Forum sig link Vs. IBL's Testing

[scorpionagency]

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..

 

[SmTasker]

this is interesting....although i thought 1800 was a small number...i was thinking that spam should be considered like a few thousands per day for several days....this is not too good a news though.

 

[Nick Flame]

what serps fluctuation did you have, if any, during your experiment?

 

[scorpionagency]

what serps fluctuation did you have, if any, during your experiment?

When the IBL's drop out completely Google drop me from a normal #5 spot to #154 ..... I mainly watch google, Yahoo & MSN dropped from the first 2 pages that much I know about those to.

it took 2-4 weeks Total for the SERP's to level back out from the drops.. I must admit that due to the added IBL's, after all the Blackout time Google bumped my #5 to a #1 & yahoo / MSN landed in the top 10 (1st Page).

Granted the terms aren't that competitive, like 700+ search queries per day for a few terms & then the long tails between 200+ & 500+ queries per day.

The main thing is just to prepare yourself for at least a 30 day IBL black out & SERP's drop.... Of course this test was with 1,800 IBL's... I don't have any additional data to support whether or not MORE IBL's would cause a harsher penalty or not.