Are forum links a waste of time?

[Shawn Gossman]

While researching another SEO topic, I came across this article:

Google Says Forum Links Do Not Work For SEO

Google's John Mueller again said that dropping links in forums for SEO purposes won't help you rank better in Google. In response the the Reddit thread question "Is Forum Posting Still Work As Link Building Method in SEO?" John Mueller said "No."

www.seroundtable.com

To sum it up, John Mueller (Google) advises against using forums to build links. He advises that linking to your website on forum threads is likely not going to even be set to "do follow."

What's your thoughts on this? Do you solely use forums to build links even if the forums are not actually helping you build them?

 

[Cedric]

I believe most is set to dofollow. At least on XF. But correct me if I’m wrong.

 

[Cpvr]

Don’t rely solely on forums to build links. I’d argue that John is wrong in this perspective, as forum links can still be effective.


Especially when those links come from relevant sites, Google will still follow ‘nofollow’ links since they treat them as hints. These links can still help in passing some link juice to the forum.



In the past, Google didn’t take ‘nofollow’ links into consideration, but things have changed.



Having a mix of different types of backlinks is essential, rather than relying on just one source.

Evolving "nofollow" – new ways to identify the nature of links | Google Search Central Blog | Google for Developers

developers.google.com

When nofollow was introduced, Google would not count any link marked this way as a signal to use within our search algorithms. This has now changed. All the link attributes—sponsored, ugc, andnofollow—are treated as hints about which links to consider or exclude within Search. We'll use these hints—along with other signals—as a way to better understand how to appropriately analyze and use links within our systems.

Why not completely ignore such links, as had been the case with nofollow? Links contain valuable information that can help us improve search, such as how the words within links describe content they point at. Looking at all the links we encounter can also help us better understand unnatural linking patterns. By shifting to a hint model, we no longer lose this important information, while still allowing site owners to indicate that some links shouldn't be given the weight of a first-party endorsement.