Link Building - Forums and Newsgroups

Forums and newgroups can be a great place to attract traffic to your website. Not just because you can use them to build link popularity but also because the other members may also follow the links to see what your site has to offer.

Not only that but getting involved in forums and newsgroups in your own particular field of business can be highly rewarding. They can provide lots of help, guidance and networking opportunities.

However there is a certain etiquette to follow that is not only good manners but it also makes business sense.

How to get links from the Forums and Newsgroups

There are two types of links you can get from the forums and newsgroups.

Signature Links

Firstly you can make use of your signature in our user profile.

Most forums and newsgroups ask you to register before they will allow you to post. When you register, one of the options you will usually be given is to enter a signature that will be posted at the bottom of all your posts. It's very similar to the signature you put in your emails.

By putting a link into your signature back to your website you will be generating a link every time you post to the forum. Make sure you use the keywords in the link text for the page you are linking back to.

However, don't just put a link in your signature. Include a compelling statement that will entice anyone who reads the post to click on the link.

Post Links

Once you start posting you might find that a page on your website offers some valuable information that is relevant to the thread you are posting to. In this case it is acceptable to put a link in your post back to your page.

Be careful here though. Don't try to twist your post just so that you have an excuse to post a link. People will soon get tired of that. They will stop following links back to your website and you might also find yourself in trouble with the administrators.

Warning - Avoid Spammy posts.

One of the most annoying and counter productive activities I see on many forums are people posting just for the sake of getting the signature link into as many posts as they can.

The classic example of this is the Introduction Forum. Most of these sites will have one and it's where new members can post there first post and say hello.

If you've seen these posts, you will notice that some posters seem to reply to every new person with the same post. It's usually something like "Welcome to the Forum" or "Please to meet you" etc. They post these same words every time. Basically they go around every forum just copying in these words to every intro post they can find.

Now you might think that's a good idea because they are getting a link every time. However it's not. For one thing it really cheese off most other members (as well as the administrators).

In addition I'm almost willing to bet that Google will soon pick up on this practice. If it hasn't already. Google is getting very clever and they not only read links but they will also read the words around a link. So if they are starting to see the same words time and time again around a link, they will know this is just link spammers. A Google slap will be on the cards soon!

So keep your own posts useful, informative and of value to the other members.