sig lines to build links?

how to do it or not

[brandyace]

Lots of articles suggest using sig lines in forums to build back links.

This is actually a 3 part question.

First, do you agree it's a good way to build backlinks?

Secondly, if so, how do you find forums that will actually let you use sig lines? Some do, some don't.

Third, how does one find a list of forums that are relevent to one's biz...other than googling "my business category" and "forums" or "chat" For example, I found a nice list of forums that gave the # of members etc but all of them were personal related rather than biz.

[martinibuster]

1. Forum sigs have issues. Some forum operators don't allow them. I ban anyone dropping forum sigs by IP.

I personally don't approve of forum signatures and don't advocate the use of them as a link building tactic.

[dickbaker]

There are forums within certain niches that allow links within signature lines.

Some forums use "nofollow, no index" meta tags. However, I've found that even links from those forums show up if I do a link:www.mysite.com search.

The problem is that any links from any one site begin to diminish in value the more often they're repeated.

For example, there's a forum I visit at least twice a day, and have been for nearly nine years. It's related to the niche of one of my sites. If I do a link:www.mysite.com search, I'll find literally thousands of links from posts I've written on the site.

Are the links from those thousands of posts worth as much as a single link from another authority site within my niche?

I don't think so. The value of links from a single site diminishes. One is probably worth more than 4,000.

Do I know this to be absolutely true? No. But I can only surmise that it would be too easy for someone to put a link in a sig line, and then submit dozens of worthless posts every night.

I view the links coming from forums I regularly post on as a little bit of gravy. But I spend much more time cultivating single links from well-respected sites within my niche.

[abhishekkaushik]

There are lots of forums that allows signature links to be placed in their posts, to find them type something like "list forum signature" and you will find a post where somebody has listed over 20 such forums,

Back in the past i try to put my links on some of the forum but they are not shown in Google when i do "example.com -inurl:example.com".

[edited by: martinibuster at 4:58 am (utc) on June 19, 2007]
[edit reason] Removed URL. [/edit]

[willybfriendly]

Some forums can provide good traffic. That might be a better use than looking for SE benefits.

Traffic can produce natural links. There is the SE benefit.

In a couple of niche forums I frequent I will occasionally link to a relevant page - sometimes mine, sometimes somewhere else. My logs show a fair amount of traffic from such links.

To get the traffic though, you need to develop a reputation or providing good relevant info.

Sig lines? I would say they are only beneficial in as far as your forum reputation gets people to go find out more about you.

[martinibuster]

Sig lines are generally for sites that can't obtain links any other way because of poor quality, or for webmasters who lack the skills to build genuine links. They're a poor substitute for a quality link.

[Marcia]

Someone I know has been posting links to his sites in a couple of forums for a few years (it's allowed). Yet, almost all of his sites' pages are Supplemental and the PR is as low as it gets. It might result in some visitors via the links (visitors aren't the same as customers or buyers), but certainly not any PR or link juice.

[JohnRoy]

- Traffic can produce natural links. There is the SE benefit.

Depends on to where the link is going.

If it's from a SEO forum to another seo niche with an ad about link to us - it's a real benefit long term.

[dickbaker]

"They're a poor substitute for a quality link."

True. But every link helps, as long as it's from a quality site.