What you think about this ? how long did we want to keep our signature <dofollow> link static inorder to get result in SEO ?
As long as you want, because they won't have much of an impact (if any) on SEO. If you're a respected member of the community you're participating in though, they can do wonders for your traffic.
Is this about "your" forum or forums you post on? I personally wouldn't have dofollow signatures in my fourm, I would use redirection; this help prevents a good amount of useless posts and spam.
You will get a few backlinks but nothing great. As Dan has mentioned, it is better to actively participate in the community, help other members etc... Once you are respected and well known, your signature link may bring you many unique visitors.
Being a sigwhore for SEO isn't worth it, sure, forum sigs are good for a few links, but time vs. reward wise it isn't worth mentioning. Either post because you like to do so, like to share, like to participate or forget about it and spend your time on other techniques that will give you more links of higher quality with less effort.
hmmmm but as what i have read on some other forum sites others take forum signatures as a key tool for ranking in SE's wihtout using link building, is that true?
I have a different view on this if you do a search for "Niche SEO' the site in the #1 position doesn't include the word "Niche" on the web page at all! However, the word niche, only appears in his anchor text, as in "Niche SEO Directory." So you can actually rank #1 for a word that doesn't appear on the website. I have informed Google of this and they have ignored me. I went on a couple of other forums and asked about this. I was informed that this is common. So I have become a big fan of anchor text links.
And how many other people are using the words "niche SEO" or "Niche SEO Directory" in their sites and incoming links?
Just love links which are dofollow, it does not matter it allows to place anchor or not... Link is link, still link with the anchor will make your website chances better to show up in listings.
I think it depends on what you want it doesn't really matter how long are your signature links as long as it is relevant and you are posts at forums are helpful
I was only making the point that anchor text links can be a more important factor than on-site SEO. So much so the you can rank for words that don't appear on a website. In this case the word niche only appeared in the anchor text and not actually on the #1 ranked site. I would not have thought it possible until I observed it in practice. So I have concluded anchor text, or better yet, do follow anchor text is highly prized in the SEO tool kit. I'm real big on the observable side of SEO such as page titles, page descriptions, and fresh relevant content. I have read H-1 tags are important and I use them, but I have never observed a direct change that could be attributed to adding these tags to a site. When we do our SEO seminars we teach the observable and measurable as current acceptable practices. Things like H-1 tags are represented as standard practice but not observable and measurable. Heck, I could be wrong on this tag, its just that I have yet found the evidence to support H-1 makes a difference. I read something once that made a valid point that it does, but I can't recall where. Now, having said that, I only recently become a convert to the importance of the anchor text link. Anchor text has now moved moved up into my acceptable practice group of SEO techniques. As for the original comment, there might be a valid reason to change the signature over time. Are 200 anchor text links using the same anchor to many? Or is that number 2,000. How quickly can they be built up before they draw a penalty? The reality is that we don't know about much of this stuff, but it makes for interesting banter.