I don't know much about how they help with PR or if Google likes them or any of the technical stuff. What I do know is that my sigs at various forums I belong to have been directly responsible for bringing people to my sites and helping my affiliate sales. I love the fact we can use them, and think it's smart marketing to do so. Many times reading threads in a forum, I won't even post, but I may click on half a dozen sig files. And I've discovered some great things lurking beyond a catchy signature! Long live sig files! Honey
I have to say thank you to everyone in the SEO section. You guys have been extremely helpful to me in the last couple of months, and I have learned a lot. It is nice to be part of such a community. Thanks again guys.
I have just added the links in my sig, (although for a different reason) From using other forums i have been very impressed with the amount of traffic that can be collated from a single person with links in their signature. It definately helped with SERPS, Multiply that by an entire years worth of posts, and possibly more than one person with the same links? and its definately worth doing.
Signatures won't help of course if you won't post For a forum like DP which is giving away revenue sharing, posting is most important... I am posting here for many purposes. 1. To learn from experts and share my knowledge too. 2. To have a revenue sharing (the more you post, the more your adsense code displays "I have an average of 120 ad displays/day with 2 to 3% adsense ctr) 3. To advertise my site. 4. To make friends... Does it fair?
It is good enough to get referrals also. But all forums are not allowed the signature. I got terminated from one forum.
Forum sigs will help more if the forum is about something related - so an SEO forum will be more useful if you're promoting a site about SEO. The links don't count for much in any case but can be seen as a way of bulking up on link volume (if not quality).
I'm yet to experience better SERPs or traffic from my various forum sigs. I don't doubt they could help, but its probably my lack of them which is not boosting my sites. I think the type of site that your have as your sig will also affect how much it get clicked on.
Yeah forum sig is very good for backlinks, when you make a good post or comment its makes people click on your signature.