296 Verified Forums - The Fullest List for Forum Link Building

Forum Link Building Guide

Using forums to build links for SEO is perhaps one of the oldest link building techniques used. But it comes with a controversial reputation. Some SEOs are cautious about this technique since it has been abused by spammers for many years.

It's definitely true! But it is also true that backlinks from forums are efficient for SEO. Undoubtedly, you shouldn’t use it as your only link building strategy. But you may lack certain advantages compared to your competitors using it.

It is essential to distinguish the white link building technique from using black hat forums. On popular forums white link building is used when you help people by answering their questions. On the other hand, link building on black hat forums is merely spamming people. In the first case, it is valuable to the forum users and your website if your link doesn’t promote your services and acts within forum rules. In the second case, you may be quickly banned with all your articles and in-post links.

Disclaimer

MarketingHack in no way encourages you to violate forum rules and is against spamming on forums. We strongly warn you against creating tools that sell black hat link services on forums. All the techniques we describe in this guide are given for informational purpose. We do not encourage you to act in any way that may violate forums rules.

What forums can help you with?

Traffic

Active discussions on forums will reward you with traffic. You can get massive website traffic from your in-post links and through your signature. Some marketers underestimate the benefits of using forums to get traffic. In reality, traffic from forums may be a significant source of traffic, leads, and even sales.

Backlinks

Forums allow you to get backlinks. If you look at posts in the popular forum profiles of active members, you may see a significant number of links they put to their websites. This applies to both in-post links and links in signature.

Why are forums important for SEO?

If you consider the value of forums from the perspective of SEO, you may see that they have approximately the same value as Q&A sites and social networks. Indeed, social networks are like forums if you are not an ordinary spammer.

Check the backlink profiles of websites holding top Google positions in various niches. Many of them contain forums’ links. Some of them may have white hat links voluntarily posted by random people. It works similarly to the links on social networks. People actively share interesting and valuable content. It is what the World Wide Web is built for.

If you find a website with the highest positions in SERPs and no links in Q&A sites and forums it may probably mean that they don’t have a natural backlink profile. Most likely, many link builders may have worked hard to make it. Natural backlink profiles contain different links from different types of websites.

The same applies to nofollow and dofollow links. Only dofollow links are essential for SEO. It is not entirely true. The truth is that it’s a direct sign to Google that your website is engaged in artificial link building. It may even buy links if it has only a few nofollow links or doesn’t have them entirely.

Since many forums allow you to get nofollow links, it’s an excellent opportunity to create a diverse backlink profile for your website.

How do you usually get links from forums?

Probably, you may not be surprised to know that most SEOs use forums for spam. It is indeed a careless strategy since it can lead not only to a ban from forums but also to an algorithmic filter from Google Penguin. 

Usually, link builders look for any forums with the possibility to get in-post links. They aren’t interested in the quality of these forums. There is no stopping them if the forums are not moderated or no longer used. The primary purpose of such individuals is placing links.

Some fanatical spammers may use specialized software to automate the process of posting links on forums. They usually use Magic Submitter and SEnuke since these tools can significantly increase the speed of the process of forum link building. But this only applies to poorly moderated forums.

We strongly recommend you not to do this since we are against spamming in forums. The strategies we  have shared below are far more effective. Also, if you don't break the forum rules, then you won’t be banned on forums.

Another popular and really old link building technique is placing a link in forum profile pages. Some link builders continue using this technique and their websites may soon get penalized by Google Penguin. Besides, many profile pages may contain a noindex tag. It means that Google may ignore such pages and also its links. So, don't use this method .

Link building services are popular on the BHF and Fiverr, including forum marketing services. It may sound odd, but such services are still popular even today. Some naive customers believe that they can buy high-quality backlinks at quality forums for just $5-$15.

However, these links are mostly from poorly visited and often dead forums. Google will never index most of these links. You may also consider the risk of getting a penalty from Google Penguin. Consequently, we don’t recommend using such link building methods.

How to do it correctly?

Firstly, change your attitude towards the process of forum link building. You're not a spammer but you are an expert and an active forum member.

Your goal is to get high-quality links resulting in significant traffic to your website. But this shouldn’t be in the form of hundreds of spam links from dead forums. Also, it is impossible if you are not active there.

It is vital that your forum activity doesn’t only consider adding links to each reply. Instead, it means that you should actively take part in the forum life while helping its members. Hence, you may be able to build your reputation and increase your ranking. People may start listening to your opinion, and your in-post links will result in referral traffic to your website.

How to find great forums in your niche?

Firstly, you should aim to find the most popular and active forums in your niche. You may open our list of forums created for you, or you may also find them using the following methods:

1. Search forums using Google search operators.

It is one of the many simple and effective ways used to find forums in your niche. Use the following operators to search for forums: