What are forum backlinks, and do they still work?

A forum backlink is a link to your website from a forum post, a forum profile or a forum signature. As an SEO tactic, they barely work: most forums mark user links so they pass little or no ranking value, and Google's spam policies name forum comments with optimised links as link spam.

Forums are still worth your time, but for a different reason. Helpful answers in the right community bring real visitors, build your reputation and can lead to links from people who found you there.

What are forum backlinks?

A forum backlink is any link to your site placed on a discussion forum. The common types are:

• Links in posts and replies, pointing to a page that answers a question
• Signature links, added automatically below every post you write
• Profile links, on your public member profile

Because these links are easy to create in bulk, they have long been abused, and search engines treat them with suspicion.

Do forum backlinks help SEO?

Not much, for two reasons.

Most forum links are marked as user-generated

In September 2019 Google introduced rel="ugc", a link attribute for user-generated content such as comments and forum posts. Its documentation recommends that sites use it, or rel="nofollow", for links that users insert, and says such links will generally not be followed. Google treats these attributes as hints, so a link may occasionally count, but you cannot plan on it.

You can check any forum by inspecting a link in your browser and looking at its rel value.

Google lists forum link dropping as spam

Google's spam policies list "forum comments with optimized links in the post or signature" as an example of link spam. They also list spammy posts on forum threads under user-generated spam. Building links this way can, at worst, lead to a manual action against your site, and at best wastes time on links Google ignores.

Are forum backlinks good for anything?

Yes, if you treat the forum as a place to help people rather than a place to put links.

• Referral traffic. A useful answer in an active thread can send visitors for years.
• Visibility in search. Google can show forum threads in features such as "Discussions and forums", so a good answer on a well-ranked thread can be seen by people searching your topic.
• Reputation. Being the person who answers questions well in your niche builds trust with buyers, partners and journalists.
• Earned links. People who find you on a forum may later link to your site from their own blogs and articles. Those editorial links are the ones that matter for SEO.
• Research. Forums show the questions and words your customers actually use, which is useful for keyword research and content ideas.

How do you use forums the right way?

1. Pick a few relevant communities. Choose forums, subreddits, Slack or Discord groups and Q&A sites where your buyers ask questions. A handful you take part in regularly beats dozens you post in once.
2. Read the rules. Many communities limit or ban self-promotion. Some only allow links from members with a posting history.
3. Answer first, link second. Write a full answer in the thread. Link to your own page only when it adds something the answer cannot, such as a detailed guide, a template or data.
4. Be transparent. Say when you link to your own company's content.
5. Keep signatures simple. If the forum allows a signature, your name, role and company are enough. Do not stuff it with keyword-rich links.
6. Track what it brings. Tag your links with campaign parameters so you can see the traffic and leads in your analytics.

For B2B teams, this kind of participation fits naturally with Reddit marketing and Quora marketing.

What are the risks of forum backlinks?

• Penalties. Mass forum links with optimised anchor text match Google's definition of link spam.
• Bans. Communities ban accounts that post links without contributing, and moderators often remove the posts.
• Reputation damage. Being seen as a spammer in a small industry community hurts your brand more than any link can help it.
• Wasted effort. Most of the links will carry ugc or nofollow, so they do little for rankings anyway.

How do you clean up spammy forum links to your site?

If an old SEO campaign left forum spam pointing at your site:

1. Ask for removal. Contact the forum moderators and ask them to delete the posts or links.
2. Remove what you control. Edit or delete your own old posts and signatures where the forum allows it.
3. Disavow only if needed. Google says it can usually work out which links to trust, so most sites never need the disavow tool. Google recommends it only when you have a considerable number of spammy, artificial or low-quality links that have caused, or are likely to cause, a manual action.

Search Console cannot remove links from other sites, but its Links report shows you who links to you, which helps you find them.

What should you do instead?

Spend the time on links that are earned: original research, useful guides and relationships with people who write about your industry. Our guides to building backlinks, contextual backlinks and white hat SEO cover the methods that hold up, and how many backlinks you need to rank explains why quality beats count.