Testing on Forum Sig Links Vs. IBL

I have been playing with Forum Sig links for a few months now & tested a theory over the course of the last 2 months.

Simply put, I took 3 accounts on separate forums with one sig link (around 1,800+ total posts combined) & added a 2nd Sig link to all 3 forum accounts.

with 48 hrs. ALL IBLS for Google / Yahoo / MSN dropped to "0" While Both AlltheWeb & AltaVista climbed to 1,800+ IBL's. The top 3 engines sat at "0" for about 1 1/2 weeks & then slowly started to clime again, within 3 weeks Yahoo & MSN matched AlltheWeb & AltaVista & Google returned to its normal stance.

To make sure this wasn't an Isolated incident, I repeated the process by removing 1 sig link & replacing it with another one on all the same forum accounts. Low & Behold, the same thing happened with the exception that it took 4 weeks this time to level back out in the top 3 engines.

because of this I would have to firmly say that MASS IBL's DO generate a RedFlag in the more enhanced Algorithms (Namely Google / Yahoo / MSN) & cause a 3-4 week penalty for suspected Spam.

Their may be cases with longer blackout times than mine, however, the results that I found was enough for me to start slowly building Vs. mass submissions. No telling what a more Spammy approach other than forum sigs would have done to me (E.G. Link Farms, FFA's, Web Rings, Mass Directories, Etc.).

This is one of those better safe than sorry reality checks for me... Any of you have similar research?

Anyways, I thought I would share my experiences so that others can at least be aware of the possibilities...

Is there like a little report we can refer do with dates etc, but really, that was a very smart idea and I am impressed and upset I didnt think of it first.

Now that you mention it, I thought about the test after I got the first results & didn't even think to take a screen shot of the stats report (Before & After Kinda Deal).

So now you have me kicking myself because all I can provide is the Text version of the Cause & Effect.

<<~~Makes Note to start taking screen Shots in the future ~~~))

It was a quite interesting find for me though, upsetting at first, then when i learned why it was happening it eased my mind a bit...

That means you can still be the first to do it with screen shots if you want

na lol im way to lazy for that sort of thing, I dont do anything if I dont get paid for it.

It was a really good idea thou because its so easy to just add the extra link in your forum sig once you have the post count.

It is good practice to do experiments with SEO and more so for the way you have shared it. But just a little bit of advice - do not play with Major SEs like Google, Yahoo or MSN; it may result in a ban for unbearably longer duration.
Thanks.

So if the forums rel="nofollow" signature links, you're protected from any sort of penalty & can actually only benefit from the human visitors that follow the new links, right ?

I wouldn't test it on my main URL with a main engine, well not on purpose anyways, granted the first time I had NO CLUE & it was a main root URL. the second test to confirm the first was a Blog...



The way I see it (In my Personal Opinion) is that as long as you don't have IBL's from that Forum (Hinse the NoFollow), there is no attempted spam manipulation that the algorithm can detect, therefor it would be logical to assume, in your scenario, that it's safe.

yes but imho, very few people will follow a forum sig link and be converted into a sale or will do what ever it is that you want them to do, they build small amounts of traffic, but often the people are just following them to find out more about the poster and to see the quality of what they have, they dont see a forum sig for buying old dvds and follow it and buy because when they think to themselves, *plum* I would like a copy of blossom, they will go and find what they need, not think hmmmm forum sig.

just an observation re forum sigs.

To answer the question, yes you would be safe, google would only see the new 1800 links as text not as a link, the problem that might arise is when people search for you in google the forums might appear in the serp before you, it could happen lol.

I beg to differ. OZZU has long been my best referrer surpassing most search engine referrers.

It's a good thing that you share your experience regarding on this matter, I don't have much time to test things like this but sometimes I do so I appreciate the info you have shared! Thanks man!

Woohoo Airwolf DVD !

not that I dont believe you, but are we talking visitors/traffic or visitors/traffic that convert to sales?

I just have trouble because logic suggests that it would be more luck if someone who is looking for exactaly what you have, happens to be browsing a topic you have posted in before they do a google search. Unless of course they are in the forum looking for the information but that would suggest they are looking for something for free...

You are prob right, i only have 200 posts, and have only been involved in the net for like 2 months so I am still learning.

Hey there,

About the forum signature conversion statement..

Forums can be effective IF you are posting signature links on a forum that relates to your niche product(s). If you are posting messages on a real estate forum, and your signature links are about selling music, a lot less people are going to follow the link than if the forum was about music.

It is really easy to capture the referring website. A lot more people have visited my freelance programming website from ozzu compared to the real estate forums I have posted on. I had to help my client with SEO backlinks for his real estate website.

Having said that, for forums to be effective, you have to have a quality website. If you are advertising on forums in your niche, and have a crappy website, you are not going to convert traffic to money.

In my opinion, people should be more focused on converting traffic to money than worrying about PR juice, etc. Sure it is a factor with google, but I think creating quality content is the best thing you can do for a website.

Thats my two cents.

Sincerely,
Travis Walters
admin@codebuyers.com

thanks scorpionagency for your sharing your research. quite interesting. from that numbers you gave it could translate somewhere 10 post a day for each forum.

i do believe SE have some kind of red flag but it got to relate to human reality. how many forum posting a day is normal?

algorithm is about numbers and functions so there must be 'one' number which had trigger the function. who knows maybe 5 forum posting in one forum is the number. so maybe it is not a red flag if you post 1800 for 2 months in 6 forum( 5 post a day).

I was under the impression that the research was geared towards the effects of changing a signature on a forum where the 1,800 posts are established already, effectively creating 1,800 links to the page being linked to almost instantly.

I could swear I seen somthing about this at Sitepoint when they lifted the nofollow from signatures there, if I remember right people freaked at first but it worked out for the better in most cases.