Links in Signatures

[slickrick]

Other then from a branding perspective, is putting links in your signature on forums worth while for SEO?

I notice everyone does it. Are there any SEO Benefits?

[Adrian-LiveCasinoPartners]

Rick,
I think it certainly worth your time. I belong to a few forums in the gaming industry and always leave a link. They show up in the webmaster tools as external links, so it has got to affect the your SERPS positively. (IMHO)

[Guard Dog]

It's worth the time. SEO benefits... yes and no. The link will likely not be 100% targetted, so from that standpoint it won't have a ton of SEO value.

However - AGD gets spidered MANY times per day, which is why you will see topics here quickly get into the SERPS.

So - from spiderability... your link will get spidered and your site will get indexed from such a link.

It's worth it, overall (IMO)

[WCD Admin]

I use them - and we make good contacts that way. It lets people know who you are (could be good or bad). Other webmasters visit your sites (again could be good or bad). It can help when you make contact with other webmasters, landing deals, etc. as you can introduce yourself like: I saw you posting on AGD, so I figured I could trust you etc. I also use them to judge the experience of a webmaster (loosely) too. And yes, I guess it could be good from an SEO standpoint too, as long as it's not abused

[dominique]

I think a link also says that you stand behind your site and are transparent as a poster.

[WCD Admin]

I think a link also says that you stand behind your site and are transparent as a poster.

Good point. I need to work on that. I used to be afraid of programs beating me up for negative posts, but now I realize if they do that I'll easily be able to spot the crooks and remove them from my sites! For transparency: I am also "blackhawk" and "tarzan" and one other that I am keeping under my belt because I am ashamed of the name I picked 5 or 6 years ago when apparently my ego was really flurishing.

[archiehall]

Good point. I need to work on that. I used to be afraid of programs beating me up for negative posts, but now I realize if they do that I'll easily be able to spot the crooks and remove them from my sites!

good point 2


Dominique is a good example of someone using her links to build traffic. For someone with a little site, use a social bookmark like digg to highlight on of the pages on your site, google will come crawling.

Links in sigs will prob help with MSN & yahoo traffic but does very little for google.

1 strong link will be better than 1000 sig links for seo purposes, but sig links have their place

[slickrick]

Thanks for that, the reason I asked is because I am an active poster on a non gaming board, and one of the providers has offered me a solid chunk of change, to advertise their property in my signature exclusively for 3 months.

I am still trying to justify if I am selling my soul to the devil here or not.

[WCD Admin]

Ask the forum owner, and of course you should approve of the site yourself since its in your signature. Good luck!

[TonyT]

They matter as long as an unregistered user can see them.