Forum signature links and SEO
-
Regarding this article on forum signature links, is this good advice?
http://searchtempo.com/forum-signature-links-and-seo/
Doesn't Google suggest a nofollow on these types of forum links?
On a related matter, is it a good practice to add a Google Plus link in forum signatures?
Best,
Christopher -
There's no relevance nor context for these links. It's linkbuilding instead of link earning, so I wouldn't do it.
-
Forum links don't tend to carry a lot of value, but they can still help. Post-Penguin it's probably not a good idea to stuff these signature links with keywords, but a few links from relevant, high quality forums can provide some value. Besides the SEO value, which is minimal, links from relevant forums can actually drive qualified traffic to your site and help get your brand out there.
-
There is no definitive answer to that question from what I believe, as in Matt Cutts specifically saying "Don't do that" but there is a great sentence in the Google Quality Guidelines that can totally answer that question.
In the Google Quality Guidelines it says
"Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is whether you'd feel comfortable explaining what you've done to a website that competes with you, or to a Google employee. Another useful test is to ask, "Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn't exist?"
Now ask yourself that same question regarding Forum Signatures and spammy anchor text links.
If Matt Cutts himself asked you "Why did you add those links on your signature? for the users for for SEO? If you can truly answer that question "for the user" then do it. If you even hesitate or find yourself justifying your answer then don't.
Adding nofollow to those links? I personally would suggest it
-
The forum link must be nofollow, because the link on signature side is worthless .Forums are a great place for inexperienced people who want to increase the number of links .But they don't attention to authority of domain& page
-
Usually forums are so spammed with links that they are really worthless. Those links will likely help the users but not your SEO.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Proof that Pinterest links are worthless for SEO?
One of our most popular blog posts (http://www.yournextdress.com/5-back-baring-dresses-rosie-huntington-whiteley/) has been pinterested 25K-56K times (22K according to Google Webmaster Tools, 56K according to the Pinterest widget). Still, when I do a google search for "5 Back-Baring Dresses Like Rosie Huntington-Whiteley", our blog post is outranked by Polyvore. While the latter has a much higher domain authority, the page they're outranking us with is simply linking to our page and has zero authority. In other words, it seems like over 25K links from Pinterest does nothing for the authority of our page. Am I not understanding things correctly? Let me emphaisize that we've never done any sort of link building on Pinterest, all the links have been generated organically (if that is the right term).
Link Building | | Jantaro0 -
Internal links
hey guys, these days should internal links within your site carry no-follow tags? or does it really matter? thanks!!
Link Building | | tm46150 -
Forum Signature Links
After the new update from google, are Forum Signature Links still very good to use linkbuliding or?
Link Building | | Agger0 -
Do incoming affiliate links help with SEO?
Quick question: If my affiliates promote an ebook via an e-junkie affiliate link that points to a sales page on my domain, will I get any SEO benefit from the links? Will Google see that the e-Junkie affiliate link 'hops' through to my domain name? i.e. Affiliate's website --> eJunkie link --> ebook landing page on my domain Thanks for your advice! Ian
Link Building | | internal-communication0 -
Links Through Banners are good for SEO?
Hi, I am planning to get to an agreement with some blogs to have my banner that link to my site. My question: Is this Good for SEO, Bad or Neutral? Thanks in advance, Maria Jesus
Link Building | | goperformancelabs0 -
How long does it take for crawlers to update links? As in number of back links
How long does it take for crawlers to update links? As in number of back links
Link Building | | tom14cat140 -
Followed Links from random forums, is it worth?
I have a competitor that apeears first place in Google with a certain keyword, i explore their site, and they have a lots of forums poiting to their page. What they do is, just go to a random forum, comment some threat and they put the anchor in sig, with that keyword, linking to their page. Well, from what i read in SEOmoz articles, Google its no supose to penalyze this pages? Because thoose are pages (forums) that dont have nothing to do -subject- with the page that apears in first place? Its a good practise? Should i do the same (x2) to get the first place in google? (Sorry for my English) Thank you.
Link Building | | comercialroldao0 -
SEO Tool to search mass URLs (for link qualification)
Hi, I have been using OSE and have a compiled list of backlinks to my competitor's sites. The next step would be to go through and qualify all of these links for a link opportunities for my client's site. To save me a lot of time, I require a tool that will search all of these pages (say 1000) for specific keywords in tags or body content. A search query might be - site:(URL list) intitle:directory site:(URL list) "add site" etc Any ideas would be great. Thanks.
Link Building | | DigitalLeaf0