Do forums actually raise SERP?

Did some link exchanges with my directory and actually i got PR3 with my efforts however i am nowhere in the results page.

My only strategy with my limited budget is forums signatures. If i post to a lot of forums would it raise my SERP?

Jed

 

It would, nominally of course. I used to get PR5's earlier from forum sigs. But those were the hay days ... siiiigh ...

 

The type of link doesn't matter, although forum posts tend to be a little weak. This has nothing to do with it being a forum per se, it's just that with so many pages generated, each has realtively little power.
If you used anchor text with your link, the answer is
a) site is snadboxed temporarily if new
b.) Your listing has disappeared due to data fluctuation and will reappper soon. It happens, especially after sudden links. You'll probably reappear later.
c) you have crawler issues preventing that page from ranking. A duplicate page can do this.

Forums are good but don't expect much from each link. You will need many to affect the SERP.

 

Is your site at least ranking #1 for its own name? If it isn't, then you've been penalized for some reason.

 

My site is #1 with it's own domain. but i could not go anywhere with shopping keywords.

amanamission, Thanks for the useful info. I appreciate it!

 

Better to go for free directory submission services, because directories links are more valuable than forum links, and will help at long time, and will surely benefit you.
The budget also could be the same.

 

Thanks, I will put that in mind.

 

Yes they do .. Just came to know about this in my latest Experiment !!

 

Oh really.. Would you like to share your report with me?

 

if the forum is the same category

 

Free Directory links more benefited as it's are in the particular category of your niche.

 

Forum Links help in getting hits to the anhor text,to some extent they help in page rank also.

 

Thanks, So the answer is yes but with just a small impact.

 

Yes... forum posting will enhace the chance of indexing of your site but very less in getting good SERP but it does help.

Thanks...

 

They do have an effect on the SERP if you use the correct anchor text and will definitely improve the number of backlinks for your site in the google.

 

Would the type of forum have any significance like if i have a piano lesson blog and i am posting it here in DP would it have any effect?

 

it matters wether the forum owner allows the links signatures to be followed by google AND if the links in Your sig are legal to forum rules at all.
However You can get a decent traffic from those signatures, just from users who click to find out more about Your link