Can forum signatures hurt your SEO?

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jnoempire

jnoempire

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Dec 23, 2007
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  • #1
    http://www.bruceclay.com/blog/archives/2008/02/linking_qa.html


    "Todd ([SIZE=-1]stuntdubl[/SIZE]): If you sit on enough linking panels, you’ll wind up getting the idea that the last links that are going to count are Harvard, Stanford and CNN. The truth is, there’s gotta be a balance. As long as there’s a balance in the links that you’re getting, you’re okay. If all your links are from UGC site, you’re going to tip off a filter."..

    Interesting article covering Search Marketing Expo West: Day 3 -
    Tod made an interesting comment about having links on User Generated Content Sites.

    As I post here more and more, I see my google webmaster tools external links being filled up with links from UkBF from my sig. Do you this can have nagative impact as well? as you would expect spam sites to be on blogs comments, forums, guestbooks. etc

    So how would SE tell the different between 100's of relevant Signatures and a 100's of spam link
     
    kapow

    kapow

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    Feb 27, 2008
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  • #2
    I don't know the answer to this one. But I think it's a really interesting thread.

    I'd hope that as the majority of the page in these forums is 'real text' and only the odd link (rather than pages and pages of links) that the SE's would differentiate between the two.

    Best regards,

    Andy
     
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    astutiumRob

    astutiumRob

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    May 5, 2004
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  • #4
    Simple answer - almost certainly not.

    Slightly longer answer ...

    If people are running one of the many spamware/spyware/junkware toolbars that silently track clicks, traffic, etc, then your "ranking" as show by such flawed and utterly use junk will be affected - thats why is so simple to fake alexa stats, and why nobody sensible takes any notice of the alexa "results".

    Search engines themselves *generally* index a different "lo-fi" version of a forum, which excludes the sig's anyway, and are well coded to understand what a sig is and to pay less attention to any links

    Analysing server logs shows close-to-zero 'bot incomings from forums, yet thousands of actual incomings -meaning *people* are clicking on the links and/or software thats downloading the site(s) for offline reading are collecting the connected/related pages.

    Despite some "gurus" still spouting on about FFA pages, Guestbooks, Blog&Ping spam etc, thats almost entirely due to them selling you some snake-oil 1990's ebook, rather than it having any positive effect on SEO - the *BEST* thing you can do to improve your rank in search engines is simply have decent content people are actually looking for, interested in reading, and will click through to :D
     
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    DayTM

    DayTM

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    Feb 20, 2008
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  • #8
    sabian1982 said:
    I was rather interested this week to come across another new perception about linking to a forum. A website owner had a link to digital point webmaster forum, having removed the backlink (as a suggestion) his site visability appeared to improve. Needless to say its not conclusive proof, but a possibility!!!
    Click to expand...
    To be honest that sounds like nonsense. Removing one link will have little to no effect, his rankings probably improved for a number of other reasons, age of domain, google taking into account new back links etc. 99% of what gets posted at DP is nonsense unfortunately, it has one of the worst signal to noise ratios out there.
     
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    J

    jakeylakey

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    Jan 11, 2006
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  • #9
    Definately not. In my opinion there is no way spamming or even linking from dodgy sites can effect your SERP. The search engines cant work out who posted them links. It would be to easy to damage an opponents site if that was the case.

    Whilst there is only so much credit a forum signiture from any one forum site can give to your SERP, it certaintly cant do any harm.
     
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    D

    DotNetWebs

  • #10
    jakeylakey said:
    Definately not. In my opinion there is no way spamming or even linking from dodgy sites can effect your SERP. The search engines cant work out who posted them links. It would be to easy to damage an opponents site if that was the case...
    Click to expand...

    This is what I have always thought.

    People often say “do not use automatic submission services” etc. – but if that really hurts you what is to stop your rivals from submitting your domain this way???

    Regards

    Dotty
     
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    ken_uk

    ken_uk

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    Jul 27, 2007
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  • #11
    Well Digital Point is a big slap me with a penalty sign for a lot of what is posted their, but search engines spam teams cant usually prove that a poster at a forum is who they say they are, anyone can sign up with a user name and include someone else's site in their sig links etc. But if you were to link to the same forum, and be a member of it, its easier for them to prove to themselves that you are who you say you are, and if you have been saying your doing anything naughty, then they can act with a cleaner conscience....

    So removing a link to it, could be seen as a sign of good faith....

    As for sig links, most are on low page rank pages, are usually not on topic, completely unrelated to the post, and are just one of many, many links on a page so will have little effect per link.

    But there should be some effect, and also people will be clicking on them, if they like what they read, and the link is of interest, which can lead to visitors, and maybe more linkbacks if they like your site...

    Google still has not answered the question about paid sig links, which means it is still open to being a trouble sign, if it was not, they could have answered quite easily that there is no problem at all....
     
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    J

    JustOneUK

  • #12
    DotNetWebs said:
    This is what I have always thought.

    People often say "do not use automatic submission services" etc. - but if that really hurts you what is to stop your rivals from submitting your domain this way???

    Regards

    Dotty
    Click to expand...
    MMMwwwwwahahahahaha! my cunning plan is revealed!

    I'm about to change ALL MY SIG LINKS to say JET SKI and point them at Earl's sites :rolleyes: thus destroying his rankings and making RayB the better SEO :|:D
     
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    sabian1982

    sabian1982

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  • #13
    DayTM said:
    To be honest that sounds like nonsense. Removing one link will have little to no effect, his rankings probably improved for a number of other reasons, age of domain, google taking into account new back links etc. 99% of what gets posted at DP is nonsense unfortunately, it has one of the worst signal to noise ratios out there.
    Click to expand...

    It doesn't have to be nonsense, it could be a real possibility; think of it this way...

    As website owners we have control of our sites, we have control of who we link to... we don't however have control over who links to us. If for some reason Google had penalised DP, then link to DP could produce a negative effect... as you said yourself, DP is general full of rubbish, that being said, its still the biggest webmaster community on the web!!!

    Googles algo is complex, for all we know this, who you link to factor, could become a more prominant feature of the google ranking algorithem.
     
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    DayTM

    DayTM

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    Feb 20, 2008
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  • #14
    sabian1982 said:
    It doesn't have to be nonsense, it could be a real possibility; think of it this way...

    As website owners we have control of our sites, we have control of who we link to... we don't however have control over who links to us. If for some reason Google had penalised DP, then link to DP could produce a negative effect... as you said yourself, DP is general full of rubbish, that being said, its still the biggest webmaster community on the web!!!

    Googles algo is complex, for all we know this, who you link to factor, could become a more prominant feature of the google ranking algorithem.
    Click to expand...

    Well, by the same logic Google would be knocking the SERPs of the like of MySpace, Facebook etc, because the users post silly pictures and quizzes with links back to cookie cut, low grade MySpace resources sites. Or this forum itself goes down the rankings as we all post links to less than worthy sites. It doesn't work that way around, just look at some of the junkier sigs on quality sites that rank #1 time and time over in the SERPs.

    That guys site could have gone up the rankings for hundreds of legitimate natural reasons such as domain age, backlink update, authority site linking to it etc. It's just a coincidence that it coincided with his removal of a link to DP.
     
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    F

    franglix

  • #16
    Interestingly enough UKBF was the first forum I became active in, and just having 30 or so posts and my signature link here, boosted me to the top of the Google listings (for the anchor text phrase I used) even though my meta KW were entirely different to this signature anchor text + none of my other back links targeted those keywords. [Saying that, it was a year ago though, and I have fiddled around with things and other forums and referencing since, and to be frank although the KW brought traffic, they are/were not ones that are heavily drenched in competition.]
     
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    An Oasis

    An Oasis

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    Oct 3, 2006
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  • #17
    RedEvo said:
    I have a strong view on sig links that's not shared with the majority in here, we agree to disagree. Setting that aside my concern would be the links are usually out of context. Thread talking about subject A, keyword links about subject B.

    d
    Click to expand...

    I assume that you are talking about theming, if so yes I agree and wonder when it will become a mainstream consideration, in terms of ranking by the search engines?

    As for other comments as to UKBF sig links, UKBF is a trusted source AFAIK so I very much doubt that a sig to your sites will have any detrimental affects.
     
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    RedEvo

    RedEvo

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    May 12, 2007
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  • #18
    An Oasis said:
    I assume that you are talking about theming, if so yes I agree and wonder when it will become a mainstream consideration, in terms of ranking by the search engines?
    Click to expand...

    In its purest form a link is a vote for a site and should be contextual. Forum sig links are tantamount to voting for yourself and are not contextual.

    Ultimately if Google are going to get their house in order they are going to have to solve this conundrum however difficult it might be. One solution would be to discount links from all forums as you can't guarantee them to be genuine.....drastic I know.

    I know this is an idealistic point of view and rather G than me to solve this ;)

    d
     
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