Thread: Search engines are not counting sig links as backlinks - My Research

I was searching Yahoo & Google for my sites to check how many backlinks my sites have. I have heard that sig links are counted as backlinks, so where are my sig links? they are not coming anywhere in the search results even I have 1500 posts in different forums but no one is coming in search results

» However those posts are coming in search results where I had put the URL Within the post or in the Title.

» Also, those sig links are coming in search results where I had put the url with www in the signature.

Conclusion:

This is what I have understood from my research that if you want your forums signatures as a backlink to your site, you need to put site URL and search engines will pick it up. Otherwise you might not get the backlink from forum signatures.

May be I am wrong but my research is working for me, and I am going to use URLs in my signatures

it depends on what forum you are into and it also depends on how you put your links to your keywords, putting links in keywords doesn't necessarily means it was counted on backlinks already. needed to wait if the kws are indexed and cached in most SEs.

Are you using dofollow forums. Also wait for some times. It can take 1-2 months .

Interesting research, but I bet it is just a coincidence that only links with the WWW in them are being recognized. More than likely certain forums are using nofollow, or certain high traffic forums are not being recognized. I would think that the links would still show up in a yahoo link query once the pages have been indexed, however.

Meh, ppl still see them in forums and whatnot, still produce traffic

I think yahoo counts them but Google dosn't

Originally Posted by sachinagg

You are wrong. I ahve many posts from different forums and surprisingly all are counting as backlinks by google, yahoo. I didn't notice MSN.

I just logged in to google and everything seems to be ok there.

is showing in my webmaster tools also

I have haven't seen my sig backlinks in yahoo but i am still waiting and hoping...
And will continue posting

Originally Posted by Jani

I was searching Yahoo & Google for my sites to check how many backlinks my sites have. I have heard that sig links are counted as backlinks, so where are my sig links? they are not coming anywhere in the search results even I have 1500 posts in different forums but no one is coming in search results

» However those posts are coming in search results where I had put the URL Within the post or in the Title.

» Also, those sig links are coming in search results where I had put the url with www in the signature.

Conclusion:

This is what I have understood from my research that if you want your forums signatures as a backlink to your site, you need to put site URL and search engines will pick it up. Otherwise you might not get the backlink from forum signatures.

May be I am wrong but my research is working for me, and I am going to use URLs in my signatures

If you're experimenting or researching for something, you should try several times and other methods first before making a conclusion..

With regards to sig links, they can be considered as backlinks depending on the forums that you've joined (if they are using no-follow or do-follow on sigs). If you can't see them in search results, it doesn't mean that they are not counted, coz often times, what we see is just a partial copy/results of our total backlinks

my 500 backlinks showing yahoo and all from forums signature ... so your research is wrong ...

Originally Posted by HoGaN

my 500 backlinks showing yahoo and all from forums signature ... so your research is wrong ...

Maybe the links are still not indexed .

Originally Posted by tjsocr1

I think yahoo counts them but Google dosn't

Both Google and Yahoo gives credit to backlinks from signature files in forums.

Aside from their SEO benefits - they also draw direct traffic overtime.

Google and yahoo counts signature link on backward links. i have so many backward links in my websites.

Most of my backlinks came from the forums that I've joined in (using sig links). So My conclusion is, there's something wrong with the thread starter's research.

you just have to do some case study first before jumping into conclusion buddy! peace

Originally Posted by aira

Most of my backlinks came from the forums that I've joined in (using sig links). So My conclusion is, there's something wrong with the thread starter's research.

you just have to do some case study first before jumping into conclusion buddy! peace

Relax, she stated

May be I am wrong but my research is working for me, and I am going to use URLs in my signatures

Originally Posted by Kryvast

Relax, she stated

I'm cool

Bear in mind that Google doesn't show every single backlink on its SE results, they do not show off all your backlinks, only random backlinks..

Only Do-Follow Forums Sig Links count as Backlinks,

I have my Sig links at Digitalpoint and SEO.com Forums, The backlinks are getting indexed without any problem.

Checked at: Yahoo! Site Explorer

Yeah, it would take some time.

They dont show up as much on google but they do on all the other engines it can take a few weeks.

They will help your ranking if the content is related. The help they give is extremely limited and therefore you should not use sig links as a link building strategy.

The direct hits from your sig are FAR more important and valuable than any of the SERP improving effects you may see.