Getting Inbound Links from Web Forums

Link Dropping on Forums for Link Pop

[Duner]

Couple of quick questions.

I read in a post, that there is a way to post a link to your site in forums to boost your ranking. Is this as easy as it sounds? If I post in a forum that allows links, and it is a high ranking site, does this count as a good inbound link?

Second question is, if i were to setup an about me page with a link to my site, say on ebay or one of the popular photo sharing sites, would this count as a good link, or could I be penalized for it?

[ken_b]

Hi Duner; First, welcome to WW. This is a great place to get good info.

On to your questions.

Forum posting.

It is a short ride from posting meaningful helpful messages that also happen to include a url (when allowed) and spamming a bunch of forums just to get some links. And not all those links will work well. Some don't get spidered well, etc. If the link is well related to the message it can sometimes drive traffic on at least a short term basis. So do they count as good inbound links? There may be more productive ways to develop good inbound links.

Read some of the threads in this forum for some great ideas.

As for the "about me" or profile pages. I don't know about ebay, but I've seen those work from other sites.

[martinibuster]

>>>And not all those links will work well. Some don't get spidered well, etc.

That's true. Make sure there's green in your toolbar before you spam a forum.

While it is not my routine to spam web forums, nor do I recommend forum spamming as a way to boost link pop, I do know that Teoma, MSN, Slurp (both flavors), and Googlebot will spider your website pretty good off of some forums. But before you spam a forum, make sure that link drops are allowed.

I can't speak to whether forum spamming will help you in the rankings or not. Like I previously said, it's not something I recommend.

[rogerd]

Duner, there's nothing wrong with including a URL in forums where your post is relevant and the URL doesn't violate the TOS. Obviously, some forums are better than others - bad ones have barriers to spidering, for example, or their links are redirected.

I don't recommend cheesy drops or blatant spam. Some forum owners (like me) will sometimes take the time to track down the source of the posts and report the spam to the ISP and the domain host. Having just seen that one major registrar is dumping domains for spamming, I'm adding "report to registrar" to my drill, too. A dubious link or two aren't worth getting your site booted by its host or getting banned by your ISP. And, of course, if you irritate the wrong people, they may use less ethical means to attack your site.

But if you make an effort to fit into each community and abide by its TOS, you'll enjoy some relatively risk-free benefits.

[dirkz]

> or could I be penalized for it?

Wouldn't do it here :)

[Duner]

Thanks for the help. I was in no means planning on spamming forums (especially here ;-) ) But i have seen some forums that will let you post your url to let other people check it out and comment on it. I was just thinking that might be a decent starting place for exposure to a new site, and thought maybe the ranking deal might be a bonus.

[Leosghost]

most of the folks in google groups are there for just that one reason ..
'swhy I left ..that and the company is better here ..get more laughs too ..most days ..
today was a sad one I discovered this thread [webmasterworld.com...]
cloud in my sky ..sad Mike

[rogerd]

This practice should certainly not cause any search engine penalty (unless you use bots to post in many forums and they somehow detect that). I'd say the worst case is that a forum with tons of link drops could lose its ability to pass PR or similar if SEs felt the forum was being abused. That's a fairly unlikely circumstance, IMO.