Links in signature

would they annoy big G?

[specter]

Hello,

I was wondering if getting backlinks from forum posts signature could annoy Google as a spam issue: I partecipate in a forum and I added these links to my site in my profile as signature: Consulting Google sitemap account, I see that each new post is counted as a link,so 100 posts match 100 backlinks!

How would I deal with this?

Should I remove the signature?

Thanks

[dickbaker]

Many people have been doing that for years.

I think the concensus is that multiple links from one site don't carry the weight of a single link.

I have yet to hear of someone being punished for links in their sig lines.

[specter]

Yes...I think too this could annoy Google.
For example,my sitemap reports dozen of "external" links to my index page, but all come from that signature,only different topics of the forum;in effect it would sound like spam.

...On the other hand there would be the possibility that someone else would link my site in his signature, for the simple reason that he likes my site...something on wich I would have no control.

And this is a basic principle that Google always respects and applies.

So, it's not fair thing to penalize a site for a wrong linking from another site...

[DXL]

I've included links in signatures and will continue to do so. As mentioned before, if Google considers it spammy and penalizes, there's nothing to stop a competitor from linking to your site and killing its ranking.

[Quadrille]

Forum links count for very little; forums have been spam heaven for years and, er, I think Google has noticed. Two years ago or so!

And be warned; overdoing it can be seen as spam.

And worse - if it leads to a site penalty, the penalty is only reversible by removing the spam.

And if you've been spamming forums, just try removing those messages later, after you've been banned!

(nothing personal - I'm not suggesting YOU have been doing that!)

This info comes from a Google spokesperson on one of those youtubevideothingies

[added] this would NOT happen in isolation; as others have said, Google does not normally penalize on the basis of actions that could be taken by others (eg rivals). But if there is a pattern of spammy behaviour, then forum spam CAN count against you.

[edited by: Quadrille at 11:40 pm (utc) on Aug. 5, 2007]

[amythepoet]

I too include links in the signature.

I think it's a fine idea.

[DXL]

Since no one responded to my topic about using 3-4 links in the footer of a site's credits, any thoughts on how 3-4 links in a forum signature could help/hurt?

[CainIV]

And worse - if it leads to a site penalty, the penalty is only reversible by removing the spam.

And if you've been spamming forums, just try removing those messages later, after you've been banned!

Couldn't have said it better myself. Removing forum links because you posted 1400 times with the same signature is a massive waste of time and effort.

And don't believe for a second that the theory of 'it's not fair that Google could penalize your site by throwing a whole bunch of one type of anchors text towards your index' isn't valid. It is, and Google isn't perfect, nor did they ever claim to be fair.

[edited by: CainIV at 6:35 am (utc) on Aug. 11, 2007]

[JonSimmonds]

I am pretty sure that google knows what forum software a particular forum is running, and from that can tell the difference between the forum post and a users signature. Although this is speculation on my part, any links in signatures wont carry as much weight

For example one of the popular commercial forum software offerings separates the post from the signature with "____________" in the default template

I personally dont link to my other sites when I post in forums, but on some I do include a link to my homepage/blog (which does contain links to sites I own) on my forums I own I operate a "polite policy" were that if a user links to their site in their signature they place a link back to my site, which I think is a fair policy to both myself and the users

[mini]

Hey this is my post

As far as I have heard, google cannot spider the links contained in signature.

[wll6568]

Google does crawl links in signature, but most forums scripts have made links in Signature or even post content to be no_followed, so....I think they wont be followed by crawler, but it is still a good way to advertise or promote your website.

[meditation]

Indeed, many forums use rel="nofollow" attached to the signature link, so it will not bring any weight to that link at all, at least as much as google is concerned. Still, I think, such a link can mean something to Yahoo, but I am not sure to what extent.

[planetdomain]

people may be active forum contributors who have a good rep, and have good intentions in their forum participation, but because of the potential to gain link-juice from a signature in a forum, you'll probably find most moderators will ban you if you have a url in your signature.

I'm unsure if the "big G" as you call them depreciate links from forums, I imagine to the spammy nature of a lot of forums I've seen (ie compromised PHP BB Forums - cialis anyone? :) ), it would be good for them not to highly regard links from forums, but that's just my opinion)

[ewsjustin]

Like was mentioned before most of the forums come default with the nofollow tag so while that doesn't affect your search engine rank you may at least be getting traffic from users of the forum that your posting in. Then if you have decent content on your site they may link to you legitly (<- is that even a word) I would focus more on link quality instead of quantity like throwing it in a sig though.

[rianvisser]

I myself have links in signatures on a couple of forums. I get quite good hits and it did not seem to be affected by Google.

[thesoftwareplanet]

google folks know the signature trend at forums.
May be they already have some uberl33t algorithm to take care of such anamolies :)

[meditation]

What do you mean by taking care of the signature links by google? Penalize or simply not considering them?