The effectiveness of forum posting.

[greatar4]

I have a website which is 2 months old, and since I've created it I decided to become an active member with more than 10 forums. The very 1st that I did was to follow all of those forum guideline to make sure that my posts meet their guidelines.

The advantage of forum posting is that your links will get found and indexed by search way much quicker. Which in turn will result in higher ranking. I've been quite aggressive in doing forum posting and I plan to continue to do so. Right now my site is ranked number 6 and 7 for two very competitive keywords.

My plan is to keep doing forum posting until I reach the 1st position. Forum posting really works and I hope everyone include it in their methods of building high quality back-links.

[ralph.m]

Sounds like you are a spammer to me. You won't last long on reputable forums unless your posts are genuine replies to genuine questions.

[revium]

Depending on the forum, some links may not be valued as quickly as others. Also, I do not believe forums are always crawled and indexed as fast as article pages. I have never seen a search engine state this fact, but from my experience it seems like they do not crawled as often. Once again it depends on the forum.

Forums are a good way to build up trust and authority in yourself and website if you are providing valuable answers and input.

[greatar4]

Sounds like you are a spammer to me. You won't last long on reputable forums unless your posts are genuine replies to genuine questions.

No, I am not a spammer when making a post I check my email to see if there is no response. It's very simple all you have to do it to use your free time to get it done. To be honest with you all of those forums are reputable forums and I've been a member with them for more than 6 months.

[ralph.m]

No, I am not a spammer when making a post I check my email to see if there is no response. It's very simple all you have to do it to use your free time to get it done. To be honest with you all of those forums are reputable forums and I've been a member with them for more than 6 months.

Yes, but the way you set up your initial proposition makes it sound like you are posting for the purpose of getting links to your site(s) into your posts, which is illegal, basically, unless there's a very clear rationale for it. So be careful with this strategy.

If you think it's ok to link to your site randomly here, you haven't actually read the guidelines fully.

[greatar4]

Depending on the forum, some links may not be valued as quickly as others. Also, I do not believe forums are always crawled and indexed as fast as article pages. I have never seen a search engine state this fact, but from my experience it seems like they do not crawled as often. Once again it depends on the forum.

Forums are a good way to build up trust and authority in yourself and website if you are providing valuable answers and input.

The thing you need to know is most thread page that you are going to provide valuable answers to have already been indexed. That is the advantage. After posting a response it may take you a couple day for your links to show up. Otherwise, you can ping that thread url so that search engine can come and crawl that page. Base on my experience forum thread always get indexed almost immediately.

I understand that articles often get indexed as long they become live, but at the same time there are lots of articles that just never get indexed at all. Currently, I find myself struggling to get some of my articles indexed.

[greatar4]

Yes, but the way you set up your initial proposition makes it sound like you are posting for the purpose of getting links to your site(s) into your posts, which is illegal, basically, unless there's a very clear rationale for it. So be careful with this strategy.

If you think it's ok to link to your site randomly here, you haven't actually read the guidelines fully.

I don't see what you are talking about in the guidelines. Look, even though you are trying to be helpful to others in a forum, but at the same time you can't ignore the fact that can be part of your back-links strategy.

[ralph.m]

I don't see what you are talking about in the guidelines.

This line is important:

You may: Link to an article that you may have published on your own site and that answers a question posted in a thread

That's really the only excuse for linking to your site.

at the same time you can't ignore the fact that can be part of your back-links strategy.

Forums simply are not a place for back-link strategy. People don't come here to follow anyone's self-promotional links. So you risk being banned if you ignore that principle.

Stick to promoting your sites via your signature, as you have done—while remembering that these are no-follow links.

[greatar4]

This line is important:



That's really the only excuse for linking to your site.



Forums simply are not a place for back-link strategy. People don't come here to follow anyone's self-promotional links. So you risk being banned if you ignore that principle.

Stick to promoting your sites via your signature, as you have done—while remembering that these are no-follow links.

Well, that is something that I've never done to link my sites which are unrelated to the nature of the post within the post body. Most forums that I use are do-follow forums. I always keep my links in the signature area. I don't think I violate that particular guideline because the signature area is provided in case you have a website.

[axus_auto]

actually...i think it is okay as long as you are giving genuine answers and questions. ain't it?

[marknel]

When you participate in niche forums(Forums related to your product/service) you are not only gaining links but also generating traffic while building your brand.

[greatar4]

actually...i think it is okay as long as you are giving genuine answers and questions. ain't it?

I completely agree with you, as long you are not trying to spam those forums by posting answers that are irrelevant. Or you are posting links within your post body that may be promotional in nature.

[Doodled]

I think there is some confusion here.

@greatar4 - are you talking about signature links.

If so then you are right to an extent but also wrong! Your signature links are "Oil paintings art" and "Canvas art print". Now when Google visits this page it sees that these links are not related to the subject being discussed so it gives the links very little weight.

Now if you had the same signature links on an art or paintings forum they would carry much more weight as they match the overall content of the page.

If your signature links are off topic then your success in the SERPs is down to something else...

[ralph.m]

when Google visits this page it sees that these links are not related to the subject being discussed so it gives the links very little weight.

It gives them no weight, because signature links are "no follow" here.

[linkgenie]

Forum posting is a great method to build traffic than its SEO benefit. I am a member of some reputed forums and get huge traffic from forums.

You should be an active member and should make a great contribution if you want traffic from forums.

Forum is a great place to build online reputation. So your post should help to increase your image.

[greatar4]

I think there is some confusion here.

@greatar4 - are you talking about signature links.

If so then you are right to an extent but also wrong! Your signature links are "Oil paintings art" and "Canvas art print". Now when Google visits this page it sees that these links are not related to the subject being discussed so it gives the links very little weight.

Now if you had the same signature links on an art or paintings forum they would carry much more weight as they match the overall content of the page.

If your signature links are off topic then your success in the SERPs is down to something else...

Look even though my links may not be related to the theme of this forum, but at the end of the day a link is a link. It's going to have some impact on my ranking.

[greatar4]

It gives them no weight, because signature links are "no follow" here.

Well, most forums that I am an active member with are do-follow. That's why I can see result when it comes down to ranking.

[Tara Dominguez]

Posting in forums that are not in your niche cannot give you quality back links, however, it can still drive traffic to your site if there are members in the forum who are interested in what you do, then those members would like to link to you. And I believe that when you said "links", you were referring to the signature links that we can add at the bottom of our posts. On the other hand, your quality link building will only deem useless when a particular forum site is using the rel=nofollow tag for the signatures.

[greatar4]

Posting in forums that are not in your niche cannot give you quality back links, however, it can still drive traffic to your site if there are members in the forum who are interested in what you do, then those members would like to link to you. And I believe that when you said "links", you were referring to the signature links that we can add at the bottom of our posts. On the other hand, your quality link building will only deem useless when a particular forum site is using the rel=nofollow tag for the signatures.

Well, people often keep saying that posting in forums that are not in your niche can't give you quality back-links. I don't think that make sense at all. I understand that Google recommends it, but links that are not "relevant" also count.

What if I come out with something that becomes viral and I have hundreds or thousands of sites link to me. Wouldn't those links be quality link. No matter what your site theme may be you can link to any Seo forums that is out there because that's where you can broaden your knowledge and share what you've learned with others about search engine optimization.

[ULTiMATE]

As a Mentor here I may be a bit biased, but if I ever see a link posted I check it for its relevance. If it is irrelevant then it is reported and later removed from the post. This is also done for those who are keen to orchestrate situations in which they can post their links, although I am more inclined to just give my opinion on that link rather than to report it.

Thankfully, on this forum the staff members all work hard and any posts that shouldn't exist are swiftly dealt with. I know this for a fact because every morning before I start work I use snap links to open up every new post made since I last checked and check for rule breaking. Snap links and Firefox shortcuts make checking for spam a three minute job (Ctrl+W, End, Page Up, repeat).

As far as I see it, if you're using a forum to push your own links then you are a spammer. Anyone with half a brain knows the difference between members looking to be a part of the community and members who want to push links, and in my eyes there are few things more pathetic than spamming a forum with your own, barely relevant links.

[greatar4]

As a Mentor here I may be a bit biased, but if I ever see a link posted I check it for its relevance. If it is irrelevant then it is reported and later removed from the post. This is also done for those who are keen to orchestrate situations in which they can post their links, although I am more inclined to just give my opinion on that link rather than to report it.

Thankfully, on this forum the staff members all work hard and any posts that shouldn't exist are swiftly dealt with. I know this for a fact because every morning before I start work I use snap links to open up every new post made since I last checked and check for rule breaking. Snap links and Firefox shortcuts make checking for spam a three minute job (Ctrl+W, End, Page Up, repeat).

As far as I see it, if you're using a forum to push your own links then you are a spammer. Anyone with half a brain knows the difference between members looking to be a part of the community and members who want to push links, and in my eyes there are few things more pathetic than spamming a forum with your own, barely relevant links.

Well, most people who comment on this thread seem to always miss the point that I am trying to make. First, I am not talking about posting link in your post body because that would be seen as spam if the link does not relate to the nature of the thread. My point is to become a helpful member with do-follow forums which allow you to have signatures.

Look, to be honest with you I never post any link in my post body in any forum that does not relate to the nature of what has been discussed.

[Stevie D]

Well, people often keep saying that posting in forums that are not in your niche can't give you quality back-links. I don't think that make sense at all. I understand that Google recommends it, but links that are not "relevant" also count.

What if I come out with something that becomes viral and I have hundreds or thousands of sites link to me. Wouldn't those links be quality link. No matter what your site theme may be you can link to any Seo forums that is out there because that's where you can broaden your knowledge and share what you've learned with others about search engine optimization.

Those links may count in terms of PR, but they are also in danger of diluting your content ranking. If you have links to a page from sites on web design, holidays in France, recipes for chocolate cake, funny pictures of pets and historic railway engines, then Google is going to struggle to classify your site. That could mean that your site doesn't rank highly for relevant searches.

Links from irrelevant sites will do you very little good in the long run.

[ChicagoLimousine]

It is quite impressive how you started ranking 6th and 7th in only 2 months!!? How did you do your marketing? It took me half a year to climb from second page to first, only to the number 5...
I do include the link in signature too but I only participate in forums that I really like.

[pat3ck]

I believe forum posting is most effective if the forum is related to your niche. So, when someone sees your signature, they will most likely click on it if the forum is somewhat related to your niche.

[desertman909y]

yes i also know forum posting is now become very important thing but problem is that most forum do no give people to post signature they think we are spam and they ban us can you guys share goof pr forums list like sitepoint