Backlinks have been a key ranking signal for many years, but Google has been cracking down on dodgy or spammy backlinks for a long time now. 

Previously, it was exceptionally easy to hop from forum to forum, building up a bit of posting history and then posting some content with links for instant SEO juice.  

Prior to 2005, Google followed pretty much every link which meant it was a case of quantity over quality. 

Fast forward to now and we now realize that Google wants quality over quantity. They’ve understandably made it harder to jump between forums posting backlinks embedded in thin or low-quality content. 

So, are forum backlinking tactics dead? Not quite!

The Chronology of Backlinking

Backlinks have a turbulent history. Google has long considered them an important ranking signal since they provide a means for one site to vouch for another by means of a referral. 

However, the tricky element is, Google needs to discern when a site is referring to itself. Prior to recent updates, it was quite easy to self-submit stacks of links to various indexes, databases, spammy forums, and directories. These tactics could provide instant SEO juice to any site, regardless of the value it offers internet users. 

In 2005, Google added the nofollow attribute so webmasters flag poor quality or user-generated links to prevent Google from crawling them. This gave power to credible website forums that could be abused by link spammers looking for quick-win backlinks. However, according to Moz, data shows that even nofollow links are considered a ranking signal when other factors are also favorable (e.g. the authority of the site). 

The 2011 Panda update further clamped down on so-called ‘article marketing’ where SEOs published low-quality, often templated content to article databases to embed some quick-win backlinks. This terminated the rankings of article submission sites that had been taking a handsome sum in return for hosting poor-quality articles solely for the purpose of backlinking. 

The war on spammy backlinks has continued, with Google announcing a series of algorithm changes that gave webmasters the ability to add two new attributes to links on their site in addition to nofollow. Webmasters can now mark up sponsored or paid links as well as links embedded in user-generated content. This gives webmasters another way to provide Google with clues as to what a link means and how they should rank it. 

Google has even taken a dim view of backlink exchanges which are a genuine white hat link building technique for the most part. 

Generally speaking, the quality of a backlink still depends on:

It’s clear that most backlinks likely yield some benefit for SEO, even those earned via backlink exchanges or legitimate quick-win methods. 

For forum posting, what does matter is developing a strategy that both Google and the forum owner respect. 

That means sticking to relevant, higher authority forums, and not skimping out on content quality and posting authenticity. 

These principles are fundamental to building backlinks. 

Why Bother With Forum Posting?

So why bother with forum posting for SEO; what are some of the benefits of forum backlinking tactics?

1. There are thousands of forums

There are thousands of still-active forums on the internet, many of which receive thousands of posts and comments every single day. 

Forums cover pretty much every single niche, subject, industry, or topic you can think of which provides you with an opportunity to find forums that are directly relevant to your site(s). 

2. It’s quick and easy

So many sites don’t have any backlinks – some 66.31% in fact, according to Ahrefs. 

Building backlinks undoubtedly takes time and effort, which is why quick-win tactics like forum posting, directories, and link exchanges have always been popular. 

Whilst it’s true that Google has broadly devalued synthetically-earnt backlinks in recent years, they still matter, especially for smaller sites. 

3. Many forums are high-authority sites

Many forums are part of high-authority sites. That’s not to say that Google will treat your backlink like any other link embedded in content created by the site itself, but still, there’s some genuine value to be extracted from forum posting. 

You can check the domain authority (DA) using various SEO tools – Moz has a free one here. 

4. Network and drive traffic to your site

Engaging in forums is a solid way to drive traffic to your site and build community engagement and awareness. 

Many forums are targeted at startups, DIY entrepreneurs, and SEO beginners or novices. Being active in forums relevant to your niche is valuable beyond backlinks. 

Finding Dofollow Forums

Whilst there probably is some (limited) value to nofollow links, there are plenty of forums out there that don’t mark links as nofollow. These are the forums you want to hunt down. 

It’s worth mentioning that the vast majority of social media sites, Q&A sites, and major messaging boards like Reddit mark all links as nofollow by default. On rare occasions, sites like Reddit do allow Google to crawl links. BacklinkSEO provides a good explanation of this here. 

Aside from searching manually, there are many sites that post lists of dofollow forums:

• This dofollow forum database by Shoutmeloud contains plenty of dofollow forums. 
• Woblogger provides a similar list here. Note how there’s plenty of high-authority sites here like Overclockers and TechRepublic. 
• Here’s another option by WebSetNet. 

Search for ‘dofollow forums,’ ‘link follow forums,’ ‘backlink forums,’ etc, yourself and you’ll find tons of similar databases and lists of dofollow forums. 

Another option is to manually search Google for forums specific to your niche. 

Use the inurl:/ search string. 

For example, if your industry or niche is photography then search for:

“Photography inurl:/ forum” 

This particular search string returned tons of photography forums. It’s worth mentioning that many of these will be ridden with spam whereas others are filled with a decent level of quality content. 

Hunt down the more authoritative, relevant forums and target those first. The more authoritative and the more relevant, the better. 

Next, you’ll need to check the forum to make sure their links are follow and not nofollow. 

One solid strategy is to use the forum’s search box to search for ‘www.’ This will locate links in forum posts. You can see the result for searching ‘www.’ on PhotoForum here.

We can see a couple of links here – probably people posting for backlinks.

Now we need to check if the links are follow or whether they’re marked with nofollow. 

1. (on Chrome) Right click > View page source.
2. Hit Ctrl+F and search ‘www.’, or search some text from the link (in this case, I typed in ‘417’ to find the link pictured in the screenshot.
3. Find the link and look for a nofollow tag. If there’s no tag then you’re good to go – the link should be crawled by Google, unless there’s something else going on with the site. 
4. Backlinko has a good guide to finding follow/nofollow links here. There are a few methods you can use. 
5. You can also use a Chrome browser add-on like this one which automatically scans backlinks as you browse.
6. You can also analyze your competitor’s backlinks using a competitor analysis SEO tool. You’ll be able to quickly find forum backlinks and other quick-win backlinks that you can then go and claim yourself. 

Finding whether or not links are marked with nofollow should be quite straightforward. 

Once you’re certain that the forum is good for linking then it’s time to make a profile and get posting. 

Posting Strategy For Forum Backlinks

Once you’ve located a solid forum, it’s time to make a profile. You should be able to insert your site(s) into your profile signature and possibly even a bio/about section. This is well worth doing. 

Next, it’s time to engage with some posts. 

If you’ve found a genuinely good, active forum, then genuine engagement shouldn’t be too difficult. Some very general forums (like SiteOwnersForums) contain all sorts of posts on almost any topic imaginable – you’re bound to find a few topics to get stuck into immediately. 

It’s good practice to build up some posting history before you embed any links whatsoever. It can’t do any harm – making one to three short comments a day across say, 10 to 15 forums, should take just 15 minutes or so.

Bear in mind that many forums (especially the better ones) will have robust anti-spam bots and moderators in place to clamp down on spammy backlinks. 

After all, allowing spammy backlinks will damage the authority of the host site. 

Embedding Links

One common tactic is asking for others to ‘critique their site’. It’s a fair tactic and it’s hardly unreasonable to want to collect some feedback on your site. Make sure your site is absolutely secure before you place your first link, as you can’t be sure as to who is lurking in the forum. 

It’s probably best to avoid being too direct with your links if possible. This might seem tricky but you’re not looking to place your link loads of times – placing it in a couple of active, high-volume conversations should do the trick. 

All forums have different tolerance to linking, and many users will be none-the-wiser that you’re inserting your links for backlink purposes anyway, so long as you’re being authentic. 

Analyzing your Backlinks

Once you’ve placed some links, you can use an SEO tool to check your site’s backlink profile. 

Your backlink profile should reveal whether or not any links pointing to your site are indeed ‘follow’ and not ‘nofollow’. You’ll also receive a breakdown of the quality of the backlink and whether or not Google trusts it. 

Any spammy/dodgy backlinks that might harm your SEO are also highlighted by most SEO tools’ backlink analyzers. If you’ve accidentally placed your link on a dodgy site then you should remove it. 

Summary: Guide to Forum Posting sites for SEO

Posting links to forums remains a solid quick-win backlink strategy today. 

Quite how far these links will go to rank your site is up for debate, but the general consensus amongst SEOs is that forum posting is a solid strategy for smaller or medium-sized sites at least. 

Once you’ve identified some forum candidates, setting up your profile and posting some content doesn’t take long. 

Always pay attention to the relevance and authority of the site, and make sure that any links posted by users are marked to follow and not nofollow. 

That’s about it – it’s time to win some quick backlinks!” 

The post A Guide to Forum Link Building appeared first on SEO Administrator.

The internet is linked together via backlinks from site to site. When a site links another, they are providing them with a backlink.

SEO professionals and webmasters have been pursuing backlink strategies for decades, they’re one of the primary methods for fuelling SEO.

Backlinks used to operate on a simple principle: the more the better, but this is no longer the case.

In March 2020, Google announced a series of algorithm changes that could change the typical modern linking strategies used by many SEO professionals.

This was another stage in a long sequence of Google algorithm updates, probably starting with the Panda update in 2011 that clamped down on low-quality, spam content packed with keywords and links.

This latest update has cast a shadow over the use of backlink exchanges, the act of exchanging reciprocal links with another site for SEO purposes.

SEO Pros and Google: At Opposite Ends of the Table

When many become interested in SEO, they often imagine SEO professionals and Google to have some sort of symbiotic relationship, a cooperative of sorts.

In reality, it’s more of an arm’s race, and Google and the major SEO players are locked in combat.

Consider Google’s objective:

Expectations are high and Google pretty much has a responsibility to serve the public with the best possible results for their query.

SEO backlink strategies and other SEO tactics damage Google’s ability to serve the public in the way that they see fit.

SEO professionals have been gaming backlinks since the early 2000s, at which point you could insert a ton of links into various purpose-made link farming directories and rocket your site up the SERPs, even if it was rubbish!

Now, Google has thoroughly put the focus on building sites and pages for the user, and not for the purpose of gaming the search algorithm

Backlink Exchanges: A Bygone Era?

In the 90s, backlink exchanges were crude but effective.

Search algorithms had to use something to rank pages. Ranking software was primitive, it could only really use numerical metrics to rank pages whereas now Google uses natural language processing (NLP) to process written content much like a human would. This enables them to understand it in tremendous detail.

But, back in the dawn of SEO, a link meant a lot for site ranking, and since competition on the internet was low, it was worth paying big bucks for just one link.

In fact, Ahrefs reports that purchasing just one link on a paid directory in the late 90s could have cost $300.

Throughout the 2000s, paid link directories snowballed and you could buy links that would be published across networks of sites. These links would provide your site with ranking juice, pushing it up the SERPs, even when those links were practically meaningless, and your site poor quality. 

And that’s where we are today.

Backlinks Today

We know that backlinks are links placed on a webpage to link to another webpage.

Consider how this happens naturally.

Whilst writing an info-rich post, you’ll need to provide some insight or evidence of your claims.

This is a component of many forms of communication. When we state a fact, we could be challenged on how we learned it, who we got it from, etc.

A fact with evidence is stronger than a fact without evidence (and shows that it is indeed a fact and not a falsehood).

Backlinks enable us to back up our claims. They also enable us to bring attention to useful research, studies, products, posts, articles, stories, any type of content that helps animate our content and bring it to life.

In these situations, backlinks are natural and permissible by Google.

In fact, Google states themselves: “Google does not discourage these types of articles in the cases when they inform users, educate another site’s audience or bring awareness to your cause or company.”

However, a link exchange is often different.

How To Exchange Links in a Link Exchange

A link exchange involves communication between two or more parties. The general gist is “you do me a favor and provide me with a link and I’ll provide you with a link in return”.

Or, alternatively, you could just ask if they could publish your article on their site with a link to your site (probably for a fee).

You can find numerous Facebook groups for link exchanges. It’s also possible to buy backlinks from SEO professionals that locate sites to place your link, usually through guest posting or resource pages.

In many situations, these backlinks tactics are fair and virtuous, but in others, they represent attempts to game Google’s algorithm. After all, they don’t want people exchanging private money with the sole purpose of boosting a site up the SERPs (and they’d probably want you to spend that money on their ads anyway).

These types of exchanges were expressly discouraged by Google in 2020:

“Excessive link exchanges (“Link to me and I’ll link to you”) or partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking.”

The caveat here is that Google is still pretty cautious in their wording, excessively, showing they do have some understanding of how, why, and when link exchanges are inevitable at least, or even a positive force for the internet.

After all, how can start-ups circulate products without sending some out to reviewers? Why shouldn’t small webmasters use link exchanging as a catalyst to building a genuine network?

Along these lines, Google said that link exchange posts are permissible under the following conditions:

But, this is not a free ticket to keep link exchanging, and hoping you’ll get away with it.

SearchEngineJournal published many anecdotal reports of blog owners and other webmasters getting struck with manual actions and penalties from Google for accepting paid guest post content.

Reciprocal Links: A Natural Byproduct of the Internet

Reciprocal links result from the activity Google frowns on; “Link to me and I’ll link to you”

But surely reciprocal links, and by proxy link exchanges, are a natural byproduct of the internet?

An influential Ahrefs study into backlinking found that over 40% of top-10 ranked sites in the study had some level of reciprocal links. Overall, their findings suggested that reciprocal links just happen, they might be link exchanges, they might not be, but either way, they’re natural.

This is why Google is pursuing a softly-softly approach to clamping down on all link exchanges. Google’s modern algorithm is certainly able to get a good idea of when a website is regularly creating thin content with the sole purpose to link another site in return for some form of payment.

But what about genuinely info-rich, insightful content that links to a selected audience of sources that provide value to the post?

This is still likely a strong strategy for both now and the future.

How Does Google Know?

Perhaps this is the golden question.

Consider a site with decent traffic that accepts paid link exchanges. This site might create different types of blog content every day, always with the purpose of linking out to the site that has paid for a link.

After a period, it’s highly likely that this site will be easily determined as a link exchange site.

It might only use branded link anchor text, constantly linking out to disparate sites that have little to do with each other.

The less relevant the links get and the more the posts look to serve the links and not the users, the more likely this site is heading for a manual action.

What the heack is a Manual Action?!

It’s a reprimand that can be severe for your site’s ranking and if you receive one, you’ll need to sever ties with those links.

But say you’re swapping links with trusted sites in your niche, then how does Google know that you’re link exchanging, assuming the sites are genuinely linked?

It’s pretty easy, Google will see how many 1-to-1 links you have, showing that your site has only ever been backlinked when you reciprocated the link – this insinuates the kind of strategic communication that Google dissuades.

For smaller sites, it’s highly unlikely this will result in much byways of a penalty – it will likely help rather than hinder, till a point. But, it’s certainly not a long-term SEO strategy.

A rule of thumb used by many marketers is the 20% rule for reciprocal links – try and keep reciprocal backlinks to and from your site below 20%.

3-Way Exchanges

A 3-way exchange could seemingly be a way to game Google’s distaste for standard reciprocal 2-way linking.

3-way exchanges involve site A linking site B which links site C and back to A. ⅔ of the sites get a backlink out of this, and the process can then be repeated.

Sometimes, you’ll get a directory site that ‘partners’ with other sites. That directory site will link to you if you link to their partner. That means you get a link, and the partner site gets a link, but both are indirect and not reciprocal.

Another type of indirect link strategy involves site A and B producing two pieces of content each.

Site A’s first piece of content links to site B’s second piece of content and vice-versa. This isn’t exactly stealthy but does go some way to avoid a strict reciprocal page-to-page link.

The problem with 3-way exchanges (and reciprocal link exchanges in general) is that they’re rarely mutually commercially viable.

The directory example, in particular, is pretty shady. That directory could be spammy and meaningless, it’s just a tool for the partner site to get a link from you when you’re getting a poor link in return.

Best Practice for Link Exchanges

1)   Content Marketing is Gold

Content marketing is the process of creating content that markets your site (or other products or services).

The best thing to do to build links is to keep grinding out quality content that links others, and then posting that content around the internet where you can.

For example, factually rich content should be regularly cited, like you would an academic essay or piece of research – that’s plain and simple.

This combines with the value you’re creating with the content yourself. For example, by creating content on a new genre of art, music, or similar cultural entity, you could link to those that gave you the ideas for that content, whether that’s artists, musicians, or art galleries.

The same would go for technology. By reviewing products, you’ll be providing manufactures or creators with links.

The idea is your content will market itself to those you link. If they care about SEO (which they will if they have some authority), then they’ll see that you’ve linked them.

The very least you can get out of this is traffic, but you could pick up backlinks, maybe even very authoritative ones that provide you lots of link juice.

2)   Networking is Key

Link building is about networking as much as it is about SEO.

If you do start searching Facebook groups, messaging boards, or the internet for link-building platforms, you’ll be faced with a choice.

Do you go down the blatant reciprocal link-building route and start creating reciprocal link-building content for your site?

Or do you try and strike longer-term relations with those close or parallel to your niche?

The tricky bit is, you’ll need to be aware of the commercial viability of your relationships. If you go on Ahrefs, Moz or Semrush, you’ll very rarely, if at all, find them linking or even mentioning each other. Obviously, it’d be commercial suicide!

However, they may link other sites that are parallel to their niche or commercial strategy, including advertising sites, web designers, data engineers, analysts, etc. These subjects, topics, and entities are related, but not commercially exclusive.

Once you find sites to work with, creating guest post content and reciprocal or genuine 3-way links is much simpler!

3)   If You Guest Post, Don’t Skimp Out on Quality

It’s very easy for Google to see when two sites write a tiny piece of rubbish content for the sole purpose of reciprocal links.

Links need to be embedded in proper, feature-rich, and well-written content. Google uses natural language processing – they know if you’re cutting corners to just stick a link on your site.

If you do guest posts or engage in link exchanges, then make sure everyone involved is creating proper, high-quality content. Everything through from the topical and keyword research to the style, format, and writing quality should be firmly established and checked for quality – if you feel you’re cutting corners, then Google probably feels that too!

Summary

SearchEngineJournal states that modern link building = sweat + creativity!

That’s very true, and link building eludes many novice and beginner SEOs who get pretty overwhelmed with the prospect of prospecting links.

But, once you get stuck into creating content and sharing it through social channels, opportunities will come your way, some good and some bad.

You’ll need to stay aware of what Google thinks about reciprocal linking and abide by some golden rules, namely:

Learn More

https://ahrefs.com/blog/reciprocal-links/

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/link-building-guide/reciprocal-links/

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