Forum Posting for Traffic

[FireBrandSaint]

Hey guys,

I'm going to hire someone to post on relevant forums, blogs, Q and A sites to try and drive traffic to my site.

If they post a link to my site will that affect my SEO negatively? Whats the best strategy to drive traffic this way?

Can anyone offer up any advice? or does anyone on here offer this service?

Thanks

 

[BusinessMagnet]

If your VA is doing it in an aggressive manner it triggers Google system then your site in most likely to be marked as Spam and get penalized. Your site will be de-indexed in no time.

If you have funds, invest in AdWords and see the traffic hike. Else do some black hat SEO and climb in SERP and you'll get targeted traffic from Google.

 

[Godmachine]

I've tried this technique extensively and in my experience it can bring in a lot of traffic (depending on how active the forum is, and conversational the post is). But... because you'll definitely not want to post links to your site repeatedly, you'll either have to create multiple accounts or mix up your posting and not post your link all the time.

As for how it effects your rankings... it's minimal! Especially if the forum is active, your post will fall off the first page and the links will lose a lot of value in Googles eyes. It wont negatively effect your rankings unless you're spamming 100s of repetitive links. IMO

 

[IMpossible]

The person who does all that for you could simply ruin your backlink profile by creating ugly backlinks from spammed to death pages... so watch out who you trust.

 

[cryptons]

go for quality links man!

 

[katona44]

If you diversify the forums you won't have any problems. Just make sure not to use the same anchor all the time.

 

[sinelogix]

Hello,
Just select the forum important to the theme of your website. And sign up. Put your link in the signature or at once post the link in the header of your posting.

 

[seoexpert2012]

we are top forum poster in India . we can Give you traffic from yahoo answers as well question answers . we can also give you traffic from SMO also.

 

[sudorank]

I use this strategy quite a bit on my sites (Travel Niche)

IMHO this is one area it's worth doing your own research on. No one who you pay will probably understand as much about your niche as you do.

I tend to search Google for keyword+forum and see what sites pop up. It doesn't take long to create a list of decent forums that grab a chunk of long tail for a certain niche.

Then i create manual accounts, become a decent member by posting good answers/content and when the account is ready I leave a good reply to the particular thread that's ranking well in Google.

Like I said, this is one area that's worth spending some time over because if you do it right those links will stick and give you steady traffic without any drama.

Another tactics I have done is get links from certain places like Trip Advisor and other forums and then pay a link builder to give that page a little boost for me. It's a really nice way of tier link building too.

 

[krishnacode360]

Its really a good idea , a long term traffic plan . It will not effect your rankings. I can do it for you , if you want my services

 

[pome10]

Like other members of this forum, i used to post good comments / answers in some forums (of my niche) using a signature with my website (using anchor text if is possible), and i get tons of traffic. Remember not to do spam.

 

[hpv222]

I use this strategy quite a bit on my sites (Travel Niche)

IMHO this is one area it's worth doing your own research on. No one who you pay will probably understand as much about your niche as you do.

I tend to search Google for keyword+forum and see what sites pop up. It doesn't take long to create a list of decent forums that grab a chunk of long tail for a certain niche.

Then i create manual accounts, become a decent member by posting good answers/content and when the account is ready I leave a good reply to the particular thread that's ranking well in Google.

Like I said, this is one area that's worth spending some time over because if you do it right those links will stick and give you steady traffic without any drama.

Another tactics I have done is get links from certain places like Trip Advisor and other forums and then pay a link builder to give that page a little boost for me. It's a really nice way of tier link building too.

^^^ solid post right there. I would also age the accounts a bit before posting with my links. Find threads that have good on-page PR and post in them; find threads that appear on page one on Google for some relevant KWs and post in them too. Enjoy the traffic

 

[Endire]

Firebrandsaint,
A few things here.

Sudorank is on the right track and other members have pointed out valid concepts.
The affect this strategy will have on your website is positive however it depends on what your goals are for you to consider it a success.
As far as SEO and how posting on forums relates to inbound links to your site, the benefit there will be marginal. Many links in forum signatures and in posts are automatically no-follow and google tends to give less weight to these kinds of links that are do-follow because spamming on forums is very common and its hard to tell the difference between a legitimate link posted for the sake of being helpful and one posted to manipulate rankings in search. Google mentions this in their link schemes description:

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?hl=en

That being said, search engines are looking for abuse and not average volume of link building in this way. For example a handful of links built every day is easy enough to identify as someone who is just active on a forum whereas 20-30 on the same forum every day (along with short posts with no substance) looks spammy.

There are other important considerations though and those are traffic and brand authority. People still click on no-follow links and go to websites and buy things. By posting useful information and by being genuinely helpful, you can build brand authority. These two elements are dependent on one another because without thoughtful interaction, no one will care about your business. Without a link to your site in a signature, its harder for other members of a forum to find out more about you and your business.
One more thing about this is that if you are going to hire someone, ideally they need to be passionate about your niche and at the very least knowledgeable about it. They must also be consistent and good communicators through writing. These things combined can help you build a persona on forums that people will trust and look toward for advice which then translates into more traffic and hopefully more sales for your website.

So the best strategy to drive traffic in this way is to be consistent, be helpful, be knowledgeable and don?t trust your brand to any old business that is willing to spam forums for an hour a day for 5 bucks. I would suggest looking for a freelance writer.

Hope that helps,

Shawn

 

[bruce.tison]

Thanks for sharing

 

[praetserge]

I always say that it's ok to leave links in forums and comments if they are highly relevant and contributing.