The subject of snake oilers use of forums to benefit their own standing within search engines was a discussion point a few days ago. Here are my own points from an SEO standpoint
Forums can be a good source of generating backlinks if you understand, how they work and how to go about it.
Let's be clear 1000 posts on a forum will not lead to 1000 backlinks with Google, fact you may generate 3, that's if your lucky. The 3 you do get will lose strength over time as they are moved backwards
The main problem with targeting forums is they are software based, therefore they are hardly viewed as unique and the amount of links on any one page can be excessive. I have a hand coded directory that outranks all the software ones for my targeted keywords.
So, what is the best way to use forums as part of an oily strategy?
Open an account
List your URL in your control panel
Start 2 threads
Leave
Repeat this 5 times a week for 2 years and you will see some benefit
Factors that affect the score given by search engines
Is the forum on theme with your website
Is the forum sub section on theme with your website
Does the forum incorporate the no-follow attribute
Is the forum well ranked
Do you use anchor text in your posts
Is your post of good quality or a one liner
How many links are on the page
Is the page indexed
How old is the forum
Is the forum using search engine friendly URL's (we can see this forum isn't)
Are these threads well populated
Is the forum full of sidelink advertising links
How popular is the forum
How often is your link clicked, if clicked how long will the clicker spend on your site.
Here are just a few of the factors, the trouble is the 'oily' brigade have not researched their link building strategy, with most reading things like, post on forums and comment on blogs and you will be fine. Of course there is so much more to it than that, but who is ever going to educate them? The result of course is good quality forums like this will always have the problem.
Forums can be a good source of generating backlinks if you understand, how they work and how to go about it.
Let's be clear 1000 posts on a forum will not lead to 1000 backlinks with Google, fact you may generate 3, that's if your lucky. The 3 you do get will lose strength over time as they are moved backwards
The main problem with targeting forums is they are software based, therefore they are hardly viewed as unique and the amount of links on any one page can be excessive. I have a hand coded directory that outranks all the software ones for my targeted keywords.
So, what is the best way to use forums as part of an oily strategy?
Open an account
List your URL in your control panel
Start 2 threads
Leave
Repeat this 5 times a week for 2 years and you will see some benefit
Factors that affect the score given by search engines
Is the forum on theme with your website
Is the forum sub section on theme with your website
Does the forum incorporate the no-follow attribute
Is the forum well ranked
Do you use anchor text in your posts
Is your post of good quality or a one liner
How many links are on the page
Is the page indexed
How old is the forum
Is the forum using search engine friendly URL's (we can see this forum isn't)
Are these threads well populated
Is the forum full of sidelink advertising links
How popular is the forum
How often is your link clicked, if clicked how long will the clicker spend on your site.
Here are just a few of the factors, the trouble is the 'oily' brigade have not researched their link building strategy, with most reading things like, post on forums and comment on blogs and you will be fine. Of course there is so much more to it than that, but who is ever going to educate them? The result of course is good quality forums like this will always have the problem.