements and then i’ll remove it.


    [​IMG]Screenshot taken 2nd June '09 showing No.12


    [​IMG]Screenshot taken 6th June '09 showing No.7

    *** NEW Update - 7th June ‘09 ***


    [​IMG]Screenshot on 7th June '09. Now 4th place in Google UK


    Source: [URL="http://www.article-writer-pro.com/blog/index.php/06/are-forum-signature-links-good-for-seo/]article-writer-pro[/URL]
     
    Ameena, Jun 16, 2009 IP
  2. DigitalChris

    DigitalChris Peon

    Messages:
    51
    Likes Received:
    0
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #2
    This is just my hunch but by looking at the SEO you've done on your title tag domain name "just-pens" ect..(which is good btw), and then looking at how your competition has more generic words, I think this may have more to do for the reason that page is ranking than the forum signature stuff.

    Also, "Bic Media Clic", who seriously would search for that, even if they were looking for a pen. I don't know much about that, but it would seem obvious to me that if someone were looking for a particular pen, they would use pen in the key phrase. That is such an obscure keyword and the fact that your site is new as well, I honestly am not surprised that you are ranking high for it. I believe you would rank for that phrase even if you did not have a single link pointing to it just because your onsite optimization seems to be good(plus the fact that you are new and google usually gives new sites a boost for a short period of time).
     
    DigitalChris, Jun 16, 2009 IP
  3. Ameena

    Ameena Active Member

    Messages:
    789
    Likes Received:
    10
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    60
    #3
    hehe its not my site its a piece of article I just came across thought it might be useful for some, but I can take in your view here.. it is highly possible. and being in SEO for a while there are even strange words that have high number of searches in google.. I used to wonder at some keywords sometime hehe..
     
    Ameena, Jun 16, 2009 IP
  4. thefandango

    thefandango Active Member

    Messages:
    787
    Likes Received:
    10
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    58
    #4
    Eh? So you did not do the experiment?
     
    thefandango, Jun 16, 2009 IP
  5. joe3082

    joe3082 Peon

    Messages:
    158
    Likes Received:
    4
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #5
    I hope this works with my sites
     
    joe3082, Jun 16, 2009 IP
  6. bluebenz

    bluebenz Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    876
    Likes Received:
    9
    Best Answers:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    138
    #6
    Good for SEO ? I am not sure about this.
    But I know it's good for marketing.

    Good luck with your rank..
     
    bluebenz, Jun 16, 2009 IP
  7. Destinyx3

    Destinyx3 Peon

    Messages:
    430
    Likes Received:
    5
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #7
    It is good for marketing, but not as good as you think for SEO.

    Its value is becoming less to Google, but it is still a vital source.
     
    Destinyx3, Jun 16, 2009 IP
  8. Pandemix

    Pandemix Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    954
    Likes Received:
    29
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    120
    #8
    Yeah, I really don't see forums bringing that many SEO benefits towards your blog. But that's why you should focus on getting some clicks from members of a forum to your blog with a signature link. :)

    Cool experiment though, but I think it may just be coincidental!
     
    Pandemix, Jun 16, 2009 IP
  9. whoyouare

    whoyouare Active Member

    Messages:
    167
    Likes Received:
    1
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    #9
    if forums are dofollow, it will help for seo but dont wait too much benefits
     
    whoyouare, Jun 16, 2009 IP
  10. NetProGamer

    NetProGamer Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    134
    Likes Received:
    1
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    103
    #10
    It's good to know these posts in DP are doing good for my sig link. I was a little curious but thought they would be followed/counted, just not as much as a relevent forum.

    Couldn't someone on here or other forums, sell a link in their sig with say 10 thousand posts?

    What would be the outcome of 10,000 links to your blog/site overnight?

    Just curious, cheers!
     
    NetProGamer, Jun 16, 2009 IP
  11. LisaRole

    LisaRole Peon

    Messages:
    21
    Likes Received:
    0
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #11
    I hope this works for my site as well, this days I wish. But for some reason this doesn't work the way it used to. Maybe things changed by now.
     
    LisaRole, Jun 16, 2009 IP
  12. Ameena

    Ameena Active Member

    Messages:
    789
    Likes Received:
    10
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    60
    #12
    dont expect too much out of a siggy but it does help a little..
     
    Ameena, Jun 16, 2009 IP
  13. tannchri

    tannchri Guest

    Messages:
    19
    Likes Received:
    0
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #13
    It's true: signature links on many forums are great for SEO.

    There are multiple factors to consider though, before you run out and register on a hundred forums just to get your signature link out there. First, you need to make sure the signature links are "dofollow" and don't have the "nofollow" tag. You also need to make sure that the forum is fairly well ranked in the search engines already for big keywords, if the forum is tiny and doesn't have search authority you're better off creating spam blogs and putting your link there.

    But most importantly: if the forum you're using your signature on isn't related to your site's topic, you're wasting your time.

    When looking at reported backlinks for my website in Google, Yahoo!, and Bing, I see that forum signature links represent a HUGE majority of the reported backlinks. So yes, there is SEO value in signatures.
     
    tannchri, Jun 16, 2009 IP
  14. laukpauk2009

    laukpauk2009 Banned

    Messages:
    244
    Likes Received:
    0
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #14
    If your forum have dofollow link, it will help for seo. this signature will give many backlink for your site.

    if your link is storng it will increase your pr on next update .
     
    laukpauk2009, Jun 16, 2009 IP
  15. JessieJames27

    JessieJames27 Active Member

    Messages:
    1,652
    Likes Received:
    15
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    78
    #15
    If it is high PR and with do follow attribute on its links, then it will definitely help your site. But of course, a website can't rank very well in search engines (Google) only with forum strategy. It's a mixture of different ingredients in order to give a satisfying results.
     
    JessieJames27, Jun 16, 2009 IP
  16. ArticleSubmissionService

    ArticleSubmissionService Guest

    Messages:
    23
    Likes Received:
    0
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #16
    First of all, what a worthless response.

    Ok, I did a little research. Having "pens" in his url certainly does not make his site go to the top. And no, I don't think people would add "pen." it's a specific brand/product. Just like we wouldn't search "Ford Mustang Car."

    And, who seriously would search for it? Well considering the 8000 results I got for "bic media clic" it seems as though someone is buying bic media clics online, and you're missing out on the market.

    Are you new to SEO? Seriously?
     
  17. mrandrei

    mrandrei Peon

    Messages:
    1,133
    Likes Received:
    9
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #17
    Forum sig links are still valuable in SEO. But their benefits tend to be short-term, that's the reason why other methods are needed to build a variety of quality links.
     
    mrandrei, Jun 16, 2009 IP
  18. JaS0n

    JaS0n Peon

    Messages:
    25
    Likes Received:
    0
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #18
    Signanture links in Dofollow forums does help in building backlinks for your website or am i wrong?
     
    JaS0n, Jun 16, 2009 IP
  19. jacktok123

    jacktok123 Banned

    Messages:
    51
    Likes Received:
    1
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    0
    #19
    signature link is always give good value in serp.

    but better if the forum is related to your niche.

    BTW thanks ameena to post thread with proff. :)
     
    jacktok123, Jun 16, 2009 IP
  20. Ameena

    Ameena Active Member

    Messages:
    789
    Likes Received:
    10
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    60
    #20
    it does help thats the whole point of this thread.. ^^ you are welcome always :)
     
    Ameena, Jun 16, 2009 IP