I recently asked a question in two forums if signature links from forums (dofollow) help improve our PageRank (PR) and the answers I got vary from one’s own experience, understanding of SEO, understanding of the Google algorithm, opinion and insights. This prompted me to share to you what I learned if the same question ever occurred or sprouted in your mind.

Forum signatures are links to websites you would like to promote when you join forums. These forum signatures are located at the bottom of each post that you will make whenever you start a new thread, answer a question, give your opinion, suggestions, advices or when you want to share some useful insights. Forum signatures vary from forum to forum, some you are requires to make a minimum post or be a member for a period before it is enabled, while others your links will be available as soon a you become a member after registration. It’s the same thing with the number of links you are allowed to place.

So going back, forum signatures are backlinks and these links are evaluated by Google in determining one’s PR. Almost all answer I got agreed to this point but regarding the quality we get from forum signatures, various answers were given. Some say the links’ quality is nil and the improvement it will make to ones’ PR is very slight because of the number of links placed by members in a single web page thus the value of these links losses it’s quality. While others say it doesn’t affect your PR and the only use of forum signatures are to drive visitors to your site which I disagree to some extent.

In my opinion and based on the books and articles I’ve read, forum signatures to some degree help in improving your PR specially in forums which have a high PR and which are well moderated. Although I will not contest that the value of these links are relatively low in quality compared to backlinks you acquire from web directories, article directories, link baits etc. it is still considered a backlink and let alone Google decide their value. True in acquiring quality backlinks of course we should not focus on forums only but let’s not forget that forums are always on the list for link building purposes and for direct traffic and promotion of our websites, this is where forums strive their best.