Forum Signatures for Increasing Traffic

[HarryJackson]

Forum signatures give advantage as they count as link also provide good handsome traffic

[Lynn Terry]

I think, though, that some forums which are password protected, are not spidered by the search engines, although some forum software gives you the ability to switch on a route for the spiders to reach the content. Not 100% sure on that - maybe Lynn knows more!

Maggie

Right, private forums aren't spidered so the links there don't count (which is a good thing!). Public forums that get indexed in the search engines are what you want to use for "forum marketing".

Another tip is to use specific keyword phrases in the titles of the threads you start, as these get indexed and give your post and signature even more exposure if they rank well for a keyword phrase. Using very specific thread titles also gets you more views in general than "I have a question"...

[NicoleDean]

I've been thinking about this and have a thought.

Would it have been better to NOT use the signature feature in our profile account, and instead paste in a signature at the end of each post to better be able to rotate links/anchor text? Because if I change my signature, it updates in all past posts.

Thoughts?
N

[Adriana]

I am not sure Lynn would approve that, since it could get out of hand (people could use that to spam).

[webmann]

I haven't added a link to my profile signature yet but I do swear by them. I just don't like to use them until I have been posting for a while.

The trick to getting plenty of traffic from your signature is to add value to the forum and people just gravitate to those people, because they are helpful.

[NicoleDean]

Good point, Adriana. I hadn't considered that the length limits wouldn't be automatically enforced. I forget about stinkers cheating the system sometimes.

[deannatroupe]

I've been posting to forums for quite some time and I've noticed that I get much more traffic when I'm active on the forums than I do when I am inactive. I'm still experimenting to see which forums bring me the most traffic. Sometimes I don't even worry about all of that and just participate in the forums because I like the owner or I like the people on the forum. Traffic isn't everything...