Forum Posting is the practice of participating in online discussions at different forums on a particular topic. The motive is to drive traffic towards your website by putting your link in the forum signature.
A forum is a website for the purpose of online discussions. People here come to ask questions, clear their doubts, share their knowledge on a common topic. Suppose it is a pet forum then people will discuss pet foods, care, habits, and other tips to own a pet.
What is Forum Posting in SEO?
A forum is an online discussion site, where you can post your content or website link and get traffic from it. Here you have to reply to other forum posts or ask questions yourselves When you post a reply to a forum thread you get to place a link in your signature. To be precise a signature is a place at the bottom of each reply you post and there you can write a short intro and add a link to your blog or website.
In this article, we’ll talk about forum posting and why it’s essential in SEO. We’ll then go over the various types of posts you can make on forums and how to do it right.
Forum posting is like article submission sites, except that the format is different.
A few popular forum posting sites these days are
- Stackoverflow (forum for developers)
- Quora (a forum in Q & A format)
- Ubuntu forum (for Ubuntu users)
- XDA developers
- WarriorForum
- Blackhatwolrd (for blackhat SEO)
Apart from these, you will find forums for many product companies which helps their customer to discuss their issues and ask questions. For example, if you buy hosting from Digital Ocean then you can join their forum. Similarly there is a Google product forum for their users.
Forum Posting Instructions
Here are some instructing which you should follow before posting anything on a forum:
- Do not post your site link in the forum and try to get traffic from it. You may have the best content, but you won’t get ranked for that keyword for sure if you use a link instead of your URL.
- Try to have good content in your reply to help the people who are reading it. If people want to learn more about something, they can read your replies too. That will be helpful as well.
- Always reply to someone’s post and clarify it as much as you can. Try not to make your reply look like an advertisement.
- Try to make meaningful replies. If any visitor should have a question, they can find all the answers that they need. Good replies always attract people and make them feel comfortable for further research. Be sure that you have researched enough before replying to others’ posts on the forum.
- Don’t post defamatory comments or comments about people. If you do, you will be banned from the forum.
- Many SEO forums have stringent policies. They won’t allow you to spam or advertise other sites on the forum either. You’ll have to make it a priority to take part in healthy discussions on the online forum.
- It is not permissible to post the same material several times on the same forum; sometimes. you can post related links to different topics if you’ve already posted on one of them.
- Sound signatures like your “display name,” “about me,” and website are important in crafting a particular identity. It will show people that you are serious about what you’re doing in there and that they can trust what they read from your posts.
- If you want to get a good rank in the SERPs for the search term you’re targeting, then what should be your aim? What would the searcher want? Sticking with the subject of your forum discussions will help them to understand what you have to offer. If you keep avoiding specific topics, it’s hard for Google to determine how relevant your posts are.
- If you’re replying to posts on a forum, then don’t sell products or services directly there. Don’t promote your own business, and don’t talk about the other members. It will get you banned from the forum.
- Make sure that your forum posts are unique and have quality content written so that Google can understand what you’re doing there in the forum.
- Do not post hate speeches or use any abusive language on the forum. Hate speeches and offensive language are not permissible on the forum.
- Avoid using too many smilies in your replies to the posts unless necessary (Because that looks stupid).
What Are The Advantages of Forum Posting in SEO?
There are lots of advantages you can get from forum posting, which include:
1. Traffic generation is the most essential and prominent benefit of forum posting. at any time, discussions are going on in these forums about something that interests you or someone else.
2. You will get a wide range of quality backlinks after continuously participating in a forum posting, and you will get a good ranking in the search engines.
3. The best thing about forum posting is that you can gather a lot of information on the topic for which you’re participating in a forum.
4. Forum posting will improve your writing skills.
5. Forum posting helps you understand the needs and problems of people in a particular niche. You can then work to resolve those issues and fulfill the needs with your own product.
Why Is Forum Posting Important In SEO?
The Importance of forum posting in SEO is that first, you can get a lot of diverse backlinks for your website, and you can also generate traffic to your website. If a topic is not getting much visibility in the search engines, you’ll receive more traffic by targeting your posts on the forum.
Forum posting is a part of offpage SEO techniques because it helps you get relevant backlinks from authoritative forums. Which plays an essential role in increasing the authority of your website and the number of visitors to your website.
Is Forum Posting Relevant For SEO in 2021-22?
Google is getting smarter every day and it is gaining the ability to differentiate between quality backlinks and spam backlinks. So, if you are just doing forum posting for the sake of getting a backlink then I would say don’t do it. If you want to do forum posting then try to genuinely answer questions and solve people’s problems. Learn and share your knowledge in a community and you will be rewarded with quality traffic. So, it is still relevant for SEO if combine with other offpage techniques.
Note: I despise the practice of answering forum questions just to get a backlink. It is boring, unethical, and useless. So, try to contribute to a community or forum whenever possible.
Conclusion
Forum posting is a great way to get your name out there while also utilizing SEO. There are tons of forums on the internet. All you have to do is find which ones are most important to your business. It’s really easy to get started with forum posting, and it doesn’t take a lot of time either. So start now and begin reaping the rewards.
