[awebapart]

Originally Posted by RayB

I suppose we can improve our guesswork through observation

Observation in isolation can be quite misleading and a matter of contention, as John Godfrey Saxe's The Blind Men and the Elephant poem suggests!

[RayB]

Originally Posted by awebapart.com

Observation in isolation can be quite misleading and a matter of contention, as John Godfrey Saxe's The Blind Men and the Elephant poem suggests!

Ah, but observation, experimentation, testing and attention to detail is a very powerful set of SEO tools (IMO)

[awebapart]

Originally Posted by RayB

Ah, but observation, experimentation, testing and attention to detail is a very powerful set of SEO tools (IMO)

Agreed, and I'll also add reverse engineering, and getting into the mindset of the google engineers/architects, to that list too.

[awebapart]

One other thing that could be a factor in the equation of why forum signature links - or even in-post links - have less SEO influence with time, is a forum's archiving of old posts strategy.

Firstly there is the issue that older forum threads diminish in general SEO importance (pagerank) the further away they get (number of clicks) from the home page - typically a fresh forum home page only has the latest threads nearby (one or two clicks/links away).

Secondly, as posts get older some forums will move them into a differently formatted archiving area, and over time the archive area might have more SEO importance than the original format forum page (due to noise being stripped out thus increasing the signal to noise ratio for content). Unfortunately some of the noise that is stripped out can include the forum signatures! For example have a look at the archive links in the following forum search results of some of my older posts on another forum (in the archive threads links and signatures are stripped out, if you click on the 'View Full Version' link you will see what is different).

On the subject of older posts in forums, some bespokely developed forums might not even make the older posts search engine friendly, so your posts on some forums might disappear from google completely with time. To check whether a forum does manage its older posts in a search engine friendly way, browse to a very old thread or post, pick out some text, and search for it in google. You shouldn't have much to worry about with forums like a1 which uses the popular search engine friendly vbulletin forum system, but if you are on a forum that looks very different to the norm, chances are it is bespoke, and as such it is worth checking.

[batface]

Originally Posted by awebapart.com

Firstly there is the issue that older forum threads diminish in general SEO importance (pagerank) the further away they get (number of clicks) from the home page - typically a fresh forum home page only has the latest threads nearby (one or two clicks/links away).

That's why in context stickies can be very valuable for the OP. I'm not so sure about further in the thread as most just post a sort of "me too" and sig for the link juice and I suspect Google will deal with that appropriately.

Mick

[awebapart]

Originally Posted by batface

That's why in context stickies can be very valuable for the OP.

I agree. I also have a sneaking suspicion about some non-sticky threads on some forums which end up being as good as sticky since they are controversial and keep being bumped up. Are they being bumped up because some poster is genuinely passionate about the subject or for some poster's other ulterior SEO motive?

[RayB]

Originally Posted by awebapart.com

Are they being bumped up because some poster is genuinely passionate about the subject or for some poster's other ulterior SEO motive?

Possibly a bit of both - although in that example there is unlikely to be any SEO benefit for a business - given the topic of the thread - as opposed to a thread about e-commerce being bumped might benefit an e-commerce provider

[awebapart]

Originally Posted by RayB

Possibly a bit of both - although in that example there is unlikely to be any SEO benefit for a business - given the topic of the thread

Sometimes, some of the things people do in the name of SEO are done in the belief that it will bring benefit, when in reality there is little benefit, due to that belief being misguided, e.g. link building with any old directory, link-building for google PR alone, etc.

[SEO Guy]

Sorry to hear about your loss of links Ray, although knowing some of the personalities at that forum it is not a surprise.

Here is my personal take on the subject of signature links, it is important to state this, as some people post in a manner that would have others believe their assumptions are factual, when they will never be, not on the subject of SEO

I will only deal with Google

There is value on every link placed on an external website, as long as it does not incorporate the no follow attribute. The success of Google bombing highlights this.

So what value does a forum signature have?

I put forum posts in the same pot as directory submissions, their inner pages hold little weight, most are not even indexed. Also as time goes by any strength that was their diminishes as the page is moved to the back end of the site.

If you want to use forums for SEO benefit you need to start threads, incorporate your keywords into the title. The more the thread is populated the more strength will be passed on to your site.

If you do want to use signature blocks to benefit your website, modify them regularly, anchor to other pages on your website, not just your homepage. Too many people become fixated with optimising their homepage, when each page of a website has the ability to have its own individual positioning.

The final point, there are always URL issues with forums, take this thread for example it could hardly be considered SEO friendly, even though the plugin will state so.

[Petnanny]

[quote=RayB;40551]As always Paul, a brilliant and thought provoking post. quote]

I wish I could write one of the aboves