New feature of REF

[Phoenix Realtor]

Hi All,

Just thought I would let you know that thanks to SarahK (http://www.realestateforum.com/member.php?u=67)'s suggestion, Mike has implemented an excellent "hack" into our already awesome forum.

From now on, when you post more than once on a page in a thread, your signature will only show the first time.

This was needed to keep the thread's content as focused as possible. this way every thread won't be heavily weighted with my (or anyone's) keywords if I post more than once on a page. There are ten posts per page, so on the 11th, 21st, 31st, etc. a new page is born and your signature will show again if you post on that page, even if you posted on the previous page.

This will also allow for more "me too" posts without anyone feeling bad for chiming in and not having much to say.

Please use this thread to discuss this new feature.

[Phoenix Realtor]

Yep... me too! And, no extra signature to have my KW's dominate this topic!

[gemini]

That is really nice feature - makes a lot of sense! Mike Rocks! :D :cool:

[Phoenix Realtor]

Though it was SarahK who initially brought it up and made me start doing it manually, I've been pushing mike ever since. ;)

[Phoenix Realtor]

Much cleaner isn't it?

[gemini]

Yes, very nice - keep it clean :)

[HomeSurfer]

Actually, until this board I never used a signature.

[gemini]

I think Terry they desided to get rid of it when you first posted :D lol
I'm just kidding (being humorous like you say ;) )

[Las Vegas Homes]

Has anyone considered that if this reverts back to all threads and post to this date that if those links have been indexed or counted from say multiple post on a page with your links that it could hurt one of your sites?

We all know that if you gain a BL and it is counted by the SEs and you lose that link it can hurt your site by losing it. Just food for thought.

[Phoenix Realtor]

These links are hardly worth much. I am positive that the SE's discount them heavily. Much like site-wides.

[Real Estate Forum]

Has anyone considered that if this reverts back to all threads and post to this date that if those links have been indexed or counted from say multiple post on a page with your links that it could hurt one of your sites?

We all know that if you gain a BL and it is counted by the SEs and you lose that link it can hurt your site by losing it. Just food for thought.
I've been thinking about it, but having more than 1 link per page ... I'm not sure it is helping.

[Real Estate Forum]

These links are hardly worth much. I am positive that the SE's discount them heavily. Much like site-wides.
Not sure how much exactly sig links help, but I've had brandnew pages ranked with 3 forum links and no other incoming links before. So ... I'm all about signature links, but not too many on the same pages, especially not the same ones :)

[Real Estate Forum]

No one wants to talk about sig links ... afraid to encourage spam. But I think we have good control over that here, so there's no worry on my part :cool:

[gemini]

I think it has more to do with:
1. the authoritiveness of the site the links come from;
2. the content relativeness between linking parties.
I don't see a reason having more than one link on a page and I think one link per topic will make it more valuable.

[Real Estate Forum]

I will give my thoughts and please correct me if you disagree:

I am looking at sites as a powersource and a vessel that need to be filled and supported. Natural support is essential to me. If you have a site, it needs to stand for something from day 1. A theme as you will.

Take San Diego Real Estate.

What makes a search engine select your site out of millions?

I believe it is content and a combination of many other things.

If you have local San Diego sites link to you, you will gain credibility for "San Diego". When you have national real estate sites link to you as well, you gain recognition for "real estate'.

But in order to rank, it will also help to have some unrelated sites link to you, but not as much.

When you have a long, unique post about anything real estate and San Diego, chances are that the spiders will consider your likn "legit".

[gemini]

There is nothing to disagree with, but I thought Las Vegas was referring to signature links in this forum.

[Real Estate Forum]

Right, and I think that when you make a post related to what your signature is about ... it carries a lot of weight.

[gemini]

Okay, than I have a question: if a page contains 10 posts and it has 5 sets of the same signatures how the weigtht will be destributed amog the same links in the signatures?

[Real Estate Forum]

Personally, I believe that the search engine spiders follow related content. They dwell within similar sets of words and meanings of the words. If you write about directories and real estate nationwide, that should help the most. When the robots crawl this forum, they go from top to bottom ... meta title, title of thread and into the content. If they find something related, they detect a theme and follow it into the signature links. There are related, semi-related and unrelated links. This is very simplified and I believe it is very complex what they have in action. Something that REALLY realizes what belongs where. Just like having a link on a regular site embedded into good content describing your area of expertise and then a link to a site with related content embedded or at the end of your writings ... that is what helps the most.


I personally think that some sidewides help, others don't. I believe that in real estate we all have a strong common denominator here.

I have seen people losing all of their signatures from other forums (real estate related) and their rankings dropped right away. If you went on a forum about knitting, you may get something out of it, but not a lot.

[gemini]

Yes, there were some theories and there is a research published by MSN scientists about clustering (can't find the link right now) which I think Google is implementing/ed too. I noticed with my own sites that my signature links may rank on highly promoted forums with very high PR on the posts pages, but I think limiting amount of outbound links on the pages makes those links more valuable.

As for people loosing their rankings after loosing their signature links - don't put all your eggs in one basket. Some people don't really have the diversity of linking, so they suffer more while depending on limited linking source.

[Real Estate Forum]

Absolutely! My motto is to get links any place you can. But not too fast. Take opportunities as you get them. Many go overboard by leaning too much into one direction only. And when the algorithm changes, .... you know the "why did I lose my rankings" posts on various forums.

It's one thing if you have 10 sites on 10 class C IP addresses and want to try things out. But if you have 1 site, it's better to take the time and work harder than going full force into one direction.

The latest thing is that seos are watching the GoogleBlog (http://googleblog.blogspot.com) to find out what Google is implementing right now, and currently it is h3 tags.

Sorry, I've gone off topic ...

[Real Estate Forum]

I think this thread will be great to discuss the signature issue openly :)

[gemini]

how about hiding signature in a layer and letting it show on click on the other pages from the first? It will get indexed anyways, but much cleaner pages? To see what I'm talking about check out my North Carolina (http://www.ibsteam.net/wsnlinks/Real_Estate_USA/North_Carolina) page and click on any "Options" link.

[kyle422]

My feelings are that forum links should have the no-follow tag. A forum link seems un-natural. Even though it may be a related topic to your website. I don't want links pointing to my site from a forum topic. I'm sure many people would disagree and would be upset if all forums had the no-follow tag implimented, but I don't see the value in hundreds or even thousands of links pointing to my site from a single forum, or any one site for that matter.
Edit: The only value, in my opinion would be to get specific anchor text out there or to get a new page or site indexed.

[gemini]

I actually was thinking about the same as for signature links, and I checked VBulletin's source code to see in nofollow was implemented, but it wasn't. If I were a search engine I wouldn't worry about signature links at all, but links in the posts are completely different and they would have the best value.

[kyle422]

I like what this guy has done with his forum salespractice.com/forums/showthread.php?t=362
He only allows links to be spidered in a specific area in the forum, an advertising area the forum per say.

[kyle422]

I actually was thinking about the same as for signature links, and I checked VBulletin's source code to see in nofollow was implemented, but it wasn't. If I were a search engine I wouldn't worry about signature links at all, but links in the posts are completely different and they would have the best value.
Yes, I agree gemini. I also think that sigs are mostly useful for self promotion for actual people browsing a forum. How much value would a search engine give to a site that has thousands links throughout several forums? A few links here and there contained in a actual post would seem like much more natural linking.

[kyle422]

By the way, I love the crack the you have implimented (REF). It's a great idea. :D

Edit: Whoops, I meant to say hack, not crack. LOL

[Real Estate Forum]

Thanks! I'm a member at Jeffrey's forum :) Like it a lot:
http://www.salespractice.com/forums/member.php?u=33
A lot of people join forums because of the sigs. Not sure what it will be like in the future, but right now sig links help.

And this forum looks a lot cleaner with less :)

Mike

[kyle422]

A lot of people join forums because of the sigs. Not sure what it will be like in the future, but right now sig links help.
Good point. I didn't think about that.
I join forums because I don't have a life J.K. I like to read and share information.

[Real Estate Forum]

In case you guys didn't notice, the old links here have been discounted since we've moved to a new url anyways :cool:

[HomeSurfer]

People shouldn't join forums just for the sigs, at least I don't think so. I only participate in two real estate forums, but participate in several other forums. The two real estate forums are the only ones I have sigs in.

[Real Estate Forum]

People shouldn't join forums just for the sigs, .
Agree 100% :)

[Real Estate Forum]

Good point. I didn't think about that.
I join forums because I don't have a life J.K. I like to read and share information.
lol ... I must be a member at around 200 forums (most webmaster related). A lot of which don't allow sigs (like searchenginewatch).

[Real Estate Forum]

I'm starting to believe that those are the most informative ones since people don't go on there for the signatures hehe

[HomeSurfer]

Get rid of sigs, then. I'm fine with that. It might be better.

Plus, people who pop up simply to sell a product are beginning to irritate me. I've got lots of products and I rarely mention them. If this is a sales forum, maybe I'm shortchanging myself.

I'm looking for people to be informative, not just request link exchanges, sell stuff, and talk about what other people are doing wrong. I hope people will talk about anything new with search engines, come up with positive ideas, discuss challenges, tell us about something we may not have heard of yet. Then, in turn, that may bring up other ideas, extending the thread...

...which is what a forum is all about.

I rarely start threads, but if they are interesting or I feel I have something to contribute, I will comment.

I'm a member of about ten other forums. Two are in real estate, and I have a sig on one and not on the other. One is about my favorite author (who only has published two novels), and I've posted there for about eight years, and I've never had a sig on that forum. I'm starting to spend more time on search engine forums again, because I go to forums not just to discuss things, but to learn things...and that is where I learn the most.

[Real Estate Forum]

Get rid of sigs, then. I'm fine with that. It might be better. .
For now I'll leave it like this :) It looks fine to me :cool:

[Real Estate Forum]

I'm afraid I'm gonna get stabbed by someone here if I take of the sigs ... hehe

[kyle422]

I'm afraid I'm gonna get stabbed by someone here if I take of the sigs ... hehe
<<as Kyle warms up his stabbing arm>> You better not. LOL :D
Just kidding. I think you made a great point about allowing sigs to attract users/posting people or whatever we are. Eventually, when the forum is kicking ***, then maybe remove the sigs. Or only allow sigs in certain areas of the forum. Is there a hack for that?

[Real Estate Forum]

<<as Kyle warms up his stabbing arm>> You better not. LOL :D
Just kidding. I think you made a great point about allowing sigs to attract users/posting people or whatever we are. Eventually, when the forum is kicking ***, then maybe remove the sigs. Or only allow sigs in certain areas of the forum. Is there a hack for that?
hmm I bet there is. That's actually a good idea. Will see what I can find out :cool:

[Real Estate Forum]

The only thing I've found is a way to turn off the bb code in the categories, and I am assuming it would affect sigs. But then again, I figgure ... what if DP turned off sigs tomorrow ... that would suck. So ... but I may create some categories in the future where sigs won't be allowed. Something to think about. ANyhow, can't wait til the new pages here are going to be ranked :cool:

[Real Estate Forum]

I've been spending a lot of time here (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/online.php?) lately and they don't allow sigs. It's like Dp without the noise and the threadjackings :)

[Phoenix Realtor]

The only thing I've found is a way to turn off the bb code in the categories, and I am assuming it would affect sigs. But then again, I figgure ... what if DP turned off sigs tomorrow ... that would suck. So ... but I may create some categories in the future where sigs won't be allowed. Something to think about. ANyhow, can't wait til the new pages here are going to be ranked :cool:

Let's leave well enough alone. The place looks great now with only one sig per page per person. Really cleaned things up, and funny thing is I didn't think it looked messy before. But now that I see it this way, we could never go back...

Thanks for listening to others opinions Mike!

[Las Vegas Homes]

Just to add another thought to this thread. Look at it from the human stand point. If no sigs are allowed, you will have a lot of Realtors and Others who will come in here to gather information but never offer any because they cant place a sig back to their website of choice.

Real estate agents which I assume you want to be a big part of this forum will want to come read the information that is offer, but a lot of them will not want to register and post remarks if they cant be allowed to have a sig.

We all are forum junkies and we would post, maybe not as much but we would post on a forum without having sigs available for us to use. I would also say that I find it nice to see the sigs of others that are in my profession. I can go to their sites look and it might click a light bulb in my head aas to some better I could do with my site. I am sure that others here have done the same thing.

Sigs have more use than just for SE purposes when it comes to real estate forums. It is also another tool that allows us all to network without communicating through the forum. IMHO

[Real Estate Forum]

Here are some observations I have made lately:
http://www.blogparty.net/blogparty/showthread.php?p=782#post782

Search engine spiders follow those who are logged in and validate their signature links more. They also follow you into what you are reading and doing, and imitate that. It is a way for the spiders to determine what is most popular. The more you get spidered, the more it helps.