Value of forum links?

Hi -

I've been reading a lot of on forum links and it seems as though they provide very little SEO value. Are some forums better than others? Do they retain the pr of the forum post (if the forum allows following)? Please feel free to correct me.

Thanks, Helen

 

They help and are generally considered "easy links" and you control the anchor text, but the search engines do not put much weight in them.

 

I thought they held a lot of value but now I am starting to doubt it as well.

 

Their value isn't especially high. If you really want to use forums for backlinks then you'll need to be very active.

 

I think they're value is really for promotion/visits rather than SEO value. So I guess, as Philoon said - if you are a very active user and can theoretically refer a lot of visitors then there might actually be some value. I just see so many "packages" for sale and it seems kind of silly to me.

 

The way I see it is that the harder it is to get the link, the more weight it will have to it (generally). Forum links are easy so like others have said you may want to spend your time on better links. However I don't doubt that they are still good for getting you indexed.

 

Forum link building has been very effective for me. Post to dofollow forums with a good PR.

 

Specially do follow forum is very important for getting quality back links. So it will be helpful in seo.

 

How would a search engine identify between a forum and other sites? Perhaps the reason why forum links aren't always that valuable, is that they'll appear on forums where everyone has links in their signatures, and therefore the number of outbound links will be high and spread around numerous topics?

 

Absolutely right!

 

Forum is a very effective service to generate the traffic. It is also counted as contextual link.

 

nice and very helpful

 

Easily manipulated links, so probably hold very little value and link juice. A bit like blog commenting.

 

They may not have a lot of PR value, but if you are posting in active forums that are similar to your niche then you can get a lot of valuable traffic to your site. It's definitely always important to provide unique information/posts though rather than just making posts for the sake of getting your link out there.

 

Older forums carry heavy SEO value in links posted.
PR is also going to have a dramatic effect...the higher the PR, the stronger the link will be as well- if it is related to that page's subject matter.
I know this to be true from experience and testing the theory.

 

Here's something to think about (and test for yourself) - get active in a few dofollow forums, drop you link and then after a few days see how those links have influenced your position in the SERP's. If you manage to jump 4/5 positions, or even onto the next page, you know your competitors probably have some weak links. Then go and build some quality links and kick arse.

 

good tips.

 

Very useful, thank you.

 

forums links are very important part in seo

 

I have used the forum links a lot, and I think they have worked well.