Adding forum link-building to your link-building strategy is always a good idea. There are a few instances of websites using high-authority forum links to rank for low-competition keywords.
You can make it work if you know the tweaks. Let’s dive deep into it.
What is Forum Backlink?
A backlink from a forum is a type of link from another forum. Whether it’s a signature, a forum post, or a personal webpage, it’s always there.
Forum Profile Backlinks can either be no-follow links or do-follow links. It depends on where the link is placed. Creating free-form backlinks is a great way to increase your referral traffic.
When it comes to search engine optimization, are forum links helpful?
It is not. The forum profile links are easily identifiable by Google’s algorithm. Because links in user profiles on forums are considered human-generated content.
Google’s algorithm can easily detect. And even penalize spamming forum links.
It is against Google’s Link scheme guidelines. It can cause an overnight drop in traffic. A website with such spammy behavior may be permanently removed from Google’s index.
Remember Google’s Penguin algorithm? It came to penalize bogus backlinks. That changed the landscape of link-building significantly.
Before Google’s Penguin update, widely used spammy backlinks to boost low-quality site rankings.
It’s also important to record that forum users can alter backlinks to boost their SEO standing. Forum profile links may have once been effective.
But since the introduction of the Penguin algorithm, spamming backlinks are easily identified and penalized.
Posting links in message boards is pointless. There is virtually little weight given to the total number of backlinks by Google’s search algorithm.
The value of a network depends on the strength of its links. Having one high-quality link from a reliable source is far preferable to having several low-quality ones.
Is it true that Posting in a Forum can get Quality Backlinks?
Online message boards and discussion forums serve as virtual social gathering places. Brands and consumers alike can find common ground on these discussion boards.
Constructive participation within these discussion forums is a significant driver of a great deal of quality traffic.
It works for any brand. Also, the number of incoming links to the site is boosted by this strategy. It can help boost brand awareness and page rankings.
Forum posting works particularly well for firms targeting a specific demographic.
Benefits of Forum Profile Backlink
1. The forum page rank is less important than the website page rank where you intend to submit your post. Forums with a higher PageRank are cached and indexed more often than those with a lower PR.
So, marketers are usually encouraged to check the relevant forum’s inner page rankings.
2. The ratio of follow-to-no-follow links in a brand’s signature should be considered optimal. This is meant to simulate a more organic process of gaining links.
On the other hand, it is primarily the no-follow connections that help a site’s ranks.
3. Avoid copying and pasting text from article directories when building contextual links. Sites with backlinks that contain exact text will be penalized by Google.
Avoid spamming discussion boards if you value your brands’ reputations.
4. A maximum of four links may be posted on some topics. In this situation, connecting a single URL with four different anchor texts will result in google just reading one link, and the other three will go to waste.
Therefore, it is advised that marketers use anchor text to link to four distinct URLs.
List Of 20 Do-Follow Forum Profile Backlinks to Increase Your Page Rank
Backlinks from forums and online discussion boards can increase your site’s visibility. It can also drive some additional traffic.
Keep in mind that only some websites welcome links back to themselves. The link juice from many discussion boards may pass on to your site because they are no-follow.
However, you can find a few high-authority forum sites that offer do-follow connections.
There’re many sites. We’ve made a list of 20.
- http://3d.designcommunity.com
- http://antionline.com
- http://arch.designcommunity.com
- http://audacityteam.org/forum
- http://aumha.net
- http://bbpress.org/forums/
- http://boards.core77.com
- http://c7y-bb.phparchitect.com
- http://chronicle.com/forums/
- http://discuss.infidels.org
- http://fhq.forumer.com
- http://flashpanoramas.com/forum
- http://forum.claroline.net
- http://forum.developers.facebook
- http://forum.ertonline.gr/deytero
- http://forum.filezilla-project.org
- https://www.deviantart.com/forum/
- https://www.webhostingtalk.com/
- http://forum.framasoft.org
- http://forum.freeforums.org
Validate Do-Follow Status: How to Create a Perfect Do Follow Link Structure for Forum Submission?
Inspecting the forum’s HTML code is a common practice for determining do-follow status.
Check the HTML code for the comments area to see if the links have the no-follow or No-follow attribute:
<a href=’mylink.html’ rel=’ nofollow’>Keyword as Anchor</a>
Or
<a href=’mylink.html’ rel=’external nofollow’>Keyword as Anchor</a>
You’ll see in the above link that it begins with ‘<a>’ and concludes with ‘</a>’.
Now examine the anchor text to see if rel=’external nofollow’ or rel=’nofollow’ exists. If any of these occur, the forum is no-follow; otherwise, it is do-follow. (rel=’external’ indicates do follow, external implies a new tab when the link is clicked).
