Promoting your website at forums.

good or bad for SER?

[dirkji]

Hi all,

I regularly post at forums (topic related to my site) about updates to my site. There are roundabout 50 forums and I post once every 2 months.

This gives me a lot of traffic and my link on these forums gets indexed by the search engines.

I copy/paste the text for these forums, so all posts have the same text.

SO my question : is it bad for my search engine rankings if there are too many posts with the same text?

Best Regards, Dirk.

[robotsdobetter]

I don't see how it could hurt you in anyway, but some suggest that it don't help at all. I would suggest that it does in fact help as any other link would.

[yowza]

It definitely helps to have the on-topic link and the targeted anchor text. However, I would vary my anchor text as to avoid any possible anchor text over-optimization penalty.

[mincklerstraat]

I've lately been of the impression that forum pages - the pages showing the actual messages and not the lists of messages - are showing less PR. This isn't a type of indication that your should stake your site's life on, but is an indication nonetheless. I expect siggy links etc. from new messages probably won't get you the mileage they once did. That said, it seems that alt texts are often good to have, wherever they come from, PR or no PR.

[tristo]

Isn't this sort of advertising in a forum considered spam in the same way you would consider it spam in a blog?

[dirkji]

Thanks for the replies.

I'm not sure you can call this spam; it's on the edge though.
I only post to related forums. I don't promote a product or something, but offer free resources.
If I would get negative reactions I would quit immediately, but I get very positive responses on the forums.

Greetz, Dirk.

[pageoneresults]

I'm not sure you can call this spam; it's on the edge though.

As long as you read the forum's Terms of Service and the posting of URIs is acceptable, then you should be fine.

But, there is an unwritten rule of thumb that you should follow. Typically a new user with one or two posts and a URI drop may be seen as a Forum Spammer. I think it might be in your best interest to participate first, let the community become aware of your existence and then maybe, just maybe, you can start dropping URIs. ;)

Few people are going to take the time to drop URIs in forums when there is no monetary reward for their efforts. Even though you say it is a free resource, are you running ads of any kind? Are those ads generating revenue? Do you have affiliate links? Do they generate revenue? You need to be sure that if you are dropping URIs in forums, that it doesn't look like a self-promo and/or revenue generating scheme.

[Farout]

"However, I would vary my anchor text as to avoid any possible anchor text over-optimization penalty."

Is it really possible to overdue this?
Doesn't that mean that you can actually hurt another website, by link-spamming with a specific anchor text?
If it is possible to get a penalty by using "anchor text over-optimization", where is the limit?

Thanx in advance for your advice.
Mike

[longen]

Until this year there was a Forum which placed a link to my site into every 5th posting, other sites shared the other posts. There was no problem with over-optimization, my homepage is PR6.
Despite all the links there wasn't a lot of traffic except when i made an announcement about new content on the site, and then there would be a 3 day surge of visitors - few of whom went to the content i was promoting - they choose the content that was relevent to them.

[webmastertexas]

Isn't this sort of advertising in a forum considered spam in the same way you would consider it spam in a blog?

Depends on the forum. Some forbids link posting to one's homepage (like here) but others will let you put just about anything in your signature line, including a banner to your homepage and link. It's really just a matter if the webmaster cares or not. Most don't, that I've come across. Of course if all you do all day is promote your site, that might tick some people off. :)

[Livenomadic]

Isn't this sort of advertising in a forum considered spam in the same way you would consider it spam in a blog?

This is what I do:

1. Find a forum related to my topic

2. Find a thread that could be answered by an article from my site.

3. Write a reply offering links to 3-4 sites, with my site being first on the list and the other sights being NOT from my competition.

So if someone had a question about Blue Widgets:

Hi there! Here are some excellent websites, I believe they can answer your question:

Widget.com- (My Site)
Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah

Non-Competator-
Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah

Non-Competator-
Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah

This way I can get my link (which is what I want) and I'm not just spamming with a premade unrelated message, im actually helping out the forum with good link... just one of them is mine.

The other sites recieve the benefits too, but they arent my competators so it doesnt matter..

Forum Wins with good content, I win with a link, and the visitors win with some good leads.

[davesplace1]

I think that forums will help your site, even if not for SEO, then for the extra vistors you get. If the forum or topic is close to your site, then you are getting highly tarketed visitors.

[dirkji]

That's a good idea, Livenomandic.