Forum Backlinks in SEO

Long before Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks existed, people use to communicate online using forums. Nowadays, over 25 years after their appearance, forums enjoy less popularity among common people. Nevertheless, forums are still of a big interest in search engine optimization (SEO).

Why so? Why are forums important for SEO? The main reason is that you can still create dofollow links on many forums. Only this type of backlink helps to improve the ranking of a site. Thus, the most important thing to exploit this opportunity is to identify the potential forums for backlinks.

A forum is a virtual place on the Internet that allows people to converse. Generally, forum discussions are centered on a specific topic. If you want to join the conversation, then you have to get a forum membership and create a personal profile.

Not all the forums are good for this purpose though. To identify a forum backlinks SEO, it is useful to be acquainted with the different types of forums out there:

• Message boards. This is the best-known and most common type of forum. Here, people create a «thread» in which a specific subject is discussed. Generally, these forums are open to anyone and you just need to sign up to participate in the discussions. However, some message boards are private and have restricted access. You need to be invited to join or, in other cases, you need to pay for a membership;
• Q&A boards. Similar to the message boards, but the threads are questions. Participants limit themselves to answering the pertinent question;
• Groups in social media. These are discussion spaces created on social media platforms like Facebook. The discussion in a group (public or private) is centered on a specific topic.

Out of these types, only message boards, public and private, give you forum backlinks. However, the majority of well-known forums do not give backlinks. No problem. You still can find many forums that do.

Forums Are Still a Good Source of Backlinks

Participating in a forum still can get you some useful links for SEO. You should use forums since they have additional benefits for your website. For example, they increase its visibility because of the many potential visitors you can find on a forum. You have to be an active member so you can get their attention though.

There is another good thing about forums. You can make good contacts with important people in your niche. You know what this means. Eventually, you can negotiate a backlink swap with their sites. Or they can help you to grow your business in other ways. Even if you cannot use forum profile backlinks in this case, such an option will definitely help you in many things, including it will serve for SEO purposes.

But then again, you should avoid forums that are already dead or that they are not connected to your business. They simply will give no valuable links and anyway nobody uses them anymore. Some other forums give nofollow links only. Those links are not used directly for SEO but they can assist you greatly in creating brand awareness and informing people about your offer. Also, no-follow links still lead people to a particular site, thus, you can increase your traffic by using them. Do not forget that you can use nofollow links as second-tier links, too, and this strategy already can have a direct impact on SEO.

Thus, quality backlinks from forum must be connected to your business first of all. Second, the forum must have a good number of active user profiles. And, it should give you the type of links that help to increase your ranking and visibility on the web.

How to Find the Right Forums

The first step to find backlinks in forum is finding the relevant ones for your business. Otherwise, you would be just wasting time by posting in forums that have nothing to do with your niche. Thus, use forums that have a focus on your industry. Or, check whether the forum has at least one subforum devoted to the theme of your business.

You can perform Google searches to find the most relevant forums for your business. Use different keywords to uncover the forums that can potentially give you the links you need. What’s more, you can use the competitor module of the ‘Monitor Backlinks' online software tool. You could possibly uncover forums that Google failed to find for you.

Final Thoughts

To make your website rank high, all types of links can be used and are used. Even if you cannot post links on a forum, you can use the resource to increase your visibility and brand awareness for your product. If you manage to let people know about your product or services, the reputable resources might start looking for an opportunity to post your links.

Thus, use not only forums and not only dofollow links. Use everything that can improve the ranking of your resource.