Getting Sidewide Links From Blogs..., ...Good or bad? Options

[jeepster]

I understand that getting sitewide links (usually in the footer) from other sites is considered spammy and suggests it is a paid link. But does this apply if a blog (in a relevant field to mine) puts me on their blogroll?

Separate question: What SEO/link value is there in forum signatures, do-follow blog comments, etc? I always thought they were of zero/very low value (given that they are votes for yourself rather than votes from another site -- until I saw someone in my industry get a Google No1 position based primarily on this. Also, quite a few people on this forum do it (as do I now, until I learn otherwise).

[Jill]

I understand that getting sitewide links (usually in the footer) from other sites is considered spammy and suggests it is a paid link. But does this apply if a blog (in a relevant field to mine) puts me on their blogroll?

Neither is necessarily considered spammy. Google would look at each circumstance and see if it had the footprints of being spammy or being a real vote.

In other words, whether your links are in the footer or a blogroll, just know that they may or may not pass link juice.

But that shouldn't matter anyway since having links pointing to your site are there to bring traffic to your site (presumably). Look for links that do that and you'll be all set.

[jeepster]

Neither is necessarily considered spammy. Google would look at each circumstance and see if it had the footprints of being spammy or being a real vote.

In other words, whether your links are in the footer or a blogroll, just know that they may or may not pass link juice.

But that shouldn't matter anyway since having links pointing to your site are there to bring traffic to your site (presumably). Look for links that do that and you'll be all set.

Thanks very much for the response, Jill.
To repeat the secondary question: Is there any link value in forum signatures, do-follow blog comments, etc?
It's a vote for yourself, after all.

[Randy]

Is there any link value in forum signatures, do-follow blog comments, etc?

I'm going to assume your question is asking about advantages with the search engines.

The answer is a big It Depends.

Let's take the easier one, forum signatures.

You might think your signature here is helpful with the engines. Truth is it's not. Signatures are only seen when you're logged in to your account at HRF. Guests do not see them at all. And since the search engines all visit as a Guest, they don't even see them.

For blogs it's another It Depends. First off, most blogs these days are set up to nofollow comment links. The few that don't anymore tend to end up being very, very spammy places. Some of those who don't nofollow send the link through another script on that domain, and the jump page is either set up as nofollow or possibly will deliver something other than a clean 301 response for server side redirects. Or apply some type of javascript redirect.

You would have to look at the details of each individual site, viewing them exactly as the search engines would, to get a sense of whether the link stands any chance of counting or not.

[Jill]

It's a vote for yourself, after all.

Yes, exactly, and you can bet that this is not lost on the search engineers.

[jeepster]

Yes, exactly, and you can bet that this is not lost on the search engineers.

Now that would be my intuitive response as well. But I've just seen a website get to No1 in Google for a fairly competitive real estate term with 80%+ of their backlinks coming from spammy do-follow blog comments & forum signatures.
Pretty much all their other links come from blogs that I know they own. Which also makes them self-referring votes.
What gives?

[marcus-miller]

What gives is that the system is not perfect, and sites have to rank somehow. So, if everyone in your industry is using these shabby techniques to rank then it is just the best of a bad bunch. So, you can either follow them and waste lots of time and effort building useless links or . . . you can see the oportunity for what it is, follow some of the better advice around, build some good content and concentrate on high quality links and - with a bit of luck, sink their battleships! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)