Forum signature backlinks and possibility of google penalty?

[xpl0iter]

I just had this thought in my mind. We all have signatures pointing to our websites. This makes thousands of links from one website with the same anchor text and no matter what the contents are on the page! So will google punish our websites for this?
I mean you know how strict is Google's Mr. Panda.

What do you think? Have you ever thought about this before?

 

[Beverly]

Technically, it's one backlink as that signature line is showing as a result of code in the forum software. Now, if you actually took time to hyperlink words on each post you made, creating a 'fake signature', that would count as an individual backlink. Of course, some people argue that each page counts as a backlink as you will often find more than one page indexed on a forum with your signature line. But, if that were the situation, then all pages should be showing up from a forum where you have your signature line.

 

[Jerlene]

Technically, it's however many posts your signature appears in because each thread has a different URL. As for your original question, OP, Google no longer gives signature links authority. It could help your presence in search engines before but now...not so much.

 

[Beverly]

Technically, it's however many posts your signature appears in because each thread has a different URL. As for your original question, OP, Google no longer gives signature links authority. It could help your presence in search engines before but now...not so much.

If you're worried about being penalized for backlinks from a forum, then another option is to simply leave the forum signature line off from most posts, and only enable on those posts directly related to the site being linked to. On most forums, there is a little box you can tick or untick so that it shows your signature line. In that way you only have your signature on most related posts, rather than generically on thousands of pages. You can use this option when you are looking for SEO benefit rather than direct promotion, such as click throughs from forum traffic.

 

[reallifeplus.org]

No way all the signature link from a single forum is considered as a single link by Google.