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Search Engine Optimization FAQ |
Is it better to make a profile-only link on each forum I visit, or should I make a post with a link in my signature instead?
How many links should I build to my website each day?
Q. Is it better to make a profile-only link on each forum I visit, or should I make a post with a link in my signature instead?
A. If the purpose of using forums is to increase your sites ranking in the SERPs, then it is recommended that you make a reply to an already existing post on each forum, with your link located on the same page as the post (such as in the body of your reply or your signature), as opposed to just creating a profile-only link. There are two primary reasons for this, however before explaining them we first need to look at some problems with profile-only links, or any incoming links that come from masses of identical pages.
Whilst profile-only forum links from high PR domains are great ways to gain instant rankings under keyword terms with weak to moderate amounts of competition, they do have their limitations. The most severe limitation is that forum profiles are newly created pages, and almost always do not have any incoming links by default. Even if you were to have all of the profiles you created on forums indexed, their SEO value would be minimal, since they'd contain no, or very little Page Rank from other incoming links. If your prime objective is to obtain external links from a number of different websites based on different IP addresses, then profile links are a good time investment, and for less competitive keyword terms this form of link diversity alone is often enough to rank highly. As the keyword term becomes more competitive, the problems of profile links become apparent, since they lack any authority.
Another issue with profile links is that they lack unique content. Unique content itself isn't always necessary. Incoming links from pages with duplicate content are invaluable if each duplicate page has high Page Rank & authority. The issue however arises when the duplicate pages have no authority whatsoever. When a page is duplicate and has no authority, it is much more likely to be placed within the supplemental results index, and any small value the link may have passed effectively becomes nil. Since forum profiles created solely for the purpose of link building are never likely to gain authority, their value is limited. This can be demonstrated by comparing 10,000 newly created forum profile links directed to Site A, and 10,000,000 newly created forum profile links directed to site B, both attempting to rank under the same keyword term. Whilst Site A may or may not outrank Site B, the extra ranking will be negligible in niches with at least moderate amounts of competition. Compare another 10,000 profile links pointing to Site A, and 10,000,000 profile links to site B, but this time with each profile link having a reasonably high amount of Page Rank & authority, and the difference in rankings becomes immense, even though the content may be almost duplicate. The problem however is that creating a reasonable amount of Page Rank & authority on 10,000 profile links is not practical, and a severe misuse of time.
Forum posts contain unique content, and often a lot of it. This eliminates any supplemental index issues that arise with profile links. Even if a link located on a forum post has almost no Page Rank or authority, it will still be counted as an incoming link, regardless of how many forum posts the link may appear on. This isn't the main advantage of incoming links from forum posts however. The main advantage is that forum posts are very likely to be indexed in Google from a page with a similar amount of authority to the forum home page itself. For example, let's say a forum's index is PR4. It has a category called "General Discussion" which is a PR3. All of the forum posts located within this category will have an incoming PR3 link. This means that if any of these posts are indexed, they will be indexed from a PR3 incoming link, which gives the post a reasonable amount of authority. Any links located within the post will in turn receive some of this authority.
To summarize, incoming links from forum posts have two main advantages over profile links - 1) they contain unique content and are therefore less likely to be filtered, & 2) they will almost always have much higher authority & Page Rank than a profile link. Whilst you may be able to acquire many more profile links than links located within forum posts, the end result will still be better if you invest your time in making replies to already existing forum posts. This applies even if the vast majority of your forum links are deleted by moderators, such is the advantage.
This answer presumes that the reader is using forum links in order to attain higher rankings. If the objective of posting to forums is to simply mask other acquired links, or to increase the diversity of incoming links from different IP addresses, then profile-only links may be a better option, especially in less competitive niches. If the goal however is to attain higher rankings from forum links, then having a smaller amount of incoming links from better sources (forum posts v. profile links) should give significantly better results.
Answer Last Updated: 6th June 2010
Answered By: Steven Heron
Sources: None listed
Q. How many links should I build to my website each day?
A. Perhaps one of the top 10 most asked questions by new SEO practitioners, this question arises due to a lack of understanding of some key concepts of how Google views websites. The answer to the question is simple: as many as you can. Understanding the reasoning behind the answer however is the first step to a greater understanding of SEO in general.
Many people new to the field of SEO are of the belief that if you build too many new links to a new website too quickly, the website will be placed into a "sandbox". First of all, we should understand what a sandbox really is. In reality, the term "sandbox" is nothing more than an invented term by SEO practitioners who don't understand the fundamental concepts of Google's ranking algorithms. The "sandbox" is nothing more than a theoretical "pit" that new websites fall into if they raise too many negative flags that might indicate that the new site is attempting to manipulate rankings. The way Google's algorithms are structured often give the illusion that the so called "sandbox" exists for new websites, however there is no evidence for its existence, and as one gains an understanding of proper search engine algorithms, the illusion becomes apparent.
The more quality, high authority, incoming links you can get to your website consistently, in a natural looking manner, the better. This is always the case in SEO. The issues arise when the incoming links do not look "natural". If a new website were to be created, such as Facebook or Twitter, and within a few months were to boom into one of the most visited sites on the Internet, Google would have absolutely no interest in penalizing the website. The same rule applies to all new websites. To say that all domains must be aged for a certain number of years before they stand a chance of competing in competitive markets is an outright fabrication, and a complete untruth. Many new social websites have boomed within the first few months of their domain registration, and none of them fell into any so called "sandbox". The reason is quite simple. If the incoming links to any website look natural, then regardless of their quantity, those incoming links will all go towards increasing the website's ranking.
Where many SEO practitioners become unstuck is that they will build incoming links in such a way that makes it deliberately obvious that the links are not natural. Building a million incoming links from a single source type (be it article marketing, blog comments, or forum posts) looks obviously unnatural. Whilst Google doesn't have the sophistication or technology to examine every website in incredible detail, they are able to detect blatantly obvious attempts of algorithm manipulation. The key to good SEO is masking your intent of manipulating the algorithm, and making your link building efforts look as natural as possible. This involves a concept known as link velocity. Link velocity is a complex subject, and one which we will not cover in this answer. To give a butchered, summarized explanation however, link velocity simply involves measuring how many links are incoming to your website, how often. The two key points here are 1) how many incoming links , and 2) how often they are indexed. If both of these two key factors are made to look natural, then no red flags should be raised with your website.
If a newly indexed website received a million incoming links within its first week of being indexed, and afterwards received a total of zero (0) incoming links within the next 2 months, then it's very likely that those million incoming links were as a result of algorithm manipulation. No real site would have a million links within one day, and none within the next two months. This is of course an extreme example, however it emphasizes the point that a natural portfolio of incoming links is vital to SEO success. If one million links were received from a website within its first week of beind indexed, and another million links were received (on average) each week, over the next 6 months of its being indexed, and all of these links came from a diverse number of high authority sources, then it can almost be guaranteed that this new website would be ranking highly under its desired keyword term, despite however competitive the term may be. This reason is due to what I like to call, incoming link consistency.
"How many links should I build to my website each day"? It doesn't matter if its 10, or 10 hundred billion, trillion, sextillion. As long as this same number of links are built over a consistent period of time (such as 1000 links each and every day, with no day containing 0 incoming links), and these links are from a diverse number of sources (with varying Page Rank, authority, and relevance), then the greater number of consistent, incoming links you have, the better.
To summarize, only build as many incoming links each day that you believe you can maintain on a consistent basis. If you want to outsource the creation of 1000 incoming links to a newly registered website on its first day, then that's fine, however make sure that you do the same for each day thereafter, otherwise you risk Google devaluing all of the already indexed incoming links. Remember to diversify your link sources, the IP addresses of your incoming links, and their relevance. Do this each and every week (outsource if you have to), and don't "forget about your website", and it will slowly crawl to a respectable position within the SERP rankings. The higher the frequency, mass, and quality of incoming links you have, on a consistent basis, the better. That's all there is to it.
Answer Last Updated: 7th June 2010
Answered By: Steven Heron
Sources: None listed