Does having lots of backlinks, for example in forum sigs help search engine rankings? Also on some forums I have my link as an image rather than an actual text url, do these count? If I have 100 posts showing my sig does that class as 100 links?
They show as backlinks in every tool I've used for checking. (And I've used several.) My profile on another site has a link to my homepage (site doesn't allow links in sigs) and every post I make there shows up as a backlink. I'm hoping this will help search engine rankings.
I would say that signature links only help for regular updating of index, and to improve search visibility. Forum signatures carry very little value...because it is very easy to get them.
How long does it take a site to get onto google? Whatever the page? I opened yesterday and before my site was just a coming soon page but a google bot had visited, how often do they visit? Also how valuable are meta tags this day in age?
yes, they will help you to get better ranking . forum signatures will also bring search engine spiders to your web site
Yeah but I still doubted about back links from directories because I can't see their backlinks in several tools.
All links help as long as search engines can follow them. Image links do help, just not for any particular keyword since there is no anchor text.
Every link counts however some hold less weight than others. Forum signature links don't hold a lot of weight but they are great for getting a site or new pages indexed.