Links in Signatures and Posts bad for SEO of a website?

[worldofcoins]

I am consulting with a project that is interested in promoting itself on the forum. However, they have an issue with this part: They think links in Signatures will be bad for SEO.




I haven't heard about any website that promoted itself here having any issues. Am I missing something?

[Upgrade00]

How I see it, having links in signature allows the company to easily track how much traffic they are getting from the forum and accurately appraise the marketing strategy.

Without links, users who see and like the project have to go to search it out and can come across result from competitors too, but with a link you're sure they'll be led straight to the landing page.

From the example they gave, they are assuming links will show up like hyperlinked messages at the bottom of each comment. Like fitting it into a comment that it's not relevant in. But they actually show up differently as we on bitcointalk know. That's the miscommunication you should try to fix, signatures to them are unique identifiers users end each comment with, but not here.

[worldofcoins]

How I see it, having links in signature allows the company to easily track how much traffic they are getting from the forum and accurately appraise the marketing strategy.

Yes, that is also how I see it but they are concerned about it for SEO of their website after getting through Spam Policies of google.
"https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies"

"Forum comments with optimized links in the post or signature"

I told them there isn't a single case where a brand had a problem with SEO by using their links in the signature.

Is it allowed to use short links in signatures? like bit.ly links?

[Upgrade00]

This is the only rule against link shorteners, and it shouldn't affect their signature;

Code:

No link shorteners that require users to view an ad

I also don't think Google indexes links in signature from this forum so it doesn't matter really. I've never made a search outside the forum for a brand and was redirected to a post on this forum containing the link in the signature of a user. You can do more research about that. Best of luck.

[EarnOnVictor]

If I may ask the project owner(s), what exactly do they want? Perhaps they are such that like ads and banners littering all over the forum. Heck No, if that is what they want, then they will have to shift elsewhere. When I started on this forum, there were a few ones that were even cleverly placed beneath some posts and at some angles, but with time, all were stopped, and I don't think anyone is bringing that up again no matter the amount they offer.

That said, without mincing words, the signature campaign is good for traffic generation since more people will be clicking the link of the company/business and invariably sending traffic to their website, which will also invariably increase the search engine visibility (SEO). What else do they want?

[mk4]

My opinion: Links in posts and signatures aren't necessarily bad(at most, just slightly bad for SEO is my guess); but the goal for links in posts/signatures shouldn't be for SEO purposes anyway, it's mainly for traffic and brand recognition.

Source: Me. I know SEO and internet marketing stuff but am not necessarily an 'expert'.

[Mia Chloe]

When websites projects and companies Carry out advertisements on different platforms and sites they usually make use of special links embedded in images or videos as the case may be. Now these special links help the project managers to track how much traffic the respective platforms are bringing which can I turn help them in decisions to take to make sure they are getting the best visibility. Now if the traffic is low they may likely end up pausing or ending the ad on that particular site.
Same thing applies for signature campaigns the signatures of each campaign has a unique link property attached to them so that when people visit the site via the link they can identify that that lead or traffic came from Bitcoin talk.

[ABCbits]

Looking at example on that screenshot, i think it wants to tell us that it's bad when the link isn't related with the comment or topic. But IMO if it's really bad, we wouldn't see Growing SEO spam on Bitcointalk.

[shield132]

I have posted in some threads that got many backlinks and a very high page rank. When I wasn't in a signature campaign, I put my website in my signature and in some days, when I checked my website via ahrefs and semrush, they both showed significant increases in domain authority and I experienced better ranking in Google. Keep in mind that my website isn't in a very competitive niche and it helped my Google rankings. A signature campaign that hires many people should have a combination of people who have posted in many threads that have high authority. Backlinks from those threads should give a boost to the company's SEO rankings.
My personal experience is positive, I did this test in 2020-2021, during the Covid pandemic.

[BlackBoss_]

I also don't think Google indexes links in signature from this forum so it doesn't matter really. I've never made a search outside the forum for a brand and was redirected to a post on this forum containing the link in the signature of a user. You can do more research about that. Best of luck.

Signature space has its advantage against Avatar, it is links but both Avatar and Signature can help to advertise a brand. Difference is only link that is allowed in Signature space, clickable but in avatar, it is only a text or in personal text and isn't clickable.

I have posted in some threads that got many backlinks and a very high page rank. When I wasn't in a signature campaign, I put my website in my signature and in some days, when I checked my website via ahrefs and semrush, they both showed significant increases in domain authority and I experienced better ranking in Google.

You must write enough posts in that period to get traffics to your website through your signature advertisement around the forum. That is the same with signature campaigns where companies and campaign managers ask people to make a minimum post quota each week to be paid.

[alani123]

In my view signature campaigns are not just about getting traffic. The views and brand awareness are the most important. Bitcointalk houses the most experienced and seasoned crypto users, it's a tough but very valuable crowd.

As of SEO... Maybe the marketing team of this project is not very experienced?
Bitcointalk has excellent PR, ranking on the first page for most search results. So any link from such site is very useful SEO wise.

[pakhitheboss]

Yes, it is bad for SEO of a website but the concept of signature campaign is not SEO but to get users from the forum or you can say diverted traffic from the forum. It all depends on the kind of project that you are trying to promote. If I were a client then my first requirement is to check how much the forum can generate traffic for my website. I am not looking for organic traffic and that is why I will be interested in marketing my website in the forum.

Since the forum holds a good reputation with Google it is evident with good traffic from the forum my website ranking on the serp will increase. Above all Google is only interested in backlinks to this date. A lot of backlink will help them to rank themselves above the competition. Think in that way and now decided how to get those links for your client.

[blckhawk]

These are pretty much a miscellaneous thing though, if you're trying to optimize on this small part when you set up your SEO then you're already guaranteed a good SEO since this is your only problem and if this is not your only problem then it's probably a good idea to check out on the bigger and pressing ones rather than focusing on this one besides, this is for link shorteners I think, and they're thinking too much about the stuff that doesn't matter anyway.

[hugeblack]

Signature campaigns are to create a brand, as the repeated appearance of the signature will encourage people to visit the site more than direct clicks on your signature links. I tried it with referral links and found that by 30% there was a click on the links in the signatures, but in general there is an increase in traffic.

[examplens]

"Forum comments with optimized links in the post or signature"

I told them there isn't a single case where a brand had a problem with SEO by using their links in the signature.

Is it allowed to use short links in signatures? like bit.ly links?

Links in signatures primarily have the purpose of raising recognition and strengthening the brand. A little bit that I tested earlier, signature links are not particularly important from the SEO aspect, but a website link in the forum profile is even more effective. Especially from the threads you start.
Also, links in the signatures of inactive users have no effect.

Links in a post when the content is useful and has a lot of views are certainly of significantly higher quality and more influential on SEO.

[alani123]

How I see it, having links in signature allows the company to easily track how much traffic they are getting from the forum and accurately appraise the marketing strategy.

Yes, that is also how I see it but they are concerned about it for SEO of their website after getting through Spam Policies of google.
"https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies"

"Forum comments with optimized links in the post or signature"

This policy exists because automated blackhat SEO software will utilize abandoned forums to get linkbacks. It's a very old trick but google has started catching up to it.
In this case, it would be the abandoned forum that would get penalized mostly.

For example if all moderators here quit, the forum would be ravaged by such bots seeking to take advantage of its high PR. Google would then detect the spam and punish bitcointalk.org to a much lower page rank, making it appear way under page 10 or so, and very rarely on page #1 at the results.  

[dkbit98]

Is it allowed to use short links in signatures? like bit.ly links?

Yes they are allowed.
I saw several cases when signature campaigns had to use short links to git all the character into limited signature space.
I think that bigger problem is when posting hidden or ref links in posts for different reasons, but it should be fine if they are only used in signatures.