To Forum Link or Not to Forum Link

What are Forum Links

Go on any forum online today and you will usually see posts with links that are at the bottom of each person’s post. These are known as Signatures and they usually let people put links, text or images that will be displayed at the bottom of each post. Going into your user profile will usually bring up an edit signature link so you can edit yours.

Are Forum Links Worth Getting?

Personally I think forum links are considered to be good links in the eyes of Google, if the forums that you use are related to your industry, have authority and a high PageRank. This reason for this is, if a site has authority and is liked by Google then this site is not going to tolerate spam on their forum, such sites have forum mods who weed out spammy posts. Having a link in your signature is considered a link back to your site and as long as you add value to the forum then your posts will not get deleted and you will gain links in the process.

Low Quality

If you go and find 100 low quality forums tomorrow and post low quality posts such as “I agree” or you even try and get your link in the post itself, even if these links do not get deleted then in the long run you will not benefit from these. In the short term you may get a boost in the SERPs (search engine results pages) but Google is aware of this kind of spam and they have ways of auto detecting such techniques, especially if they receive a spam report about your site.

Adding Value

For instance, if you had a gambling related site you could use forums such as GPWA and CAP. Both sites are aimed at gambling affiliates and affiliate programs. If you are reading this and you have a jewellery site, trying to get a link from these forums will fail, lol, sorry. Now if your site was bingo or casino related then these would be perfect. Not just for getting links but to get advice too.

The reasons it would fail if you had an unrelated site are: If you have a jewellery site then you will probably not know that mush about gambling or even care to give advice, and there will be no jewellery keywords on the page so your link would have less value in the eyes of Google.

Most people who start new threads want advice about their site or something similar that is related to your site in some way. If you think that you could contribute to their problem then you are adding value to the site. You yourself can start new threads if you are having difficulties with something.

Not Just for Links

Do not sign up to forums just for links. Just sign up and think about helping others. Then just think about the links as a bonus. You can usually make new friends using forums and get some really good advice when reading other posts.

Don’t be a Spammer

Forum sites are usually aware that people sign up to their site for the sole purpose of gaining links and nothing else, people blatantly try and spam the hell out of such sites and there are scripts that automatically do this for you. Some people on the other hand are a little smatter but are still considered to be a smarter spammer. They will have a link in their signature and comment threads with posts such as “I agree” or “that was very interesting”. If you do this on too many posts, even though it is not obvious you are spamming your account will probably get deleted.

Things to Think About

If everyone on the site has signatures with 5 links each these will devalue your link.

After you get one links from a site 100 more will not give you a huge boost as you would have though. This is because Google devalues more than 1 link per site and after so many your links will not count any more or they will have little value.

Signing up to 100 forums is not the way to go. Sign up to one add value and then move on to a new one. Chances are you will come across a forum that you believe to be of value that you will visit on a daily basis.

credit: Fecki

I paid to have one of my sites listed in the Yahoo Business Directory. It hurts to shell out that kind of cash for a simple link. But the way I see it is this: If that link works the magic that I’m thinking it might, I could make that $300 bucks up in one day. Maybe a half a day. And if I’m real lucky, maybe before I wake up in the morning.

The only scary thing is that they are not required to accept your link, and the $300 is nonrefundable “for any reason”. All I can say is if I get a declination email, there is a good chance you will find me sobbing in a puddle of my own tears on the nearest futon –  (because it is more comfortable than the queen-sized bed that now spends it’s nights vacant and lonely) – which just happens to be in my room.

Anyways, the benefits outweigh the risk. If I don’t see any improvements after this one year, I’ll just cancel it 5 days before the rebilling period.

Do you have any words of wisdom for me as far as paid links go? Do you find your futon more comfortable to sleep on than your queen sized bed? Let me know about it!

Update: Exactly one week after submitting my site to the directory – 7 days – the link was added. Well, technically, it wasn’t added, they just sent me an email that said it had been approved and will be added in the next 2 days. Just FYI. So if you plan on paying for a link in the Yahoo directory, be prepared to wait the full 7 days they tell you it may take. Not like it really matters though.

It’s so simple, yet very true.

Link building is easily the biggest part of SEO. Link building will get you to the top of the search engine results (in most cases). It’s the other stuff – like meta tags – that will make your organic listing look sexy to the humans. Sexy to humans = higher conversions.

Quick WordPress SEO Tips:

- Use your keyword 2 to 3 times in your Meta Description. Google bolds your keyword if it is what the Googler typed in.

- Get the most SEO friendly WordPress theme on the planet. I realize I’m an affiliate marketer, but this is no exaggeration. Thesis is the way to go if you want your WordPress blog posts to rise to the top of the Google SERPS.

- Once you get the Thesis theme, use all of the super-available, built-in SEO functions. i.e. Optimize your home page meta tags, optimize your site title, and . . . oh yeah, you really don’t have to do much else. Thesis is already doing it for you.

Lets Make a Million Million Bajillion Trillion Dollars!