How useful has forum signitures been in your marketing campaign?

[kbeus21]

Personally it has been very helpful for both direct traffic and serps postion, but I was wondering how helpful has forum posting been in your campaign? What has it helped the most with backlinks or direct traffic?

[MayaLocke]

I think forum sigs are helpful but it is not the most important thing when obtaining backlinks.

[hawash]

yes and if you ur singature in forums related to your website that is also good

[Toni Anicic]

Depending on different forums, I had pretty much different results with forum signatures.

Here on WPW for example I don't gain much visitors form my signature, however, the ones that do come tend to be pretty quality and relevant ones, spending lots of time on my website and not bouncing away.

[MattE]

Personally I think the value in signatures is directly related to your involvement in the forum itself. If you post quality replies (most people don't) then this is part of your credibility and after a few reads, people will check out your signature links to look at who you are and what you do.

I also think that PR from forums is quite diluted, but is worth having in the mix.

Bottom line, think humans - create worthwhile responses and people will naturally check you out.

[shakir]

Originally Posted by MayaLocke

I think forum sigs are helpful but it is not the most important thing when obtaining backlinks.

Why .. its very important for obtaining BL

[3dmagicaldesigns]

I think it is good to increase the links popularity and search engine indexing

[iPhone Fan]

In comparison with backlinks from dofollow blogs it's easier to realize.

[notsoold]

Forum signatures only bring a few visitors. But they are backlinks that help your serp results.

[ctabuk]

They only really help you if you base the username on your business. All these yingtong564321 style usernames are as much use as an ashtray on a motorcycle.

A few of us have massive google username referals, here in WPW I think its webnauts and I that have the most. But I could be wrong.

[goodfta]

i agree with ctabuk, my user name on allot of forum profiles far outweighs the posts i post on, if you google my name, i find find forum sigs are doing a good job, provided they are do follow and not no follow, there is lots of free tools to ID those sort of things. Also, having a link to your homepage in your profile on a forum is also good.

[Glen Speckmann]

I find that forum signatures do bring some traffic to my site. The important thing is that the traffic is highly targeted and the reader can benefit from my web site.

It is also very important to offer quality posts and replies. If you are doing it just for the signature, then you will find it to not be beneficial.

Good Luck,
Glen Speckmann

[michael_dans]

See, there is one thing important in using forum signatures in your marketing campaign and that is attracting more and more traffic. If the signature displays an interesting link then the visitor, intentionally or unintentionally clicks it. The person get attracted towards the link but simultaneously, the information through the link should be useful to him or her somehow.

[SEObyCanz]

I enjoy clicking on links in signatures on a forum, I never buy anything but I do look.

I will often click on a sig link if someone makes an interesting post.

I have not noticed I get many visitors from forums, can't say I have really looked, years ago I did, but now I just enjoy the break of going to a forum and making my thoughts known.

Lynny

[michael_dans]

I think that it is good to click on signatures as you may get something what you are searching for. Sometime it happens that you are just checking out something else but you discover what you were in need for a very long time or you may discover something new and interesting. It happens buddy.

[chatterbox]

More than the direct traffic, it has helped me in gaining a better PR within a few months time. Currently have tons of quality backlinks and they show that they are worth the effort put in.

[GameFriends]

Is it worth doing? Yes. As far as direct traffic my experience has been the clicks are few and far between but the branding, like ctabuk mentioned, and serps like others have suggested are huge benefits of sig links and reason enough to utilize this marketing strategy.

[earnest]

Originally Posted by ctabuk

They only really help you if you base the username on your business. All these yingtong564321 style usernames are as much use as an ashtray on a motorcycle.

A few of us have massive google username referals, here in WPW I think its webnauts and I that have the most. But I could be wrong.

Ctabuk,

Please bear with an ignoramus style of question, but I would like to make sure I understand things correctly.

Is it that by selecting a business-based name as opposed to a random one it binds to the signature links attached, by which it helps to forward rankings for the business name itself (or is it specific signature keywords also?). Is that so?

[zm21]

Forum signatures are a good way to support backlinking force of a website. Especially when the subject of the topic is relevant.

[thefandango]

They have definitely helped raise traffic levels for us.

[kms1167]

it has been helpful to me so far, although i am very new at it. I think as long as you are making good posts, you will get some traffic especially if you are posting on related forums. It also has helped me to gain some of my first google backlinks.

[textbox]

Utilizing forum sigs should absolutely be part of your SEO campaign for a few reasons. It helps with your overall link count and has the potential to bring in additional traffic if you routinely add value to the conversation.

[Sokolenko]

i think first of all signatures from popular forums increase indexing of your site in search engines
and only after that brings you pr and some traffic

[cashinvegas]

Good for backlinks, especially if relevant content.
Targeted traffic only if such forum has related visitors/content
unless you're looking for general traffic..

[janeth]

Originally Posted by goodfta

i agree with ctabuk, my user name on allot of forum profiles far outweighs the posts i post on, if you google my name, i find find forum sigs are doing a good job, provided they are do follow and not no follow, there is lots of free tools to ID those sort of things. Also, having a link to your homepage in your profile on a forum is also good.

How do you figure your user name is going to affect your ranking in Google?

[janeth]

Originally Posted by ctabuk

They only really help you if you base the username on your business. All these yingtong564321 style usernames are as much use as an ashtray on a motorcycle.

A few of us have massive google username referals, here in WPW I think its webnauts and I that have the most. But I could be wrong.

I really do not understand this at all.

How does a user name that does not link to your site help in your ranking?

[weegillis]

Just throwing this one out here...

ctabuk and webnauts are known by their user name and their expertise, so they have SE reputation and index history that will always serve their pages in results of a similarly ascribed nature. We know them by their user name, the SE's know them by their associated domains and indices.

[janeth]

Originally Posted by weegillis

Just throwing this one out here...

ctabuk and webnauts are known by their user name and their expertise, so they have SE reputation and index history that will always serve their pages in results of a similarly ascribed nature. We know them by their user name, the SE's know them by their associated domains and indices.

lol,

You believe that the search engines know ctabuk and webnauts by name and if they launch a new site it will give them extra points because of who they are?

[weegillis]

No. Because of how much they have indexed that is relevant and authoritative.

[janeth]

Originally Posted by weegillis

No. Because of how much they have indexed that is relevant and authoritative.

Because of how much of what that they have indexed?

[Hafsoh]

Backlinks from related forum can help your website gain better positions for your chosen keywords or phrases on search engines, it will translate into better visibility which leads to more and more traffic ...

[wkathome]

Newbie here with a question about getting back links from using a signature file. Not sure how that works. I think having a signature file is important to kinda let everyone know what you're about, and every little bit of exposure does seem to help, but was curious how to link back?
Great post by the way. Forums are a good way to expand your knowledge base, so thanks everyone for sharing.

[weegillis]

Originally Posted by wkathome

... a question about getting back links from using a signature file. Not sure how that works.

Welcome, wkathome,

Glad you asked. A signature is just that, a signature. It's not a back link in the strictest sense; that is, it won't show up as an IBL on your site (WPW uses 'nofollow' on OBL's). Yes, it does link to your site, but it's a way to find YOU, not your site.

If you provide a service that members can benefit from, and you are confident in what you provide, then add your link (when that time comes) to your signature, even if it competes with another member providing the same service. Notice how many members here do SEO?

Use the signature to boost your credibility, not your sales or web presence and all will be fine.

For now, read the policies and threads, and pick a topic to get interested in. We'll look for you on the boards.

[findconstructionjobs]

It's just not all about having a signature link which contributes to having backlinks to your website. If your postings are powerful and informative, people are curious to know more about you. This would ultimately lead them to visit your website.

[nasracfan09]

It has helped a lot. My blog now ranks among the top ones, and that is just due to this link building.

I will suggest anyone to do this, until,you get a nice PR.

[innominds]

Definitely, Forum Participation is a good way to gain link popularity. But for the best result, one should participate in related niche.

[Gina12]

It is important and useful.We will benifit from it after a period.

[earnest]

Originally Posted by weegillis

they have SE reputation and index history that will always serve their pages in results of a similarly ascribed nature. We know them by their user name, the SE's know them by their associated domains and indices.

I'm still sort of clueless as to the cause-result link here. Does that imply a search engine perspective, as opposed to a human one, if you see what I mean, that is, it's not so much about people searching for the "brand" names but search engines somehow ascribing authority to whatever links are deemed to be associated with the particular names?

Sorry if that's too fuzzy a way to express my question .

[Chief Ken]

I believe that you can't promote too much. Just keep good taste intact with your promotions and maintain a human side and things should work better with your promotions. Taking an attitude that you are not around to sell to anyone, but are here to meet people and interact with quality content, then the marketing will come to you.

[angilina]

Originally Posted by kbeus21

Personally it has been very helpful for both direct traffic and serps postion, but I was wondering how helpful has forum posting been in your campaign? What has it helped the most with backlinks or direct traffic?

I participate in different forums [about 6]: this helps to keep being updated to what is happening in SEO and other fields. We can learn a lot in forums.

Signature links are backlinks but I think they do not help in improving ranking of a site in SERPs. You can see the number of outbound links on each thread: the PR that each thread have: and the content is not relevant in most cases.

Signatures can give some direct/targeted traffic, plus these links may help a site to be crawled faster.

[zeruel]

Well in my own personal experience, I rarely get some good and quality traffic from signature links rather than backlinks. Most of the time, I don't get to have them both in a forum community because I really don't see it as a marketing tool and also thinks that it is not a good place to market your website because most forums set rules regarding this matter.

Maybe it also depends on the niche of the forum.

[Janna122003]

Originally Posted by kbeus21

Personally it has been very helpful for both direct traffic and serps postion, but I was wondering how helpful has forum posting been in your campaign? What has it helped the most with backlinks or direct traffic?

links on relevant forums can give you targeted traffic/client/buyer.

[weegillis]

Forum posting can have two positive effects:

1) It can let one expose ideas to the light of day and the scrutiny of others, leading to (hopefully) a better understanding and implementation of the idea or concepts involved.

2) It can establish one as an authority on a given subject, and may serve to spring board the member into higher pursuits. SEOWORKERS is one example of the positive spin off from forum to working entity.

These are both peripheral to a marketing campaign, yet provide shoring and give credibility to the marketer. It follows that having 1500 posts of limited quality will not have the same effect as 150 of solid matter. It still boils down to qualitative versus quantitative.

Janna122003 hits the nail right on the head with reference to targeting one's market. Placed in the right forums, where the targeted market is comprised of the readers and visitors to the forum, and accompanied by quality posts (questions or answers), links can and probably do lead to successful conversions. How we can quantify this is beyond me, but I'm sure it can be done.

[Technotate]

Originally Posted by kbeus21

Personally it has been very helpful for both direct traffic and serps postion, but I was wondering how helpful has forum posting been in your campaign? What has it helped the most with backlinks or direct traffic?

I find sig links a decent source of referrals for my portfolio.

Regards,
Technotate

[kylelmoon]

Forum signatures helped me channel people who are interested in the same niche to my website.
It brings traffic to the website.

[morestar]

Interestingly, I just checked my Analytics and found that WPW (WebProWorld.com) referrals were #4, Google was #1, direct #2, yahoo #3 and WPW #4.

I'm not sure if anyone registeres but I guess I should probably look into that too...

[weegillis]

morestar: You just hit on the magic question... "How useful..." which can only be measured on a case by case basis, in reality, and if it is a "marketing campaign" one suspects, timely, as well.

During the period [mmdd] to [MMDD] how many visits were there? and how many registered? That is, how many successful conversions resulted from the specific arm of the campaign?

[morestar]

Interesting. I never really looked at the data with respect to WPW but for instance, for the last 30 days, 4.66% of my visits were from WPW but only 1% of the 100 visits actually registered...for my campaign I can't truly expect anyone to register because no one visits WPW in order to join a dating site...

I'm basically hoping the 'usefulness' comes into play just by the link that the search engines read. I'm not even looking for link juice or PR...just a little boost because of the fact that the link exists...

[weegillis]

Originally Posted by morestar

Interesting. I never really looked at the data with respect to WPW but for instance, for the last 30 days, 4.66% of my visits were from WPW but only 1% of the 100 visits actually registered...for my campaign I can't truly expect anyone to register because no one visits WPW in order to join a dating site...

Which is to say that links in sig (in the case described) are not part of the 'campaign' but do factor into the 'plan'. Links in sig bring warm bodies, of whichever persuasion. Kind of like flypaper, some will stick, but most will not.

Actually, 1% is a very good number, in the macro view of marketing to a largely unknown marketplace with indeterminable numbers. Ten in a thousand is very good, indeed. Ask any advertising manager.

Originally Posted by morestar

I'm basically hoping the 'usefulness' comes into play just by the link that the search engines read. I'm not even looking for link juice or PR...just a little boost because of the fact that the link exists...

Since it's very likely all OBLs in forum posts are nofollow, and one assumes the member's site is already indexed, I don't see a way for sig links to have any bearing in SERPs since this DOMAIN would count for only one link (one vote) that does not pass any juice of the website owner's own accord (in other words, take back their vote but let the link stay).

Again it comes around to natural rather than SERP driven traffic finding your site, via the sig links where ever you post. Valuable posts probably generate more traffic through those links than one off comments, you think? That 1/25 of your traffic came from an SEO forum shows that, (a) SEO forums are visited by humans too, and (b) SEO forums don't just attract geeks. (grins)

Oh, and (c) attracting traffic from geek land is only 1/25 of your job done, so it follows that posting in all manner of forums, not just techie, will attract people from the same cross-sections (use computers, fog up mirrors) but with different interests. In other words, the same kind of people.

[morestar]

Originally Posted by weegillis

Valuable posts probably generate more traffic through those links than one off comments...

Very very true which goes to show that there really is little use in the forum signature unless one takes part in valuable posts or strikes them...

I noticed there aren't any nofollow attributes though in our signature links for WPW but again it matters not because as we know links from most forums only count as one link.