The SEO power of forum back links experiment

Today I was wondering just how powerful a forum back link is especially with recent indication of a reduction in the power of back links from forums. Its something that is rather difficult to measure, especially with established websites.

The only way to find out is to do a little SEO experiment. To test this I have created a very simple blog with which I have performed 0 off page SEO. The blog currently has 0 back links and was created about an hour ago.

I have added the blog to my forum sig. The normal idea behind forum back links applies, where every forum post will provide 1 link to the blog.

The first test is to see how long it takes for the blog to become indexed within google/yahoo/msn, and eventually if any PR or SERP advancements can be obtained.

Remember that this is a forum backlink experiment only so please try to restrain yourself from linking to the blog from any other sources. If you would like to take part in the experiment you can add a link in your forum sig. The more people that take part he sooner we should see results.

You can use the anchor: The Business Nerd
url: businessnerd (dot) blogspot.com


Im predicting the blog to be indexed within 4 days. We can get a little competition to guess the time it takes to become indexed if anyone is interested. Just post your guess.

I think forum links still have quite a lot of power, especially from established forums such as DP.

If you have any additions/modifications or comments about the experiment let me know.

 

Indexed in 3 or 4 days is what I've seen several times from just forum links. Yahoo usually takes a bit longer in my experience. How quickly for it to rank for [The Business Nerd] from just forum links might be interesting too.

 

It isn't a controlled experiment with set parameters and hypothesis... I don't see what can be learned here?

 

You are correct that it is not a scientific experiment. Perhaps and indication is a better name. It should provide a rough indication to the back link strength of forums.

To perform a proper experiment several blogs would need to the used including a control blog, and blogs with back links from other sources. But i dont have the time or energy for that. Perhaps someone would like to take this further at some point.

 

He he - with U there..all a matter of time... I own a hosting company so accessing domains, space and control I can do... it's just the time

 

I don't get this experiment at all. what theory are you trying to prove?

 

Actually I would be interested to see what PR passes to the blog if ONLY forum links are used.

 

interested in seeing someone do it

 

Are you going to prove that forum links can make a new site be indexed by google in 4 days? I think this maybe can only help google crawl your website, but to be indexed by google, it's the decision of google, not the forum.

 

well a backlink from a high PR page is what you need. I think Google still index a web page in just few days if the site gets a strong backlink.

 

Nothing is trying to be proven

Its an experiment to see:
- If sig links pass PR
- If they are useful in increasing SERP's

 

Exactly. Also, if forum links alone can get you indexed by google/yahoo/msn, and if so, how quickly.

 

You know what - they must do. How else can the profiles get PR? My profile is PR2 and its linked purely by the links on the forum of every post I make

 

You are right. I have noticed this before and actually think that forum links are a powerful and quick way to generate a large volume of back links. Hopefully the blog will be able to show this.

 

This is interesting little SEO experiment, in my oppinion. It would be interesting you have set up several blogs and put link in sigs on several forums, too. One forum - one blog. To see what forums are the best for indexing.

 

my 2 cents towards all this:

a forum link is a one-way link =
a forum link usually appears after you post, so lots of links from one site =

The good thing about DP is how popular it is so SE's are coming often so indexing will happen quickly

 

Go Doobie - Go Doobie - he he

 

so what happened to the experiment?

 

Its not even been 24hours yet

so far the blog has not been indexed with no backlinks showing in yahoo/msn/google.