If a forum and a blog have the same sort of PR value in Google's eye, would a backlink from a forum carry the same weight as a backlink from a blog? I seem to get my blog posts listed in many different forums.
I don't think one is more important than the other. A link is a link and if you can get one, do get it, whether its from a blog or a forum.
Whilst no one really knows what google thinks I would hazard a guess that a PR4 forum post ( if there is such a thing , I have not seen one ) would be worth the same link juice as a PR4 blog post.
First of all, on both the blog and the forum the links have to be do-follow links. Second factor for consideration will be the traffic of that particular blog or forum. Which ever will have more that will be considered and will be indexed faster.
@leeray - agreed, the links I'm getting from blogs and forums are related to my niche. @lucilla - both the blog and forum links that I am looking at are do follow. I guess then there is no real consensus, only Google knows.
I don't think it comes down to a blog and a forum but the relevancy of the content and the authority of the blog or forum. Whether it's from a forum or blog does not carry nearly as much weight as many may think it does. I just go for relevancy and authority. Mainly relevance.
One of the problems with links from forums is the number of other links on the same page (many of them internal links to profiles, thread order, general links to make the forum work etc) makes the value of your link very very small.
You should focus on its relevance instead of its platform (forum or blog or whatever). The more relevance theme you have been linked from, the more weight would being passed toward your site. Another factor for consider 1. Link Popularity 2. How old of those blog / forum ?(Domain Age) 3. How many links have already been placed? 4. Which kind of site that blog / forum linking to? If the blog / forum is related to bicycle and they are linking to viagra site then all links placed there have a risk for being devalued.
it doesn't matter if link is coming from blog or forum or any other type of website. Juts make sure that linking site is relevant to your site. If your website is about real estate and you obtained backlink from site dealing with glasses, then this link is not valuable for you. Also see how many outgoing links from the page linking to you. If that page has many outbound links, you not gaining from it. If you worry about your PR, then make sure you get backlink from high PR pages and with very small amount of outbound links. If you worry about getting traffic (and I believe this is what every website owner should do), then forget about PR, and concentrate on content and backlinks from frequently visited pages and relevant to you.