Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2010 10:33 am
I was under the impression that having a link to your website on a forum did exactly the opposite to helping SEO - it is part of the reason I removed mine from LMH.
Bit dozy today!Page 2 of 2
Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2010 11:15 am
Of course - that ought to have been the first I thought of! Bit dozy today!
Bit dozy today!Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2010 11:40 am
Who told you this, LV?la vache! wrote:I was under the impression that having a link to your website on a forum did exactly the opposite to helping SEO - it is part of the reason I removed mine from LMH.
By the way, I am an occasional member over at MSE also but I'm pretty sure they don't allow sig links for the most part (with the exception possibly of some IFAs and the like).
Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2010 3:30 pm
It was on a thread a few weeks ago - I can't remember who mentioned it. Do you disagree that a forum signature link is a bad thing for SEO?
Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2010 4:44 pm
It's my understanding that one link to your website from a forum is helpful to SEO, as any inbound link is. But having a link in your signature creates a potentially vast number of links, and the excess doesn't help you any further than the initial one did.
If I'm wrong, I'd love to be corrected. Removing my signature link didn't seem to wreak havoc with my webstats, but I have a few links here outside my signature.
If I'm wrong, I'd love to be corrected. Removing my signature link didn't seem to wreak havoc with my webstats, but I have a few links here outside my signature.
Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2010 5:06 pm
Oh dear, now I'm confused - is it good to have a link via the profile, if not a signature link? Or is a signature link better or worse 
Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2010 5:40 pm
Me too LV! Brooke, what does this mean? 
Where?vrooje wrote: I have a few links here outside my signature.
Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2010 6:34 pm
My original request for a website review has a link to my site in the text of the individual post, and there have been a few other times where I've linked to things on my website, such as when I posted instructions for a non-Flash-based virtual tour.
When I was originally considering removing my link, I really worried about how it would affect my search rankings, but some searching and asking led me to believe that I would be fine as long as I had just one or two links to my site from LMH. And I do -- I think there are half a dozen or so in all -- and I didn't notice any big change when I removed my "www" link.
I don't think the signature/www link will hurt you as far as the Googlebot is concerned; I'm just not at all convinced that it will help, at least not once your site is established in the eyes of Google. But whether the signature links could end up hurting you in other ways is still open for debate.
When I was originally considering removing my link, I really worried about how it would affect my search rankings, but some searching and asking led me to believe that I would be fine as long as I had just one or two links to my site from LMH. And I do -- I think there are half a dozen or so in all -- and I didn't notice any big change when I removed my "www" link.
I don't think the signature/www link will hurt you as far as the Googlebot is concerned; I'm just not at all convinced that it will help, at least not once your site is established in the eyes of Google. But whether the signature links could end up hurting you in other ways is still open for debate.
Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2010 6:43 pm
That's the thread I was thinking of Brooke, thanks very much! It was Bob Appt who mentioned that the links could be harmful.
Posted: Tue Sep 21, 2010 9:51 am
I think the SEO view to all links is : are they relevant and do they come from a "respectable and reputable" source ?
Matt Cutts (head of anti web spam at Google) has a blog which sometimes has interesting observations : http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/
From an SEO conference review :
Matt Cutts-Law of SEO – Matt stated that, while he is seen as the moral compass for SEO, he feels everyone knows what is right and what is wrong. We are all smart people and who know what the risky behavior is. All you need to do is think for a minute: “what is best for users?” “what is best for the site?” “what is best for the company?” and you will come up with the right answer without having to consult Matt on every turn.
It seems that Google do not penalise forum signature links.
Equally forum signature links probably do not add much as a typical forum topic page has a zero, or very low page rank, and there are likely to be many other links on the page. Older forum postings eventually fade away, so only the more current signatures (and topics) are relevant.
So, as stated above forum signatures are just another inward link.
Providing useful information in relevant forums creates actual visitors and some of them will create links in their own websites.
These links will be relevant and may even have high page ranks.
Google is very much against link farms and "paid links" as they can distort the algorithm (people only pay for links on pages with high page rank). Of course, the more cynical would say that it also reduces the appeal of adwords !
Peter
Matt Cutts (head of anti web spam at Google) has a blog which sometimes has interesting observations : http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/
From an SEO conference review :
Matt Cutts-Law of SEO – Matt stated that, while he is seen as the moral compass for SEO, he feels everyone knows what is right and what is wrong. We are all smart people and who know what the risky behavior is. All you need to do is think for a minute: “what is best for users?” “what is best for the site?” “what is best for the company?” and you will come up with the right answer without having to consult Matt on every turn.
It seems that Google do not penalise forum signature links.
Equally forum signature links probably do not add much as a typical forum topic page has a zero, or very low page rank, and there are likely to be many other links on the page. Older forum postings eventually fade away, so only the more current signatures (and topics) are relevant.
So, as stated above forum signatures are just another inward link.
Providing useful information in relevant forums creates actual visitors and some of them will create links in their own websites.
These links will be relevant and may even have high page ranks.
Google is very much against link farms and "paid links" as they can distort the algorithm (people only pay for links on pages with high page rank). Of course, the more cynical would say that it also reduces the appeal of adwords !
Peter
Posted: Tue Sep 21, 2010 3:08 pm
No mention of Aardvark Travel there, Peter...?
You've clocked a few posts on there...
http://www.aardvarktravel.net/chat/prof ... ile&u=2417
Posted: Tue Sep 21, 2010 3:10 pm
I think it can't harm. If it could, it would be easy to adversely influence a competitor's performance in the search results.la vache! wrote:It was on a thread a few weeks ago - I can't remember who mentioned it. Do you disagree that a forum signature link is a bad thing for SEO?
Signatures
Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2010 10:04 am
Peter please tell me.... I love the flying bird after your signature and friends of ours with gites have a small picture of the frontof their gites after their signature. But not matter how hard I try to put our picture on emails the picture ends up huge - even when I have down sized. How do you do it?mpprh wrote:Posting about your area in travel forums is very targetted publicity (remember the signature link either to your website or blog !).
And it is free !
Peter
Anji
www.legrandsaule.co.uk