I visit several forums regularly. When I post, should I post a link to my site, which has nothing to do with the forum I am visiting? Does it help or does it hurt my SEO? If it's smart to do it, would it be best to put it in my sig or actually put it in the post?
Does it help at all to post on a non-related forum? Does it hurt? Should the link be in the post itself or in the sig?
I'd suggest that forum sig links are mostly nofollow now and are of very low value. They will help to get you indexed but that's about it unless you've got thousands. You're time would probably be better spent building high quality backlinks.
How about posting in relevant forums? It will be more effective and more targeted in terms of traffic.
It's hard to find forums in my niche but I can find a few. But, I regularly post to forums (such as this one) that have nothing to do with my niche. Does posting a link to a post I make there (such as this post), help or hurt my SEO in any way? I mean, I will continue to post in irrelevant forums. I'm already doing it and this won't change... and I would like to know if I should post a link in these posts.
All links have value. Don't believe what Google tells you. If you are a member and contribute you should put the link in your signature file, but make sure you use anchor text. It doesn't matter if it's related to your niche. It still helps.
As noted above most forums are no-follow therefore the "seo" impact is diminished to the point where there is no "linkjuice". Now even if the forum is a do-follow forum, from my understanding the "value" of the link is divided amongst the different other links that are on the page, therefore the seo value is diminished dramatically, but does has some small value. But the link that you post regardless of the forum may lead to a potential person to click on it ....out of pure curiosity or for a sincere interest on your site and that click may lead to a conversion. So in all, the purpose of the link should be more for the potential onlooker in adverse to the seo impact the link may have because of the popularity of forums being more or less a no-follow forum.
I wonder how you intend to put your links in your post if the forum itself do not belong to your niche? It is nothing but spammy attempt to put links haphazardly, particularly when such efforts do not further the discussion of the thread! The best thing to do in such situation is to carry your links in your signature! Regards, RightMan
Generally speaking, any backlinks would be helpful for SEO purpose if only the linking sources are decent. It is better to include your links in your post contents if TOS allows, IMO. all the best,
It must be at least similar to your niche. That would be a good thing. But if you post on spammed and unmoderated forums maybe it can affect your site ....
Google likes relevant links. Posting in forums that have nothing to do with your niche won't help you in that particular realm, though if the comments/signature are dofollow, then you'll get a tiny smidgen of benefit from it. A backlink is a backlink, but not all are created equal. Posting in niche-related forums is your best bet, always. You'll have the benefit of the backlink, the relevancy of the link (and anchor text) that will help your PR with Google, PLUS - you'll probably drive traffic to your own site because you will be posting in forums that apply to your line of work. Go for it and have fun! Quality backlinks are the only way to go if you want the best results.