Direct Links Harmfull?

[savantcreative]

Do you think that using signature links that include urls is harmful?

[williamc]

No............

[SteveGerencser]

What do you think, your company offers SEO Services..

[savantcreative]

I think it might and am trying to use the forum as a sounding board. I don't see too many of them around here. Thanks.

[mjtaylor]

Come on, let's get real. I think you might be posting to post. :)

[savantcreative]

Maybe I wasn't clear about this I mean using links like (keyword phrase http:www.example.com/something.html) Does that explain it better?

[SteveGerencser]

As william said, no.. The long answer is, if they did wouldn't it make sense to just get a bunch like that pointed at competitors?

[Optic]

I can see why you would be confused. There was another thread where someone was saying having hundreds of links from the same site was a "black flag". I corrected them, but my post disappeared somehow.

[savantcreative]

I am just wondering why I never see links in the format I mentioned in my last post. I just see them for keyword phrases.

[crankydave]

I am just wondering why I never see links in the format I mentioned in my last post. I just see them for keyword phrases.

Because without that anchor text, noone would know what they might find by clicking on it.

[kgun]

Do you ask the question because you do that in your third signature link and have two links to the same site with different anchor text?

As you will see I ditribute my links accross three different domains, but If I owned one site, I may have done it like you, though not to the same site with two different anchor text from this forum. Other members can be of different opinion.

[williamc]

I don't think he realizes that one of the first 2 links is not helping him at all.

[savantcreative]

I don't think he realizes that one of the first 2 links is not helping him at all.
Why do you say that?


Do you ask the question because you do that in your third signature link and have two links to the same site with different anchor text?

As you will see I ditribute my links accross three different domains, but If I owned one site, I may have done it like you, though not to the same site with two different anchor text from this forum. Other members can be of different opinion.
No. It is because I was using this format that I mentioned above keyword phrase http://example.com/page.html in which the keyword phrase was just text and the http part was the link. I dropped a lot in the serps and was wondering if there was something about that proceedure that was hurting me.

[crankydave]

No. It is because I was using this format that I mentioned above keyword phrase http://example.com/page.html in which the keyword phrase was just text and the http part was the link. I dropped a lot in the serps and was wondering if there was something about that proceedure that was hurting me.

Hyperlinked text, anchor text, is a ranking metric.

[williamc]

Why do you say that?

You sell SEO Consulting services, why do YOU think I said that?

[savantcreative]

You think because I am pointing 2 different phrases to the same page I am wasting one of them?

[SteveGerencser]

There is a well established theory called first link.. It says that the first link pointing to a specific page from a page is the anchor text that gets counted.. So if you have 2 links on one page, both pointing to the same page, then only the first one has any value.. This is one of the reasons that forums signatures have so little value, and may be why that way of measuring links was implemented..

It's also why we made a phpBB plugin that limits each poster to just one signature per page.. Any links after the first one have nearly no value, so why even have them??

[savantcreative]

So. I should at least change one of my links to something else but from what you are saying it probably doesn't matter anyway. Why does anyone bother with the second and third link then?

[williamc]

You have more than one page in your site, correct? So point one of them at a different page...

[savantcreative]

I was under the impression that I could get 2 phrases into the same page but from what Steve has suggested it doesn't matter what you do after the first one anyway.
BTW I changed the second link

[williamc]

No, that's not what steve said. What Steve said, and what I was infering, was that you were trying to make 2 links on the same remote page (this forum, not your site) point to the same page (on your site) with different anchors. You can make your homepage rank for as many terms as you wish, you simply will not do so by having multiple links with varied anchors on the same remote pages.

Again, you are selling SEO, yet this is all basic knowledge that any SEO would know already, yet you have the word 'ethical' in the link as well...

[kgun]

BTW I changed the second link
Better now in my opinion. There may still be room for improvement matching the anchor text better with the page title. Put the forccus on your site's home page is my advice.

[savantcreative]

No, that's not what steve said. What Steve said, and what I was infering, was that you were trying to make 2 links on the same remote page (this forum, not your site) point to the same page (on your site) with different anchors. You can make your homepage rank for as many terms as you wish, you simply will not do so by having multiple links with varied anchors on the same remote pages.

Again, you are selling SEO, yet this is all basic knowledge that any SEO would know already, yet you have the word 'ethical' in the link as well...
@Williamc I really appreciate your input and respect your opinions but there are some things about SEO that are not hard fact. I also prefer to keep things from getting personal. This is a community. Let's be friends instead of adversaries, OK?

[savantcreative]

Better now in my opinion. There may still be room for improvement matching the anchor text better with the page title. Put the forccus on your site's home page is my advice.
Thanks kgun. I appreciate your input.

[williamc]

there are some things about SEO that are not hard fact.

Yes, there are indeed. But we are talking about something that is basic, and has been known for many years.

[BigD]

Google Analytics lists links to a site. If Google were taking issue with signature links, do you think that Analytics might register this as a problem for the site? Or does Analytics not ever intimate such an issue?

[savantcreative]

Google Analytics lists links to a site. If Google were taking issue with signature links, do you think that Analytics might register this as a problem for the site? Or does Analytics not ever intimate such an issue?
I don't think this would show up as an issue in Google Analytics.

[Online Writing Services]

An extra link is not going to hurt, although posting stuff like that will probably hurt an SEO business profile.

[tenetsystems]

Its believed that Google checks the quality of the link by ascertaining the relevancy of the resource ..so is it white hat SEO to have forum sig links linking to sites unrelated to the forum category.

[eonic]

I have seen people just posting text urls with no anchor tags. Does this have any effect?

[lindamartin88]

Signature links on do-follow blogs and forums help in getting back-links, so they are not harmful.

[store-show]

the signature i guess not good .the link must use the keyword it better for search

[LD]

the signature i guess not good .the link must use the keyword it better for search

Can you not think of a good keyword to use in your signature?

[deepsand]

I am just wondering why I never see links in the format I mentioned in my last post. I just see them for keyword phrases.
Surely one who is in the employ of an SEO firm understands the distinction between the optional Anchor Text and the necessary URL in an Anchor tag, and the different roles that they play.

Why, then, your question?

[deepsand]

Google Analytics lists links to a site. If Google were taking issue with signature links, do you think that Analytics might register this as a problem for the site? Or does Analytics not ever intimate such an issue?
Analytics is a data reporting tool , not a decision making one.

[deepsand]

An extra link is not going to hurt, ...
A duplicated link dilutes the PR share given to all links; and, it is discarded, thus wasting PR.


... although posting stuff like that will probably hurt an SEO business profile.
And, as the duplicate links are therefore not indexed, they are of no effect, good or bad.

[deepsand]

Its believed that Google checks the quality of the link by ascertaining the relevancy of the resource ..so is it white hat SEO to have forum sig links linking to sites unrelated to the forum category.
Huh?

White/Black Hat has nothing to do with "quality."

Furthermore, you seeming claim that it is better that there be no relevancy between the source and targets of links.

[deepsand]

I have seen people just posting text urls with no anchor tags. Does this have any effect?
If you mean like anysite.com, since that's not a hyperlink, it's ignored by the SEs.

[deepsand]

I might complain to your web host, WebTV server, or email server about bandwidth theft, which may get your pages/site/service/bulletin board deleted by the server.
What on Earth are you talking about?

[deepsand]

the signature i guess not good .the link must use the keyword it better for search
While Anchor Text does aid re. a link being indexed as being relevant to particular words/phrases, the absence of such has no effect on the PR value that it passes, its increasing the Link Count in ones Link Profile, or its contributing to one Link Profile with respect to the degree to which the target page is cited by Authoritative sites.

[deepsand]

Signature links on do-follow blogs and forums help in getting back-links, so they are not harmful.
Setting aside the fact that there is no such thing as "do follow," links bearing rel="nofollow" are equally useful in all regards aside from the passing of PageRank.

[deepsand]

Explain it clearly. Do you mean the forum signature?
Explain what?

[indiarajasthan]

No man. If IT was harmful then why we are using this ? Tell me

[C0ldf1re]

Its believed that Google checks the quality of the link by ascertaining the relevancy of the resource...

Does anybody have the true word as to whether or not this is correct? Has it been done, or is it what Google intends in the future, or is it just surmise?

[deepsand]

No man. If IT was harmful then why we are using this ? Tell me
Cars are harmful under certain conditions; but, we still use them! :lol:

The question here, when framed within the context of whether or not such links might under certain circumstances be harmful to ones Link Profile, is a legitimate one.

__________________

[deepsand]

Does anybody have the true word as to whether or not this is correct? Has it been done, or is it what Google intends in the future, or is it just surmise?
It's in Google's patents and various chapters of the Google Gospel according to Cutts, etal..

Make of that what you will.

[C0ldf1re]

It's in Google's patents and various chapters of the Google Gospel according to Cutts, etal... Make of that what you will.

I think I'll just feed it to the White Mice and see if they squeak.

[deepsand]

I think I'll just feed it to the White Mice and see if they squeak.
Don't be surprised if the response is "42."

[C0ldf1re]

Don't be surprised if the response is "42."

I tried Googling "42" and was told, "About 1,440,000,000 results". It might take several lifetimes to find the explanation for the answer.

[deepsand]

Use 42 "white mice", and the answer is right at the top.

Or, should that be the "question" is right at the top?

[C0ldf1re]

Use 42 "white mice", and the answer is right at the top.

Or, should that be the "question" is right at the top?

Should one question a question about the question?

[deepsand]

Should one question a question about the question?
Only if no answer is expected or required.

[C0ldf1re]

Only if no answer is expected or required.

"No answer was the stern reply," is a phrase that has baffled many people as to its origin. Any suggestions?

[deepsand]

Perhaps, correctly put, that is


"No answer" was the stern reply.

[C0ldf1re]

Perhaps, correctly put, that is

Of course, if I knew the origins of the phrase, I could check if the originator put it correctly.

[deepsand]

Of course, if I knew the origins of the phrase, I could check if the originator put it correctly.
One more for the White Mice.