Signatures In Forums For Link Building Bad For You

Discussion in 'SEO, Traffic and Revenue' started by carlalexander, Aug 31, 2013.

  1. carlalexander

    carlalexander Regular Member

    Joined:
    May 23, 2013
    Messages:
    61
    Likes Received:
    7
    I came across an article on the internet saying that if you use forum signatures for link building then it will negatively impact your sites PR. Basically it is seen as an attempt to cheat the system. It is not really frowned upon by Google but it can cost you one or three positions in SERP. What do you think guys, is it bad that you are advertising your site through forum signatures or Google just being a big bully?
     
  2. Brandon

    Brandon Regular Member

    Joined:
    Jun 1, 2009
    Messages:
    6,602
    Likes Received:
    1,706
    Location:
    Topeka, Kansas
    First Name:
    Brandon
  3. carlalexander

    carlalexander Regular Member

    Joined:
    May 23, 2013
    Messages:
    61
    Likes Received:
    7
    I must have been reading and researching on webmasters articles, so I never really got a chance to save the link :) , but I believe that I must have been in Google's webmaster tools TOS or somewhere, let me search for it and I will update this post once I find it. Hold on a second.

    *edit*
    @Brandon I found it together with a host of other practices that Google considers to be "link schemes" Here is the link to the article: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?hl=en
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 31, 2013
    Brandon likes this.
  4. djbaxter

    djbaxter Regular Member

    Joined:
    Jul 4, 2009
    Messages:
    261
    Likes Received:
    162
    Location:
    Ottawa ON Canada
    That link doesn't say that signature links are bad. What it does say is

    1. That footer links across a whole site are bad:

    and that

    2. Highly Optimized or Over Optimized (i.e., keyword stuffed) signature links are bad:
    and that

    3. Links embedded in widgets are bad:

     
    Brandon and Dan Hutter like this.
  5. Dan Hutter

    Dan Hutter aka Big Dan

    Joined:
    Jul 20, 2006
    Messages:
    1,412
    Likes Received:
    515
    Location:
    New York
    Signature links won't hurt you. My siglinks are not necessarily relevant to A-T so it may slightly hurt the forum's ranking but the effect would be nominal.

    Personally, I don't post my links for SEO value. I post them so my fellow posters can see what I'm up to.
     
    CM30 and Brandon like this.
  6. andyred

    andyred Regular Member

    Joined:
    May 24, 2013
    Messages:
    165
    Likes Received:
    34
    Location:
    UK
    Basically you don't want to be going out and getting Site Wide links where your links end up on every page of the website, where most of the content could be deemed as unrelated to your own site and won't do you any favors SEO wise.
    The best way to use Signature Links in Forums is to manually only Include your Signature into a post that is related to your sites niche. And even then do it sparingly, don't go spamming your link around too much too soon.
     
  7. CM30

    CM30 Regular Member

    Joined:
    Jul 1, 2012
    Messages:
    901
    Likes Received:
    500
    You do know most forums look down upon people adding a manual signature, right? I've seen quite a few people get warned or banned for that, and it's often seen as a way to escape signature rules. Indeed, you could get in trouble due to them thinking you're linking to your site in your posts...

    I do have to wonder another thing though... what are you meant to do if a product you're using does add spammy links to the signature automatically? I mean, would Google punish anyone using the theme or script or whatever just because the creator was a bit of a sleezeball and sold out the footer credits to the highest bidder? That seems a bit unfair to the less tech savvy people unable to remove unwanted links easily.
     
  8. GTB

    GTB Regular Member

    Joined:
    Jun 30, 2009
    Messages:
    1,791
    Likes Received:
    270
    Well there are some WordPress theme sites offering free themes, but contain 4-5 links in the footer leading to spammy sites. So yeah, you should be careful about certain free WordPress themes. Check how many links are included in themes footer and where they lead too. You usually find they are encrypted as well using Base64.
     
  9. GeorgeB

    GeorgeB Building Social Communities Since 2004

    Joined:
    Jun 28, 2013
    Messages:
    43
    Likes Received:
    17
    I post sig links for link juice. In fact, I tend to avoid forums that don't allow me to get a dofollow link in return for my posting. This site being one of the few exceptions.
     
  10. Cerberus

    Cerberus Admin Talk Staff

    Joined:
    May 3, 2009
    Messages:
    1,031
    Likes Received:
    500
    Signature links are great for driving relevant traffic and linkjuice to a site. This is why almost all forum software have the ability to tick a little box to show your signature or not. And if you are slick you can use this to your advantage. Only show your signature on posts that hold relevance to your site. Also, if you know a couple sneaky image tricks, you could even make a dynamic signature to only show certain things that are relevant, thus having a different signature in each post.

    Though, the easy way would be to make a signature template and keep it handy. Then paste that at the end of every one of your posts in relevant topics and target certain keywords. If all your posts look uniform most times people will not care if you do this. I have done this for years to my advantage. So many things one can do to improve SEO. Though, I should probably stop sharing and start selling some type of ebook LOL
     
    Mike Edge and Brandon like this.
  11. Mike Edge

    Mike Edge Regular Member

    Joined:
    Jul 25, 2012
    Messages:
    27
    Likes Received:
    17
    Location:
    Fort Wayne, Indiana
    I really like this idea of a template a lot. Signatures can for sure do wonders if done correctly. My company is proof of that. Since launching in Jan, we have grown to hosting over 125 xenForo communities. I have spent $0 on advertising, my business has grown strictly from signatures and word of mouth.
     
  12. Tweaker

    Tweaker Regular Member

    Joined:
    Sep 22, 2013
    Messages:
    15
    Likes Received:
    1
    Using a signature template is a fantastic idea. People actually appreciate it if you post relevant content in your posts and then follow it up with a signature that leads to something of higher value. And yes, it can be an excellent free substitute for advertising too.

    At the same time if you go to a football forum and publicize your tech forum via your link not only will the members (and admin) not appreciate it but I am am sure it will be frowned upon by Google as well.
     
  13. etc

    etc I should be busy.

    Joined:
    Feb 2, 2012
    Messages:
    27
    Likes Received:
    12
    Location:
    intarnet
    I've also read an article about this but he is telling something that if you use forum signature it means that you get tons of backlinks in one site which is bad in SEO's perspective. I'm not sure if its really true though, is it?
     
  14. wowtgp

    wowtgp Regular Member

    Joined:
    Aug 7, 2013
    Messages:
    65
    Likes Received:
    12
    I have saw forum signatures as a way to gain backlink from that site. Backlinks don't matter anyway. It's more of a way to get some people to visit my blog and get them signed up for my newsletter.
     
  15. gates

    gates Regular Member

    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2013
    Messages:
    7
    Likes Received:
    2
    It is not bad but it isn't a good thing necessarily. Basically if you have 1,000 links from a forum it will get you more traffic to whatever you're selling but will have the same effect on seo as 1 or 2 good backlinks. So you may end up with a good amount of traffic and conversions but not be anywhere in G for rankings
     

Share This Page