This is a friendly community wherein we exchange ideas and discuss certain topics in SEO/Webmaster World. Signatures are form of saying that you are “running” a website and you are interacting with other people and share your knowledge.
Forum Links are links … what’s the difference? Are comment links “unethical”?
Google would love us to think that links should only be valid from one’s natural inclination “to link” …
That’s funny 
if it is unethical, why google counting in back links, i have got recent update
While I don’t have access to Google’s algorithms, I would suspect that they know where the links come from and certain links have less weight than others. I certainly don’t expect them to count 12,000 links from here has a highly validated source. I can expect it to count once realistically and the rest get discarded.
One link per forum can hardly be considered Black Hat SEO. Maybe 5 years ago it would have been but not today.
Agreed.
While I don’t buy for a second that forum sig links are unethical, it is a well known fact that they have very little weight at all - all you have to do is check out the PR of this page and count the number of outbound links to figure that out…
:tup: We agree, I think the location of links are significant in Google’s algorithm as well. Links that are in signatures are not going to be as valuable as links people post either… speculating of course.
It’s a miracle! 
tottaly ethical
I think the 13 links in your signature make your position pretty clear!
I totally not agree with this, as long as every forum allowing to put signatures and helps in rankings, I can say its not unethical SEO
:injured: huh?
Ethical yes…effective? Still yet to be seen. Dofollow signatures are great, but what is the real worth?
I don’t think that forum sigs are unethical either. They carry little weight over the rankings and Google hasn’t banned forums with forum sigs. For me, the forum sigs are a way of exposing your sites (and maybe a little of yourself) to the community you’re in.
My tuppence worth.
The SEO benefit I have gained from posting on forums is really negligible. Yes, I still do semi keyword optimised signature links, and those phrases I do rank quite highly for. However, I truly believe great links come from elsewhere, rather than forum posts. And my “forum links” are something completely different.
However. I will say I have had great results from posting in forums similar to this. I have gained friends & clients from being an authoritative voice on the subject. Instead of posting “great post thanks” or a one line thought, I usually ramble (such as now :D), sure my post count isn’t in the gazillions, but I probably make more money selling my services in a week than people sell their signature links make in a lifetime.
So my advice, is that forums such as this have things that are more valuable than SEO backlinks, they have people, that can (and will) help you in whatever you choose to venture. All you have to do is to actually open up to them, and voice your thoughts articulately.
i dont think it is unethical but in some cases it is greyzone. but you should find forum according to your website topic
I think using sig links as part of your link building campaign is a classic example of blockhead SEO. Thanks JJ 
Unethical??I don’t think so. why would forums allow their members to put signatures on every post if it’s unethical…
In my opinion signature links are used not for search engines but also for text link marketing on forums where people from relevant community visits
Forum signature will definitely increase the SERP as long as they are related to the niche. It will also bring traffic to your site. I haven’t heard anywhere it is unethical.
Nope, I don’t think it’s unethical. Otherwise, signature posting would not have been allowed in all forums in the first place.