What are forum crowd links: a complete guide for 2027-2028

My name is Andrey Soroka, I am the author of one of the largest Telegram channels on SEO, link building, and iGaming. In a series of posts (there will be about 20 of them), I want to talk about all types/kinds of links that I know and use in link building for my own and client projects. Today we will talk about the second type — forum crowd links.

If you need good forum links or any other types of links for your website — write me to order on Telegram. Prices for all types of links and examples of types — at the link.

1. My channel on SEO, link building, and iGaming: https://t.me/info_site
2. My Telegram: https://t.me/andrey_soroka

To be honest, I consider this type to be one of the most underestimated types of links in link building. There are a lot of myths around them. Some believe that this is ordinary forum spam and there has been no use for such links for a long time. Others, on the contrary, buy them by the thousands, thinking that the more forums they spam, the faster the site will fly to the TOP of Google. There is also a third category of people. They do not understand what a forum crowd is at all. For them, a forum link, a profile link, a comment under an article — it’s all the same thing. In my opinion, all three categories are wrong.

Over the past few years, I have placed a lot of forum links for various projects, niches, and GEOs. In some places they gave a good result. In some places they didn’t change anything at all. In some places I myself made mistakes and over time completely changed my approach. And do you know what conclusion I made?

Most people generally misunderstand what a forum crowd is. They think that a forum link is when you register on a forum, write two sentences, insert a link, and move on. In fact, forum crowd works on a completely different logic. Let me explain in the simplest words possible.

Imagine an ordinary life situation. Let’s say you want to buy a new robot vacuum cleaner. Or choose a good laptop. Or find a normal dentistry in your city. What will you do? I am almost sure that most people will not go straight to the store’s website at first. They will open Google and type something like: “which robot vacuum cleaner is better to buy” or “MacBook Air M4 reviews” or “good dentistry Lviv forum”

Notice one interesting thing. Very often, forums are exactly what you find in the search results for such queries. Why does this happen? Because people trust people. We are always more interested in knowing the opinion of a person who has already used a product or service than reading an advertising description on a company’s website. That is exactly why forums are still alive.

Yes, there are fewer of them. Yes, part of the audience has moved to Reddit, Telegram, Discord, and other communities. But the communication model itself has not changed at all. People keep looking for other people’s experiences just as they always have.

Now imagine another situation. On an automotive forum, a person creates a topic.

“Guys, tell me, where can I buy normal brake pads for a Passat B8? I’ve already fallen for some Chinese junk twice.” Another user replies to him. “I was also looking for a long time. In the end, I settled on ATE. I’ve been driving for more than a year — absolutely no issues. I bought it here, they also have a convenient way to select by VIN code.”

And after that, leaves a link. This is exactly what a classic forum crowd link is. In essence, the person simply shared their experience. They didn’t try to shove anything down someone’s throat. They didn’t write “The best store in Ukraine!!!” They didn’t leave a naked URL. First, they helped a person. And only then showed the place where they themselves bought. That is why I always say that a good forum crowd is primarily a recommendation, and only then SEO. This is probably the most important thought I want to convey in this section.

Because many still perceive forum links solely as a tool for promotion. But if you look at them through the eyes of an ordinary user, it looks completely different. It’s ordinary human communication. After all, in life we also constantly recommend things to each other.

Someone recommends a good restaurant. Someone — an auto repair shop. Someone — a dentist. Someone — a store where they recently bought something. Absolutely the same thing happens on a forum. Only instead of the words “Here is the phone number”, a person leaves a link. That is exactly why good forum links look as natural as possible.

Now let’s look at the opposite situation. A person registers on a forum. Enters the first available topic. And writes: “Great store. The lowest prices. site.com” Or even just. “I recommend. site.com“

What do you think is the first thing that comes to the mind of a person reading this? Right. Another spammer. Such a message doesn’t help anyone. Doesn’t answer the question. Doesn’t share experience. Carries absolutely no value. Its only task is to leave a link.

This is exactly what I call forum spam. And very often beginners confuse these two concepts. They see such messages, conclude that all forum crowd is garbage, and begin to tell everyone that such links haven’t worked for a long time. But the problem is not in forum links. The problem is in how they are done.

In my opinion, a high-quality forum crowd shouldn’t look like SEO at all. If a person reads a discussion and doesn’t even think about the fact that someone is currently promoting a site, it means the link is placed really well. This is exactly what I always strive for. Therefore, if we try to give the simplest possible definition, it will sound something like this.

A forum crowd link is a link that a person leaves inside a discussion to help another user solve their problem, answer a question, or share their own experience.

I consider the word “help” to be key here. If after reading the message a person actually received value, then you are most likely looking at a good forum crowd. If the only purpose of the publication is to shove a URL onto another forum, then this has nothing to do with real crowd marketing.

Why are forum links called crowd links?

Now let’s deal with the name itself. Why are forum links called a crowd anyway? To be honest, when I was just starting to work with links, this word also sounded a bit strange to me.

• Profile link — understandable, a link from a profile.
• Guest article — also understandable, guest material is posted.
• Outreach — contacted the site owner, agreed on placement.

But what is a crowd? Why can’t you just say “a link from a forum” and not overcomplicate life?) In fact, the logic here is quite simple. The word crowd from English translates as “mob”, “audience”, or “community of people”. Accordingly, crowd marketing is the promotion of a brand, product, service, or website through communication with an audience within various communities.

That is, initially crowd was not a separate type of SEO links at all. It was precisely marketing. Not a story about how to take a URL, insert it on a forum and pass link equity. The logic was completely different. A company found places where its potential audience hangs out.

• Forums.
• Q&A services.
• Thematic communities.
• Product discussions.
• Comments.

And began to carefully work with people’s opinions. For example, someone asks: “What service is better to use to check website rankings?”

A company representative or an ordinary user replies: “I tested several options. One has more convenient reports, another has better handling of large projects. I myself am currently using this service, because query grouping is well implemented there.”

Then they mention the product or leave a link. What happened at this moment? They didn’t just place a link. They showed the product to a person who is already looking for a solution. That is, they hit exactly the right audience and exactly at the right time. This is exactly the main logic of crowd marketing. Not going with advertising to everyone in a row. But finding already existing demand within a community. In my opinion, this is one of the main strengths of the crowd.

Imagine ordinary advertising. You show a banner to a thousand people. Out of this thousand, the vast majority are not going to buy anything right now. Some are not interested in the topic. Some do not need the product. Some will simply close the ad. But on a forum, a person has already written themselves:

• Tell me, where to buy?
• Which service to choose?
• Who has used it?
• What is better?

That is, they don’t even need to be convinced that the problem exists. They are already in the process of choosing. You just have to answer normally and show a suitable solution. This is much closer not to classic advertising, but to a recommendation.

For example, your acquaintance asks: “Where did you repair your car?” You name the service. Or asks: Which laptop is better to take for work? You tell them what you use yourself. No one in such a situation says: So, now I will engage in crowd marketing. You are just sharing your experience.

But for a business, such a recommendation can bring a real client. That is exactly why the word “crowd” here describes not the link itself, but the method of promotion through the audience and communities.

Crowd was originally not about SEO

This is an important point that many miss. The original task of crowd marketing is not to get a backlink. It was used to:

• — increase brand awareness;
• — tell about a new product;
• — answer questions of potential clients;
• — show expertise;
• — process negative reviews;
• — form a positive opinion;
• — bring people to the site;
• — increase the number of company mentions.

That is, in a normal crowd, a person might not leave an active link at all. They could simply write the name of the company. For example: “I used service X, they have normal support and the necessary integration.” There is no active link. From the point of view of classic link building, it seems nothing happened. But the brand got a mention in front of the target audience. Some people might separately search for it on Google. Someone will remember the name. Someone will return later. Someone will register. This is all also crowd marketing.

And only then SEO specialists saw additional benefit in this. If a link can be left inside a recommendation, then besides the marketing effect, we also get a new referring domain, brand mention, clicks, and other possible SEO signals. After this, crowd gradually became part of link building.

How crowd turned into a separate type of links

I think it all happened as simply as possible. The SEO market generally loves to turn everything into a separate service. There is an opportunity to register on a site and place a link — profile links appeared. You can leave a comment under an article — links from comments appeared. You can write a message on a forum — forum crowd appeared.

At first, specialists manually looked for suitable discussions, answered users, communicated, and warmed up accounts. Then the service began to scale. Forum databases appeared. Teams of performers. Ready-made accounts. Packages for 10, 50, 100, and 500 placements. And at some point, the original idea of crowd began to be lost. Communication with the audience was no longer in first place, but the number of published links. The customer pays for 100 links. The performer must place 100 links. And whether there is a live audience, clicks, normal dialogue, and any sense at all — that is a secondary question.

Thus, crowd marketing for part of the market turned into ordinary mass link building. And from here, in my opinion, grows most of the negativity towards this type of links. Because people are not buying a crowd. They are buying a report of a hundred URLs. In the report, everything is beautiful:

• A hundred rows.
• A hundred domains.
• Status “placed”.

But if you open these links, half of the messages there look something like this: “Thanks for the useful information.” “I also recommend this site: site.com.” Where is the work with the audience here? Where is the recommendation? Where is the marketing? Nowhere. Just a link on a forum. Formally it is called a crowd because that is how it is accepted in the market. But essentially, only the name is left from real crowd marketing there.

Forum crowd is a part of big crowd marketing

Another frequent confusion. Some consider that crowd links are exclusively links from forums. This is not quite true. Forum crowd is only one of the directions of crowd marketing. You can work with the audience in different places:

• — on classic forums;
• — on Q&A sites;
• — in discussions under articles;
• — in thematic communities;
• — on Reddit;
• — on Quora;
• — in comments;
• — in social networks;
• — in local groups;
• — in professional communities.

The logic is the same everywhere. There is a group of people united by some topic. There is a question, problem, or discussion. And there is an opportunity to carefully mention a suitable solution. It’s just that in this article I will talk specifically about the forum part of the crowd, because it has its own characteristics.

• On forums there are accounts.
• Message history.
• User reputation.
• Sections.
• Topics.
• Moderators.
• Their own rules.

Therefore, forum placement is usually more complicated than simply writing a comment under an article.

Why I consider the name “crowd” to be correct

Although the term sometimes sounds incomprehensible to a beginner, the name itself quite accurately conveys the meaning. Crowd is not so much the place of placing a link as it is the environment. The link appears inside a community. Among messages of ordinary users. During a conversation. Not in a separately ordered article. Not in an advertising banner. Not in a special “Our Partners” block. But where people really discuss a problem. And if everything is done normally, the link looks like part of this communication. Therefore, personally, I separate two concepts.

• A link from a forum — is generally any link that managed to be placed on a forum.
• A forum crowd link — is a link integrated into normal communication with an audience.

The difference seems small. But in fact, it is huge. You can open a dead topic from 2012, write one sentence and put a URL. This will be a link from a forum. Or you can find a fresh question, give a detailed answer, tell about your experience and organically add a source. This will already be a crowd.

In both cases, the link is technically located on a forum. But the working logic is absolutely different. Therefore, when I will use the term “forum crowd” later on, I will mean not the fact of placing a URL itself, but precisely a recommendation inside a community. For me, this is a fundamental point. Because without an audience, communication, and normal context, the word crowd generally loses its meaning.

Excellent. Now begins, in my opinion, one of the most important chapters. This is where 90% of beginners start to get confused.

I will intentionally not talk right now about Google, PageRank, link equity, and SEO effect. These will be separate chapters. Here there is only one task — to explain the difference between profile and forum links.

How does forum crowd differ from profile links?

This is probably one of the most popular questions that beginners ask me. Very many people do not see the difference at all. For them it looks something like this.

1. There is a forum.
2. You can register on it.
3. You can leave a link.
4. So both a profile link and a forum crowd — are the same thing.

Actually, no. Yes, both types of links are indeed most often placed on forums. But they work completely differently and solve different tasks. Let’s figure it out.

What is a profile link?

Imagine that you registered on some forum.

1. Created an account.
2. Filled in a name.
3. Added an avatar.
4. Wrote a few words about yourself.
5. And in the “Website” field you inserted a link to your project.

That’s it. You don’t do anything else.

• You don’t write messages.
• You don’t participate in discussions.
• You don’t answer other users.

The link has already appeared in your profile. This is exactly what is called a profile link. That is, the link is placed not inside communication, but in the user’s card. A person may never write anything on the forum at all, but the link will already exist. Therefore, a profile link is practically completely unrelated to communication between people. It just sits inside the account.

And what is a forum crowd?

Now let’s imagine another situation. You registered on the exact same forum. But instead of immediately going to your profile and inserting a link, you start behaving like a regular user.

1. You write messages.
2. You answer people.
3. You participate in discussions.

Some time passes. And then someone asks a question that your site can really help answer. For example. “Where to buy a good bicycle for under $1000?”

You write a normal detailed answer. Tell them what to look for. What brands to check out. What mistakes beginners make. And only after that you leave a link to an article, store, or catalog. This is already a forum crowd. Feel the difference?

In one case, the link just lies in the profile. In the second — it becomes part of the communication. That is exactly why I always say that forum crowd is about communication, while profile links are about presence.

The simplest analogy

I’ll try to explain using an everyday example. Imagine an SEO conference. At the entrance, each participant is given a badge. It has a name, company, and website address written on it. This badge — is a profile link. It simply shows who you are.

Now imagine that after a presentation someone from the audience asks a question. You start to answer. Talk about your experience. Explain how you solved a similar task yourself. And at the end you say: “By the way, I have a detailed article on this topic, you can check it out.”

This is already a forum crowd. Note. In both cases, a person finds out the address of your site. But the path by which they arrived at it is completely different. In the first case, they just saw your badge. In the second — first they got value, started to trust you, and only then got interested in your site. In my opinion, this is a very successful analogy, because it shows the difference between these two types of links as simply as possible.

Which is better — profile or forum links?

And right here many wait for me to say: “Of course forum crowd.” But no. I generally don’t like answering such questions. It’s roughly like asking: “What is better — a screwdriver or a hammer?” The answer is obvious. It depends on the task.

The same thing happens in link building. Every type of link has its place. Profile links are excellent for diluting a link profile, getting additional site mentions, and adding new domains. Forum crowd works better where it is important to embed a link in a natural context, get a lively discussion, user clicks, or a recommendation.

Therefore, personally I never choose between them. I use both types. Moreover, very often they work in tandem. For example, first you can register an account on a good thematic forum, fill it out completely, make it look like a regular user’s profile, and only then gradually start participating in discussions and placing forum links. It turns out as naturally as possible.

Why do beginners constantly confuse these two types of links?

It seems to me the reason is very simple. They look not at the placement of the link, but at the site itself. If both links are located on the same forum, then it seems that this is the same type of links. But this is not so.

Imagine a typical multi-story building. It has mailboxes in the entrance. And it has apartments. The address is the same. The house is the same. But a mailbox and an apartment — are completely different things.

A similar story with forums. The forum is one. But a user profile — is one part of the site. And discussions — are a completely different one. And links inside them work differently.

How do I use profile and forum links?

To be honest, I completely stopped perceiving them as competitors. For me, they are just two different tools. If I need to diversify a link profile, add new domains, and form a natural background, I calmly use profile links. If I want to get a more lively brand mention, embed a link into a discussion, or bring additional referral traffic, then I already use forum crowd.

Therefore, my advice to beginners is very simple. Don’t try to find one “ideal” type of links. In SEO this practically never works. It is better to understand what each tool exists for, and use it exactly where it really brings value. It is this approach, in my opinion, that gives the most stable results in the long run.

How does Google treat forum links?

This is probably the most controversial question around forum crowd. You just have to enter any SEO chat or open a discussion on a forum, and there will definitely be a person who will say: “Google has long stopped counting links from forums.” Or conversely. “I bought 500 forum links, and the site immediately grew.”

Honestly? I disagree with both the first and second statements. In my opinion, the problem is that many people ask the wrong question. They ask: Do forum links work? Although in reality you need to ask something completely different. How does Google view any link at all? It is from this moment that it becomes much clearer why there are so many disputes around forum crowd.

Google does not know that there is a forum link in front of it

Let’s imagine a simple situation. There are two links. The first is located in an article on some news site. The second — in a message on a forum. Do you think Google first determines: “Aha, this is a forum. So the link can be ignored.” No.

Google generally does not think in such categories. For a search engine, there is no separate button: Forum link — ignore. Guest article — count. This is exactly what, as it seems to me, many beginners understand incorrectly. Google analyzes not the name of the link type. It analyzes the page itself on which this link is located. And here begins the most interesting part.

For Google, the forum is not important, but the quality of the page

Imagine two forums:

The first — is alive. New topics appear every day. People answer each other. There are moderators. Discussions gather hundreds of messages. Pages are indexed. Real users from Google visit the forum.

The second forum. The last message was three years ago. Instead of discussions — thousands of template messages with links to casinos, loans, pills, and cryptocurrency. Most pages don’t even get into the index. Do you think Google will treat these two sites the same way? Obviously not. Although technically both are forums. That is why I always say that the platform itself is much more important than its type.

Google evaluates context, not just the link

Imagine another situation:

• There is a message on a forum.
• A person answers a question in detail.
• Talks about their experience.
• Explains the pros and cons.
• And only then leaves a link.

Now another option, the message looks like this:

• Good site.
• site.com

If you look with the eyes of an ordinary person, it immediately becomes clear which message looks natural. Google has also long learned to analyze such things. Of course, algorithms don’t read text the way a human does. But the search engine perfectly understands the overall context of the page.

• Is there useful content around the link.
• Is it related to the topic of the discussion.
• Does the placement look organic.

That is why today it is no longer enough just to leave a URL on a forum. It is important to understand exactly how it appeared there.

A forum link — is just one of millions of links on the internet

It seems to me many overestimate the fact of placement itself. As if Google specifically sits and thinks:

• This is a forum link.
• This is a profile one.
• This is a comment.

In practice, a search engine daily finds billions of new pages and millions of new links. For algorithms it is much more important to understand the big picture.

• What kind of site is this.
• How authoritative is it.
• What is this page about.
• Why did a link appear here.
• Is there any sense in this placement.

Therefore, I would completely stop dividing links exclusively by types. Personally for me, there is another division. There are links that look natural. And there are links that look artificial. And it is this very line, in my opinion, that is much more important than the word “forum” in the name.

Then why are there so many disputes around forum links?

It’s very simple. Because people test completely different links. One specialist buys placements on live thematic forums where there is an audience, discussions, and normal moderation.

Another takes a package of 500 links on abandoned forums that have long turned into a spam dump. After this, the first says: “Forum crowd works great.” And the second replies: “Tested it. Total garbage.”

The most interesting thing is that both can be right. They are just talking about completely different links. That is why I never evaluate forum crowd as a single type of links. I always look deeper:

1. On which forum the link is placed.
2. Who placed it.
3. In what discussion.
4. What the message looks like.
5. Are there real users.

And only after this can one draw some conclusions.

If they ask me whether Google counts forum links, my answer will be very simple. Google counts not the word “forum”. Google evaluates the quality of the page, the context of the placement, and the naturalness of the link itself. Therefore, a forum itself does not make a link either good or bad.

Just as an article on a news site does not automatically make a link strong. It all depends on the specific platform, specific page, and how natural the placement itself looks. That is exactly why I never buy forum links just because they are cheap. For me it is much more important to understand whether this link will look logical not only to Google, but also to an ordinary person. In my opinion, exactly this approach works best today.

Do forum links pass link equity?

This is probably the second most popular question after “Do forum links work at all?”. Moreover, it is asked not only by beginners. Even among experienced SEO specialists, disputes are still ongoing. Some say: “Forum links do not pass equity at all”. Others on the contrary assure that any link is useful. As usual, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. But before answering this question, let’s first understand what link equity actually is.

What is link equity in simple words?

Imagine that the internet — is a huge city. In this city there are billions of sites. And each site is connected to each other by roads. These roads — are ordinary links. The more high-quality roads lead to some site, the easier it is for Google to understand that this site is really needed by someone.

Of course, this is a very simplified explanation, but for a beginner it is quite enough. In SEO this is called link equity (or link weight/juice). When one site links to another, it as if passes it a part of its trust. That is why good links are valued much higher than bad ones. But there is one very important point here. Not every link passes equal equity. And certainly not every link passes it at all.

Why are some links stronger than others?

Imagine two situations:

In the first case, your site was linked to by a large thematic portal that has existed for many years, is regularly updated, receives hundreds of thousands of visitors from Google and enjoys trust.

In the second case, the link was placed by a forum where the last message appeared four years ago.

Do you think these two links will have equal value? Of course not. And the point here is not even that one link is on a news site, and the second — on a forum. Everything is much deeper. Google evaluates the site itself, its quality, reputation, niche, activity, and many other factors.

Therefore, the question never sounds like: Do forum links pass equity? It is more correct to ask: Does exactly this specific link pass equity? And this is a very big difference.

Dofollow and nofollow — what’s the difference?

And right here we have come to the most famous term in link building. Surely you have already heard the words dofollow and nofollow. But there is also a huge number of myths around them. If explained as simply as possible, then dofollow — is an ordinary link without additional restrictions. Such links can be used by search engines when evaluating a site.

Nofollow appeared much later. Initially, Google proposed this attribute as a way to fight spam in comments and on forums. The idea was simple. If the site owner does not want to pass part of the authority via a link, they can add a special attribute rel=”nofollow”. After that, the search engine was sort of told: “We are not ready to fully vouch for this link.” That is why many forums started automatically making all links nofollow. Especially when it comes to links published by ordinary users.

Does this mean that nofollow is useless?

This is where the most interesting moment begins. A great many still believe that if a link is nofollow, then it gives absolutely nothing. Personally I disagree with this.

1. Firstly, Google has long officially said that the nofollow attribute — is not a strict ban, but rather a recommendation for the search engine.
2. Secondly, SEO has never come down only to the transfer of link equity.

Imagine that you got a link from a very popular forum. It was seen by several thousand people. A portion of users went to the site.

• Someone told their colleagues about you.
• Someone later mentioned your brand in an article.
• Someone added a link already on their site.

An interesting situation turns out. Even if the forum link itself passed minimal SEO equity or didn’t pass it at all, it still could bring real visitors, new brand queries, and even other natural links. Therefore, evaluating any link only by the dofollow or nofollow attribute — is too simplified an approach.

And what about UGC?

If you have carefully studied links, you might have noticed another attribute — rel=”ugc”. It stands for User Generated Content, that is, content created by users. Most often it is this attribute that modern forums use today.

In essence, it tells the search engine that the link did not appear on the initiative of the site’s editorial board, but was published by an ordinary user. This helps Google better understand the origin of the link. But again, the presence of UGC in itself does not mean that the link automatically becomes useless. It is just an additional signal for the search engine.

Then do forum links pass equity?

Briefly — yes, some pass it. But it would be wrong to say that absolutely all forum links are equally useful. In practice, everything depends on several factors at once:

• what forum is being used;
• whether the page is indexed;
• whether the link is open for search engines;
• what attribute is used (dofollow, nofollow, ugc);
• how natural the placement looks;
• whether the page itself has authority;
• whether useful content exists around the link.

That is exactly why I never look at just one metric. I am always interested in the whole picture entirely.

What tasks do forum crowd links really solve?

This is probably the most important section of the whole article. Because it is here that most beginners start drawing the wrong conclusions. Very often people write me messages like this: Andrey, how many forum links do you need to buy to reach the TOP? Or “If I put 200 forum links, will the site grow?”

Honestly? I don’t like this way of framing the question at all. Why? Because people initially perceive forum crowd as some kind of magic pill. Like, you bought 100 links, waited a month, and got the first positions in Google. In practice, SEO doesn’t work like that at all. And forum crowd — is an excellent example that every link has its own task.

I generally try not to divide links into strong and weak. I prefer to divide them by what function they perform. It is then that it becomes clear why forum links are needed and why I still use them for practically every project.

1. Dilution of the link profile

If I were asked to name just one task of forum crowd, I would choose this one without hesitation. Imagine two sites.

1. Only expensive outreach links lead to the first one.
2. All of them are placed in new articles.
3. All dofollow.
4. All with commercial anchors.

Sounds beautiful? At first glance — yes. But if you look at such a profile through the eyes of Google, a question arises.

• And why does no one link to this site just like that?
• Where are ordinary people?
• Where are the discussions?
• Where are the recommendations?
• Where are the links from forums?
• Where are the comments?
• Where are social networks?

In real life, the link profile of practically any well-known site looks much more diverse:

• People share articles.
• Someone recommends a service on a forum.
• Someone leaves a link in comments.
• Someone mentions a brand in a discussion.

That is why forum crowd helps make a link profile more natural. I’m not saying that you should buy forum links just for this. But this is one of their strongest points.

2. Getting new referring domains

Another task that many forget about. Very often, beginner SEO specialists count only the number of links. Although personally, I always look at the number of unique domains that link to the site as well.

Imagine a situation. You have one article. Ten links were put on it. All ten are located on the exact same site.

Now another option. You got ten links. But each — from a new forum. Formally, the number of links is the same. But the diversity of domains is completely different.

That is why forum crowd allows you to gradually expand your link profile through new platforms. Of course, we are talking about normal forums, and not a database of a thousand long-abandoned sites.

3. Getting referral traffic

This point, in my opinion, many people generally underestimate. For some reason, a huge number of people evaluate a link exclusively through the prism of SEO.

• Passes equity?
• Doesn’t pass?
• Dofollow?
• Nofollow?

And now imagine another situation. You left a really useful answer in a popular topic.

• It is read.
• Commented.
• Discussed.
• People click on your link.

Some of them become clients. Is that bad? On the contrary. After all, the link was originally created precisely for this. So that a person could get additional information. Sometimes one good link on a live forum can bring more interested visitors than a dozen placements that no one will ever see. And for me personally, this is a very important indicator of quality.

4. Brand awareness

There is another task that for some reason is rarely talked about. Forum links work perfectly for awareness. Imagine that the name of your company is encountered several times in different discussions:

• People start noticing the brand.
• Memorize it.
• Someone later enters it into Google.
• Someone tells acquaintances.
• Someone returns after a few weeks.

This is already hard to measure in numbers. But it is from such trifles that trust in a company gradually builds up. Especially when it comes not to direct advertising, but to normal recommendations within discussions.

5. Support for other types of links

Here, in my opinion, lies one of the strongest sides of forum crowd. I practically never use it separately. For me, forum links — are part of an overall strategy.

• For example, today I got a good link through outreach.
• Tomorrow I published a guest article.
• In a few days, I added some forum discussions.
• Then I got a brand mention.

As a result, the link profile looks more alive. There is no feeling that the site is promoted exclusively by one type of links. That is why I rarely look at forum crowd as a standalone tool. It perfectly amplifies other methods of link building.

The biggest mistake of beginners

To be honest, it is here that I see the most incorrect expectations. People buy forum links with one thought: “Now they will bring my site to the TOP.”

And then they get upset. But the problem is not in the links themselves. The problem is in the expectations. Forum crowd was never conceived as an instrument that should single-handedly promote a site. It performs completely different tasks.

• Dilutes the profile.
• Adds naturalness.
• Helps to get new users.
• Increases the number of mentions.
• Supports other links.

Exactly in this, in my opinion, lies its real value. Over the years of work, my attitude towards forum links has changed greatly. I too once tried to evaluate them only through the prism of SEO.

• Do they pass equity?
• Do positions grow?
• How many should I buy?

Today I generally think differently. I try to look at the link profile as a whole. If you remove forum links, will it become less natural? Practically always — yes. If you add good forum discussions, will it look more like a link profile of a real live project? From my experience — also yes.

That is exactly why I continue to use forum crowd in almost all my link strategies. Not because I consider it the strongest type of links. But because I consider it one of the most natural.

What types of forum crowd are there?

Here, too, there is one very popular myth. Very many think that forum crowd — is exclusively links from regular forums. Like phpBB, XenForo, vBulletin, and so on.

In fact, this is far from true. I would generally say that a forum — is just one variety of crowd marketing. Why? Because the logic of crowd lies not in the site itself. It lies in the communication between people.

• There is a community.
• There is a discussion.
• There is a question.
• There is a person who answers.

And if during this communication a link appears that really helps the user, then this can already be considered a crowd placement. Therefore, you should not get hung up only on classic forums. Over the past few years, the internet has changed very much. Many old forums closed. A portion of the audience went to Reddit. Someone sits on Quora. Someone discusses topics in comments under articles. Someone communicates in local communities.

But the logic itself has not changed at all. People still look for advice from other people. That is exactly why there are even more platforms for crowd today than ten years ago. Let’s break down the main types.

Classic forums

When most people hear the phrase “forum crowd”, they imagine exactly such sites first of all. These are familiar forums with sections, topics, messages, user registration, and moderators. This is exactly where forum link building historically appeared. Such platforms still work perfectly in practically all niches.

• Cars.
• Construction.
• Finance.
• Travel.
• Medicine.
• Pets.
• Computers.
• SEO.

Practically for any topic you can find dozens, and sometimes hundreds of profile forums. Personally I like this format because discussions can live for years. It happens that a person created a topic five years ago. It is still in the Google index. Users continue to come to it. People answer. Read the topic.

And along with this, the links that were placed inside the discussion continue to work. Essentially this is already a small informational page that constantly brings traffic. In my opinion, exactly this is one of the main strong points of forums.

Reddit

To be honest, I would generally put Reddit into a separate category. Formally, it is also a forum. But it feels like a completely different world. If you have never used Reddit before, it may seem very strange at first.

• Its own rules.
• Its own communication culture.
• Very strict moderation.
• High user activity.

And a huge number of thematic communities for practically any topic.

Why do SEO specialists love Reddit so much?

1. Firstly, a huge number of pages index perfectly in Google.
2. Secondly, many discussions gather thousands of views.
3. Thirdly, Reddit has long become one of the main sources of real reviews.

I even noticed an interesting thing. Over the past few years, many people intentionally add the word Reddit to their query. For example: “Best VPN Reddit” or “Best hosting Reddit”

Why? Because they want to read the opinion of ordinary users, not another promotional review. This is a very telling story. People start trusting the community more than advertising. That is exactly why good placements on Reddit sometimes give not only an SEO effect, but also very decent referral traffic. But there is also a flip side.

Reddit hates blatant advertising. If you come there just for a link, you won’t survive long there. Therefore, it is especially important here to first become a part of the community, and only then recommend something.

Quora and Q&A sites

Another interesting format of crowd. The logic here differs slightly from a classic forum. If large discussions are usually created on a forum, Quora is built around specific questions. For example. “What is the best CRM for a small business?”

People start answering. Share their experience. Tell what they use themselves. And sometimes leave a link to a useful article or service. Essentially the principle is absolutely the same.

• There is a question.
• There is an answer.
• There is a recommendation.

Therefore, personally I also refer such platforms to crowd marketing.

City forums

A very interesting type of platforms that many ignore for some reason. Especially when it comes to local SEO. Imagine an ordinary city forum. They discuss practically everything there.

• Where to eat.
• Which doctor to choose.
• Which car repair shop is better.
• Where to buy furniture.
• Which school to choose for a child.

For local business, this is generally a gold mine. If a person asks: “Recommend a good dentist in Lviv.” And you can really help them find a solution, such a placement looks extremely natural. Moreover, exactly such discussions very often appear in Google for local queries.

Thematic communities

Sometimes the best crowd is not found on a forum at all. For example, there are large communities of designers, developers, marketers, accountants, doctors, and representatives of other professions. The communication format there may differ.

• Somewhere more questions.
• Somewhere discussions.
• Somewhere case studies.

But the logic remains the same. People help each other. And if a link really complements the answer, it looks absolutely natural.

On which platforms do I love to work the most

To be honest, for the past few years I generally stopped looking at the name of the platform. I don’t really care whether it says XenForo, phpBB or Reddit. I look at completely different things.

• Are there live users?
• Are there discussions?
• Does organic traffic come?
• Do they read these topics?
• Is there a chance to get real clicks?

If the answers to these questions are positive, then the platform already deserves attention. Therefore, personally for me, a good forum — is not one that works on some specific engine.

A good forum — is a place where people actually communicate. Everything else is secondary. That is exactly why I always advise beginners not to just look for forums. Look for communities. Because ultimately we place links not for the forum. We place them for people who will later read these discussions.

How to correctly choose forums for placing links?

To be honest, it is at this stage that most beginners make their first serious mistake. They start looking for forums, not good platforms. It would seem it sounds almost identical. But the difference is huge. Very often the scheme looks something like this.

A person opens Google and types: “list of forums for crowd” or “database of forums” or generally buys some archive of 50,000 forums for 20 dollars.

Then mass registration begins. A hundred. Two hundred. Three hundred forums. A week later, a beautiful report appears. It has several hundred links in it. And the beginner is happy. It seems the job is done. But a month passes. Then a second. And there is practically no result.

Why? Because they looked for quantity. And they needed to look for quality.

The biggest mistake — looking only at DR

If you have already been slightly interested in SEO, you have surely heard about DR (Domain Rating) from Ahrefs. Very many people for some reason consider it the main indicator of site quality. The logic is roughly like this.

• DR 70 — a good forum.
• DR 10 — a bad forum.

In practice, everything is much more complicated. I have seen forums with DR 80+ that have long turned into a real dump of links. The last normal discussion was several years ago. There are no users. All new messages — are spam. Half of the topics consists of ads for casinos, crypto, microloans, and pills. But the DR is high.

And vice versa. There are small thematic forums with DR 20–30. But they are alive. People create new topics every day. Discuss. Argue. Help each other. And personally for me, such a forum will be much more interesting. Therefore, I never evaluate a platform solely by one SEO metric. DR — is just one number. Nothing more.

The first thing I always look at — is the forum alive

If I had to leave only one evaluation criterion, I would choose exactly this one. Is the forum alive or not. Because this is exactly where everything else begins. How to check this? Very simply. Open the main page. Look at the latest topics.

• When were they created?
• Today?
• Yesterday?
• This week?
• Or did the last person write a message in 2022?

Then open several discussions.

• Are there new replies?
• Do people really communicate?
• Or do the last twenty messages look pretty much the same?

“Thank you. Useful. Great article. I recommend the site.”

If there is no normal communication, personally I don’t even waste time on such a forum.

The second criterion — are there real users

It’s always funny to me when people evaluate a forum exclusively by the number of pages. You can make a million pages. But if nobody reads them, what’s the point? Therefore, I always ask myself a simple question. If I leave a really good answer here right now, will anyone at all see it? If the answer — is no, then why place it at all? Therefore, I always try to understand if the forum has an audience.

Do people write new messages. Do old users return. Do discussions continue. If a forum lives its own life — this is already a good sign.

The third criterion — does traffic come from Google

In my opinion, this is one of the most underestimated indicators. I generally like to look at platforms not as a link builder, but as an ordinary user. Imagine that a person is looking for an answer to some question. Is there a chance that Google will show them exactly this topic? If yes, it means your message might be read not only by registered forum users.

It will also be found through search. And this is a completely different story. It turns out one forum link can work for years. Not because it passes some incredible link equity. But because the discussion continues to get traffic. And people continue to read your answer.

The topic of the forum is more important than most SEO metrics

Another beginner’s mistake. They find a forum with good metrics and start placing links there to absolutely everything.

• Cars.
• Casino.
• Crypto.
• Medicine.
• Plastic windows.

Everything in one place. In my opinion, this is a bad idea. I always try to look for platforms where the audience aligns as much as possible with the topic of my site. If I promote a bicycle store, it’s more logical to look for bicycle communities, and not a fishing forum just because it has high DR. Because ultimately the link must be useful to a person. That is exactly what makes it natural.

Don’t be afraid of small forums

This is advice I would have given myself ten years ago. I used to constantly look for the largest platforms too. It seemed that the more famous the forum, the better. Today my opinion has changed. Sometimes a small regional forum brings much more value than a huge portal with millions of pages. Why?

• Because there is a live audience there.
• People know each other.
• Communicate for years.
• Trust recommendations.

This works especially well in local SEO. For example, if a person asks: “Recommend a good dentist in Odesa.”

Then a link in such a discussion looks maximally natural. Exactly because it helps solve a specific problem of a specific person.

How do I choose forums today?

To be honest, over the past few years my approach has simplified greatly. I have practically stopped looking at pretty numbers. Instead, I ask myself a few simple questions.

• Is this forum alive?
• Do people actually communicate here?
• Do topics appear regularly?
• Is there a chance to get clicks?
• Will my link be useful to a person?
• Will I be able to write a truly good answer here?

If I answer “yes” to at least most of these questions, it means the forum is already worth exploring in more detail. But if the only plus of the platform — is high DR or a large number of pages in the index, then for me personally this has long been insufficient.

Over the years of work I realized one simple thing. A good forum — is not the one with the prettiest SEO metrics. A good forum — is one where people still communicate.

Where discussions continue. Where questions get answers. Where a link can be useful not only to Google, but to an ordinary person. Exactly such platforms I try to look for first of all. All other metrics already come after this.

What kind of account looks natural?

To be honest, I believe that a good account on a forum is sometimes more important than the link itself. Actually, no. I would say that in some cases it is exactly the account that decides whether your message will be deleted in five minutes or it will safely live for several years. And this is one of the most frequent beginner mistakes. They think roughly like this.

1. Found a forum.
2. Registered.
3. Confirmed email.
4. Left a link.
5. Moved on.

It would seem everything is logical. But if you look at it through the eyes of a moderator or an ordinary user, the situation looks completely different. Imagine that you have been hanging out on a forum for five years.

• Read discussions every day.
• Communicate with people.
• Help beginners.

And suddenly a new user appears.

• Registration — two minutes ago.
• Messages — one.
• There is nothing in the profile.

And their very first message looks like this: “I recommend this site site.com “

What do you think are the thoughts that arise? Probably, about the same as mine. Another spammer. That is exactly why most such messages are either deleted, or they simply evoke no trust whatsoever.

Why people trust old accounts

Ordinary human psychology works here. Imagine two situations.

1. In the first one, something is advised to you by a person you are seeing for the first time in your life.
2. In the second, the same advice is given by a person you have known for several years.

Who will you believe more? The answer is obvious. Absolutely the same thing happens on forums. When a user communicates in one community for years, answers questions, helps other people, and gradually earns a reputation, their recommendations begin to be perceived entirely differently.

That is exactly why old accounts almost always inspire more trust. Moreover, not only among users. But also among moderators.

An old account — is not always a good account

Here, too, there is an interesting point. Many think it is enough to buy an account registered ten years ago. And that’s it. You can calmly post links. In my opinion, this is too simplified an approach. Imagine an account:

• Registration date — 2014.
• Messages — three.
• Last activity — seven years ago.

And suddenly today a person returns and starts publishing links. Does this look natural? Personally for me — not very. Account age itself guarantees absolutely nothing. I always look much deeper.

What I consider a normal account

If I had to describe a good forum account in one sentence, I would say it like this: It should look like the account of a normal person, not a link builder. That’s it. No more. No less.

What does this mean in practice?

1. Firstly, the person has a history. They have already written messages. And not only in one topic.
2. Secondly, they sometimes ask questions themselves. This is totally natural. Nobody knows absolutely everything.
3. Thirdly, they answer other users even when they don’t plan to leave a link.

This is a very important point. If you open the message history of a good account, far from every message will contain a URL. On the contrary. Most publications will generally be without links.

• Ordinary answers.
• Ordinary communication.
• Ordinary discussions.

This is exactly how real people behave.

Do you need to fill out the profile?

I believe that yes. Moreover, it’s not about writing out a biography on three pages. But minimally styling the account is definitely worth it.

• Name.
• Avatar.
• A few words about yourself, if the forum allows it.
• Sometimes — city.
• Sometimes — interests.

Everything depends on the specific platform. Why is this important? Because an empty profile immediately catches the eye. Especially if the user’s first action — is to place a link. Spammers love such accounts very much. That is exactly why moderators also start treating them with suspicion.

What is account warm-up

You have probably already heard this expression. If not — I will explain now. Account warm-up — is when you first start behaving like a regular user, and only then proceed to place links. In my opinion, this is an absolutely normal practice. For example:

1. Registered today.
2. Answered a couple of questions.
3. Tomorrow participated in a few more discussions.
4. A week later again wrote several messages.
5. And only then, when a truly suitable topic appears, left a link.

As a result, everything looks extremely natural. The person did not come to the forum for the sake of one link. They became part of the community. That is exactly why their recommendations begin to be treated entirely differently.

Can you just not use a link at all?

Sometimes — you even have to. Yes, it sounds strange. But I periodically do it myself. For example, I see an interesting discussion. I have something to say. I write an answer. Completely without a link.

Why?

1. Firstly, it looks maximally natural.
2. Secondly, the account continues to live its life.
3. And thirdly, far from every message is obliged to promote something.

It is exactly this that distinguishes a normal user from a person who came exclusively for SEO. To be honest, over the past few years I generally stopped looking at an account as a tool for placing a link.

How to write forum messages so they don’t get deleted?

To be honest, this is exactly where most executors themselves kill their forum links. Moreover, they do it even before the moderator generally sees the message. Why?

Because they initially don’t write for people. They write for a report. It seems to me everyone who has ordered cheap crowd at least once has seen such messages.

• Excellent site.
• Thank you.
• Useful information.
• I recommend looking here.

And then the link. Or my favorite option altogether. “I had the same problem. This site helped.” And immediately a URL.

Honestly? When I read this, it’s immediately clear that the person did not come to the forum to communicate. They came to put a link. And the most interesting thing is that not only moderators perfectly understand this. Ordinary users see this.

And Google, as we discussed above, has also long learned to understand the overall context of a page. Therefore, the first rule that I derived for myself a long time ago sounds very simple. Do not write a message for the sake of a link. Write a message for the sake of a person. In my opinion, exactly this distinguishes a good forum crowd from ordinary spam.

Imagine that links cannot be left at all

Let’s conduct a small experiment. Imagine that the forum administration generally forbade placing links. Completely. And now answer one question to yourself.

Will your message still be useful? If the answer — is no, then most likely you wrote it incorrectly. I often use exactly this approach. First, I try to write the most useful answer possible. Tell how I solved a similar problem myself. What is worth paying attention to. What mistakes a person can make. What I would do in their place.

And only when I understand that the answer has already turned out full-fledged, I think whether a link is needed here at all. Very often it turns out that without it the message already brings value. And the link becomes just a logical addition. That is exactly how, in my opinion, a high-quality crowd should look.

Don’t try to sell

Another mistake I constantly see. Beginners for some reason start writing as if they are making an advertising banner.

• The best service.
• The lowest prices.
• The highest quality.
• Only with us.

What do you think, when an ordinary person writes on a forum, do they even talk like that? Of course not. People share experience. Not advertising slogans. Therefore, I generally advise forgetting all marketing words when writing forum crowd. Instead, tell your story. For example. Not like this: “Buy here.”

But like this: “I also took a long time to choose. In the end, I settled on this option because I liked that I could pick a product by specs. I’m completely satisfied so far.”

Feel the difference? In the second case, a person is not selling. They are simply telling about their experience. Such messages inspire trust.

Answer the question the person asked

Sounds trite. But this is exactly what is forgotten most often for some reason. Suppose a person asks: “Which hosting should I choose for a small online store?” And they answer them. “I recommend this service.”

And a link. But after all, the question was not about a specific company at all. The person wanted to understand by what criteria to choose hosting. Therefore, a good answer should first address their question. For example.

• Explain why an SSD is important.
• Why it is worth paying attention to support.
• What backups are.
• What the expected load is.

And only then, if it is really appropriate, you can show a service you’ve used yourself. In this case, the link looks like a continuation of the answer, and not its sole purpose.

Don’t be afraid to write longer

This is another thing I noticed over the past few years. Very many try to write as briefly as possible.

• Three sentences.
• Fifty words.
• And a link.

Why? Because it’s faster. But personally, I have always liked detailed answers better.

• Firstly, they are more useful.
• Secondly, they look more natural.
• Thirdly, it’s much harder for a moderator to delete a message into which a person really invested time.

Of course, I am not saying that now every message should take two pages. But if the question requires a normal explanation, don’t be afraid to write a bit more. Personally I would rather spend five extra minutes on a good answer than later search for a new forum after message deletion.

The link should look logical

Very often executors first write the text, and then think: “So, and where should I insert the URL now?” And they literally start shoving the link into the first available place. It turns out unnatural. It seems to me it should be done the other way around. First write the answer. Then re-read it. And only after that, think.

Is a link even needed here? If without it the answer looks complete, perhaps a link is not needed at all. But if it really helps a person to dig deeper, it means you can carefully add it exactly where the reader expects to see a source. In essence, the link should look as if it was always a part of this message.

Sometimes it’s better not to place a link at all

Yes, it sounds strange. But I really believe this. Sometimes it’s more useful to simply participate in a discussion.

• Answer a person.
• Share experience.
• Argue.
• Ask a counter-question.
• Show expertise.

Why?

Because a forum — is a community. And if all your messages contain links, sooner or later this will be noticed. Therefore, personally I have no goal to leave a URL in every topic. Sometimes it is much more valuable just to make the account alive. And place a link already in the next discussion, where it will really be appropriate.

A good message makes you want to read to the end

There is a very simple way to check the quality of your answer. Read it one more time. And try to honestly answer yourself. If you remove the link, would you want to read the message to the end?

If the answer — is yes, it means you did everything right. If without the link the text turns into empty advertising, most likely it’s worth rewriting it from scratch. I generally think that a good forum message should be interesting on its own. A link — is just a small addition. Not the main goal.

What anchors to use for forum crowd?

To be honest, there are also a lot of myths around anchors. Some say that anchor links should generally not be used on forums. Others, on the contrary, try to shove something like this into every message:

• buy plastic windows Kyiv
• best online casino Ukraine
• order apartment renovation Lviv.

And then they wonder why the message was deleted after ten minutes. In my opinion, the problem here is not the anchor at all. The problem is that people forget exactly where they are placing the link. Let’s recall once again. A forum — is a place where people communicate. And now imagine real life. Suppose you ask your acquaintance:

— Listen, where did you buy your bicycle? How will they answer you? Probably, roughly like this. “I bought it here.” Or. “Look at their website.” Or even just drop a link in Telegram. They wouldn’t say to you: “I advise you to click on the query ‘buy a Trek bicycle Ukraine’.”

Nobody talks like that in real life. That is exactly why it always seems strange to me when people start using aggressive commercial anchors within normal communication. This immediately looks unnatural.

What anchors do I use most often?

If you look at my placements over the past few years, the absolute majority of links can be divided literally into several groups.

1) The first — is a plain URL.

• https://site.com
• site.com

The simplest option. Sometimes it looks extremely natural. Especially if a person writes: “Here is a detailed guide.” And then simply inserts a link.

• No advertising.
• No optimization.
• An ordinary recommendation.

2) The second group — brand anchors.

For example:

• I used Ahrefs.
• Read on the Rozetka website.
• Ordered through Prom.

That is, simply the name of the company is used. This is exactly how ordinary people speak most often. Not with keywords. But with the brand name. And I personally like this option much more.

3) The third group — diluted anchors.

For example.

• right here
• this article
• official website
• detailed instructions
• this service
• you can take a look here

In essence, these are not even anchors in the classical SEO understanding. These are ordinary words that people use in a conversation. That is exactly why they look maximally natural.

And what about commercial anchors?

I’m not saying they can’t be used at all. They can. But it needs to be done very carefully. Imagine a situation. On a construction forum a person asks: “Recommend a company that deals with installing plastic windows.”

And you answer: “I recently ordered windows from this company, was satisfied. Here is their site.”

This looks normal. And now another option: “I advise to buy plastic windows Kyiv.”

Feel the difference? In the second case, it’s immediately visible that the person is not thinking about the interlocutor. They are thinking about promotion. That is exactly why personally I extremely rarely use commercial anchors in forum crowd. Especially when it comes to live forums.

Sometimes the best anchor — is no anchor at all

Probably, this will seem strange to beginners. But the longer I do link building, the calmer I am towards plain URLs. Why? Because that is exactly how people most often share links. Look at your chats in Telegram. Or WhatsApp. Or Discord.

How do you usually send an interesting article to a friend? You don’t write: “The best SEO blog in Ukraine.” Most likely, you just send a link. And that’s it. Roughly the same thing happens on forums. Therefore, an ordinary URL very often looks more natural than any anchor.

Don’t think about an anchor separately from the text

Here, in my opinion, lies the biggest mistake. Many first come up with an anchor. And then begin to think about where to shove it. It seems to me it should be done the other way around. First write a good answer. Read it. And only then understand where the link will look maximally logical.

• Sometimes it will be a brand name.
• Sometimes a URL.
• Sometimes the words “right here”.
• And sometimes a link will prove unnecessary altogether.

And this is absolutely normal.

Do you need to diversify anchors?

Yes. And this concerns not only forum crowd. Any link building in general. If you open the link profile of any live site, you will see a huge variety of anchors.

• Brand name.
• URL.
• Non-anchor links.

Phrases like:

• here
• source
• more details
• official website
• article

And only a small portion of links will contain commercial keywords. Why? Because this is exactly how people link to each other in real life. No one purposely optimizes their recommendations. Therefore, if all your forum links use the same commercial anchor, it looks, to put it mildly, suspicious.

How to build a forum crowd strategy?

Most people do not build any strategy at all. Everything comes down to roughly one scheme.

1. There is a new site.
2. Links need to be bought.
3. We open the price list.
4. We choose a package of 100 forum links.
5. We pay.
6. We get a report.
7. After a month we repeat.
8. And so ad infinitum.

For me, any link — is a part of an overall strategy. It does not exist by itself. That is exactly why I always first ask myself a question. What task should this link solve? If there is no answer, then most likely the link itself is not needed.

There is no universal number of links

This is probably the question I am asked most often. “Andrey, how many forum links should I buy?”

And every time my answer is the same. I don’t know. And nobody knows. Because there is no magic number. Let’s imagine two situations:

1. First. You have a small furniture online store in one city.
2. Second. You are promoting a large marketplace that operates throughout the country.

It is obvious that the volume of the link profile for these projects will be completely different. Therefore, any advice from the series: “Buy 50 links.” or. “For the TOP you need at least 300.”

I generally don’t take seriously. In SEO there are almost never universal numbers.

Forum crowd — is not a foundation, but one of the bricks

I really like exactly this comparison. Imagine you are building a house. Can you build it only out of bricks? No. You need a foundation. A roof. Windows. Doors. Utilities.

The same thing happens with a link profile. If it consists only of forum crowd, it looks weird. But if there are no forum links in it at all, personally I also have questions. Because in real life people discuss companies. Recommend services. Share articles. Leave links on forums. That is exactly why I always view forum crowd as one of the elements of the big picture. Not the main one. But far from the last one either.

What pages do I promote with forum crowd

Here, too, there is no universal answer. Everything depends on the project. But most often I use forum links for several types of pages.

1. Firstly, it’s the main page of the site. Especially if we are talking about a new project.
2. Secondly, informational articles. In my opinion, informational content is what fits best into the format of forum communication.

For example, a person asks: “How to choose winter tires?” It is logical to give a link to a detailed article. Or they discuss: “How to change brake pads yourself?”

Why not recommend a good material with step-by-step instructions? Such links look extremely natural. Much more natural than immediately sending a person to a commercial page with a “Buy” button. Of course, I also promote commercial pages with forum crowd. But I do it much more carefully. Because here it is much easier to cross the line between a recommendation and advertising.

I almost never use only forum crowd

This is probably one of the main thoughts that I want to convey. I generally do not believe in promotion by some single type of links.

• Today you only have outreach.
• Tomorrow only PBN.
• The day after tomorrow only forums.

In my opinion, this is a wrong approach. A link profile should look as if it was formed naturally.

• Somewhere you were mentioned in an article.
• Somewhere linked to in a blog.
• Somewhere recommended on a forum.
• Somewhere added to a directory.
• Somewhere a person shared your article in a social network.

It is exactly such a picture that seems maximally natural to me. Therefore, forum crowd for me always works together with other types of links. Not instead of them. But together with them.

Don’t chase quantity

This is advice I would have given myself ten years ago. It used to seem to me too that the more links, the better. Today I think completely differently. I’d rather find ten truly live forums where I can normally chat with the audience, than place on two hundred abandoned platforms just for the sake of a pretty report.

Why?

• Because a good forum can work for years.
• The topic continues to be read.
• New replies appear.
• Users come from Google.
• People click on the link.

In essence, one successful publication can bring value for a very long time. And now compare this with a dead forum that nobody has opened for several years. Even if there are a hundred of your links standing there, what’s the point?

Think not like a link builder, but like a site owner

Probably, it was this advice that influenced my approach the strongest. When I was just starting to do SEO, I looked at links through the eyes of a link builder.

• Need to place it.
• Need to report it.
• Need to increase the quantity.

Today I more often look at the situation through the eyes of a business owner. If this site belonged to me, would I want to see my company exactly in this discussion? Would I want a potential client to read exactly this answer? Would I show this topic to my acquaintance? If the answer — is yes, it means the placement actually makes sense.

Of course. And I would exactly rewrite, and not just glue paragraphs. So it will be much closer to how you write. Your thoughts will unfold deeper, without constant line breaks, and read like a book.

Here is how I would do this block.

Typical beginner mistakes when working with forum crowd

To be honest, most of the mistakes I see today when working with forum crowd, I also made myself at one time. And this is absolutely normal. We all used to be beginners. When you just start doing link building, it seems that everything here is as simple as possible: found a forum, registered, placed a link, and went looking for the next platform. At first glance, the logic really looks exactly like that. But the longer you work with this type of links, the more you understand that a good forum crowd is not built around a link at all. It is built around logic, usefulness for people, and an understanding of why you are generally placing it on a specific platform.

Over the past years, I have reviewed a huge number of crowd reports — both my own and others’. And I noticed an interesting pattern. Practically all mistakes are repeated over and over again. Moreover, they are made not only by beginners. Sometimes even people who have been working in SEO for several years continue to do things that, in my opinion, it is high time to leave in the past.

Mistake No.1. Buying quantity instead of quality

Probably, this is the most widespread mistake on the market. A person opens a price list and sees two offers: 20 forum links or 500 forum links. Moreover, the second option costs only a few times more. The beginner’s logic is quite understandable: if there are more links, then the result should be better.

But this is exactly where most make a mistake.

I always ask myself a simple question. If an executor promises to place 500 forum links in a few days, where will they even find so many high-quality forums? The answer, as a rule, is obvious. The vast majority of such placements end up on long-abandoned platforms where, apart from other link builders, there is no one else anymore. Formally the link is there, the report is beautiful, the job is done. But the real value of such placements often tends to zero.

That is exactly why today I would rather get ten really high-quality links from live thematic forums than several hundred placements for the sake of a beautiful number in Excel.

Mistake No.2. Placing wherever you can

Another very common story. Many think roughly like this: if you managed to register on a forum, it means you definitely need to leave a link there.

But why?

Does this forum fit your theme? Are there potential clients here? Do people read these discussions? Does traffic from Google come here? Very often no one even tries to answer these questions. The main goal — is to place a link.

Personally, I stopped working like this a long time ago. If I understand that a platform has no relation to my topic or stopped living its own life a long time ago, I calmly pass by. It’s better to spend a little more time searching for a really suitable discussion than to place on the first available forum just because you managed to register an account.

Mistake No.3. Using one template for all messages

This mistake is very easy to spot if you open any cheap crowd report.

Practically all messages look identical. Only the name of the site or a few words in the text change. The rest is completely copied from topic to topic. The problem is that people don’t communicate like that.

Each user asks their own question. Each situation is different. Somewhere a person asks for advice, somewhere they want to know someone else’s experience, and somewhere they are just looking for a solution to a specific problem. Therefore, the answers must also be different.

I generally believe that it’s impossible to fully templatize a good forum crowd. Yes, you can use some blanks or your own developments, but each message should still look as if a live person wrote it exactly for this specific topic.

Mistake No.4. Thinking about the link earlier than the answer

Probably, exactly this mistake I consider one of the most serious. Very many start writing a message with the words: “So, where should I insert a link here?” In my opinion, the question should sound completely different.

How can I help this person?

And only after the answer is ready is it worth thinking whether a link is needed here at all. I already wrote about this above, but I will repeat it once more. If you remove the URL from your message, and the answer itself loses its meaning, it means the message was initially written incorrectly. A good forum link always complements an answer, and does not replace it.

Mistake No.5. Writing in advertising language

When reading some forum messages, it is immediately obvious that they were written not by an ordinary user, but by a person who very much wants to sell something.

• “The best service.”
• “The lowest prices.”
• “Market leader.”
• “Only with us.”

To be honest, in ordinary life people practically never talk like that. When we advise something to friends or acquaintances, we speak entirely differently.

• “I used this service.”
• “I liked it.”
• “I had a good experience.”
• “You can take a look if interested.”

That is exactly why I always advise forgetting about advertising slogans when it comes to forum crowd. The more natural your text sounds, the more trust it inspires.

Mistake No.6. Considering moderators as enemies

Many perceive moderators as people who do nothing but delete links. It seems to me this is a wrong view.

If you put yourself in a moderator’s shoes, everything becomes much simpler. Their task — is to keep the forum useful and interesting for users. If every second person starts publishing ads, discussions will very quickly turn into a dump.

That is exactly why I never think about how to deceive a moderator. It is much more correct to ask yourself another question: how to write a message that a moderator will not want to delete? As practice shows, if a message really helps a person, the chance that it will remain on the forum becomes much higher.

Mistake No.7. Fixating on SEO and forgetting about people

It is this mistake that I consider the main one. When a person starts thinking only about the link, anchor, PageRank, and positions in Google, they completely forget for whom the forum even exists. After all, forums are read by ordinary people. They don’t come there to look for advertising.

They want to get advice, learn about someone else’s experience, avoid mistakes, and find a solution to their problem. Therefore, every time before placing a new link, I ask myself a very simple question.

If I myself were looking for an answer to this question via Google, would such a message help me? If the answer — is yes, it means, most likely, everything is done correctly. If no, then no beautiful SEO metrics will save such a placement anymore.

Main myths about forum crowd links

To be honest, it is exactly around forum crowd that I have heard probably the most myths in my entire career in link building. You just need to open any SEO chat, forum, or Telegram channel, and a person will definitely be found who will confidently declare: “Forum links no longer work”, “Google has long ignored them”, “All forums — are spam”, “Buying crowd in 2026 is pointless”.

The most interesting thing is that I have been hearing such conversations for about ten years. Google algorithms change, platforms change, approaches to link building change, but the myths themselves remain practically unchanged. And, in my opinion, the problem here is not even a lack of knowledge. Most such statements appear because people draw conclusions based on one successful or unsuccessful experience, and then start applying it to absolutely all projects.

Over the years of work I tested thousands of forum placements in different niches and GEOs. Somewhere forum crowd showed itself very well, somewhere it practically gave no effect, and somewhere it generally had no sense. That is exactly why I long ago stopped believing in categorical statements. In SEO they almost never work. Let’s analyze a few myths that I hear most often.

Myth No.1. Forum links no longer work

Probably, this is the most popular myth that has existed for many years. Every time the next Google update comes out, articles and comments definitely appear saying that forum crowd has finally died.

To be honest, I generally do not like such formulations. For me, the question “do forum links work or not” sounds roughly the same as the question “do cars work or not”. What cars? Under what conditions? For what tasks? Absolutely the same thing happens with forum crowd.

One person places on live thematic forums where new discussions appear daily, there are real users and good organic traffic. Another buys a package of five hundred links on forums that have existed for several years exclusively for selling SEO placements. After this, the first says that forum crowd works perfectly, and the second assures that it is a waste of money.

The most interesting thing is that both can be right. They are simply talking about completely different forums. That is exactly why I never evaluate forum crowd as a single type of links. I always evaluate a specific platform, a specific discussion, and a specific placement.

Myth No.2. The more forum links, the better

This myth also came to us from the past. About ten years ago many actually measured the quality of link building by the number of links. Back then it seemed quite logical: the more links you managed to place, the stronger the site will become. Today I look at it entirely differently.

If I am offered to choose between five hundred placements on dead forums and twenty links from truly strong thematic platforms, I will choose the second option without hesitation.

Why?

Because a forum link — is not just a URL in a report. It is a message that someone must read. It is a discussion that can rank in Google. It is a recommendation that should look natural. If all this is missing, then the link itself begins to lose most of its value.

Myth No.3. If a link is nofollow, then it is useless

I also hear this myth very often. Some SEO specialists still evaluate a forum exclusively by one criterion — whether links are open to pass equity. Personally, this approach seems too primitive to me. Yes, link equity — is an important part of link building. But far from the only one.

A good forum discussion can get organic traffic for years. People continue to read old topics, click on links, get acquainted with a brand, share materials. Sometimes one such publication brings a project more value than dozens of technically “ideal” dofollow links that no one will ever see. That is exactly why I never evaluate a forum only by the link attribute. For me it is much more important to understand whether this placement will bring real value to the project.

Myth No.4. Forum crowd — is ordinary spam

Probably, exactly this myth didn’t appear out of nowhere. If you open a random forum, you can indeed see a huge number of messages like:

• “Thank you.”
• “Useful information.”
• “I advise this site.”
• And then immediately a link.

Of course, this looks like spam. But, in my opinion, the problem here is not in the forum crowd. The problem is in the people who turned a normal tool into mass link posting for the sake of a report. I generally think that spam is defined not by the platform, but by the quality of the message.

If a person really answers a question, shares their experience, helps to figure out a topic, and only then recommends useful material, I personally do not consider this spam. This is a regular recommendation that looks absolutely natural.

Myth No.5. Forum crowd is more suitable for beginners than for large projects

Another interesting misconception that I periodically encounter. Some believe that forum links are needed only by young sites, and to large projects they no longer give any value. Over the years of work I have not noticed this.

I used forum crowd both for completely new sites and for projects that already had thousands of pages and a strong link profile. It’s just that the tasks were different:

• Somewhere it was necessary to support a new article.
• Somewhere to dilute a link profile.
• Somewhere to get additional brand mentions.
• Somewhere to attract referral traffic.

Therefore, for me personally the question never stands like this: does this site need a forum crowd. It is more correct to ask: what task should it solve specifically in this project?

My personal view on forum crowd after 10 years of work

Over the past ten years, my attitude towards forum crowd has changed, probably, stronger than towards any other type of links. When I was just starting to do link building, then, like most beginners, I evaluated it very superficially. Back then it seemed that a forum link — is just another way to get a new domain into the link profile. Found a forum, registered, left a link, got a report, and moved on.

Over time, I realized that such an approach practically never yields maximum results. The problem was not in the forums themselves and not in the links. The problem was that I, like many other specialists, thought too much about the fact of placement itself and too little — about the people who would later read this message. Exactly this, probably, became the biggest change in my thinking.

Today I generally don’t start work with the question: “Where should I put another link?” Instead, I first try to understand where my audience is and in what discussions my message can truly be useful. In my opinion, this is exactly how modern forum crowd should be built.

Over these years I have tested thousands of placements in different niches and GEOs. There were projects where forum links performed excellently. There were projects where they changed practically nothing. But I have not been able to find a single case where the result depended solely on the link type itself. Practically always everything came down to the quality of the platform, the quality of the message, and the overall link strategy.

That is exactly why today I stick to a few simple principles that, as my experience shows, work almost always.

1. I never buy forum links for the sake of quantity

To be honest, pretty reports with hundreds of placements stopped impressing me a long time ago. It is much more interesting to get ten really strong publications on live thematic forums than several hundred links on platforms that nobody has visited for many years.

For me, a forum link — is not a number in a report. It is a potential discussion that people might read in a month, in a year, or even in several years.

2. I always look at the forum through the eyes of an ordinary user

It seems to me exactly this is what many lack. Before placing a link, I try to imagine myself as a person who accidentally found this topic through Google.

• Will it be interesting for them to read this discussion?
• Will my answer help solve their problem?
• Will they want to click on the link after reading the message?

If to at least one of these questions I answer “no”, then, most likely, such a placement shouldn’t be done at all.

3. I don’t try to hide a link

Very often you can hear advice like:

• “Hide the link.”
• “Mask it.”
• “Make it so the moderator doesn’t notice.”

Honestly speaking, I have never understood such logic. If a message is truly useful and a link organically complements the answer, why hide it at all? On the contrary, I believe that a good recommendation shouldn’t look suspicious. It should look natural. That is exactly why I always write a full-fledged answer first, and only then think whether a link is needed here.

4. I never use forum crowd separately from other links

This is, probably, one of the main thoughts of the whole article. I don’t consider forum links the strongest type of links. But in the exact same way I do not consider them useless. For me, it is one of the elements of a large link profile.

• Editorial publications.
• Outreach.
• Guest articles.
• PBN.
• Crowd.
• Social signals.

All these tools must work together. That is exactly when a link profile starts looking maximally natural.

What have I understood over these years?

Probably, if today I had to explain the entire philosophy of forum crowd in one sentence, I would say it like this. Do not try to leave a link. Try to leave the best answer in this discussion. As soon as you start thinking exactly like this, absolutely everything changes.

• You choose forums differently.
• You write messages differently.
• You treat anchors differently.
• You build the entire link strategy differently.

And the most interesting thing is that exactly after this, forum links begin to work completely differently. Perhaps it sounds too simple. But exactly this conclusion I came to over the years of working with link building. And if today I had to start all over again, exactly this principle would become the basis of all my work with forum crowd.

I’ve finished writing this manual )

If you have read this article to the end, then, most likely, you have already noticed one interesting thing. Throughout the material, I practically never once said that forum crowd — is the strongest type of link capable of independently bringing a site to the TOP of Google. Moreover, I generally try not to compare different types of links with each other, because I consider such an approach incorrect.

Over ten years of working in SEO, I came to a fairly simple conclusion. There are practically no bad or good types of links. There are links that solve their task, and links that are placed simply for the sake of a report. That is exactly why the same tool in the hands of different specialists can show completely different results.

Forum crowd — is a great example of this. Someone buys several hundred placements on abandoned forums where there have been no users, no discussions, no organic traffic for many years. After this, they conclude that forum links no longer work. Another specialist spends time searching for truly strong thematic platforms, writes useful answers, becomes part of the community and gets links that continue working for years. Formally both are engaged in forum crowd, but the quality of this work differs cardinally.

If today I were asked what is the most important thing in working with forum links, I wouldn’t even talk about anchors, nofollow attributes, or the number of placements. In my opinion, the main question always sounds differently: will this link be useful to the person who opens this discussion through Google?

It is exactly with this question that I begin practically every placement. If I understand that my answer will really help a user to figure out a topic, it means, most likely, the link itself will look maximally natural. If the message exists only to insert a URL, I almost always refuse such a placement.

Probably, exactly this has changed the most in my approach over the past years. I used to think about links like a link builder. Today I try to think like an ordinary internet user. What would be interesting for me myself to read? Which link would I actually click on? Which message would inspire trust, and which would immediately look like an ad? It is exactly the answers to these questions that help make the right decisions much more often than any checklists or universal promotion schemes.

And the last thing I would like to say to beginners. Do not try to look for the perfect type of links or a universal strategy that will work absolutely for all sites. In SEO such solutions practically do not exist. It is much more useful to learn to understand why this or that tool works, what tasks it solves, and in what situations it is really worth using.

In my experience, exactly such an approach allows you to gradually build a strong, natural, and sustainable link profile that does not depend on one type of links or the next Google algorithm update.

Forum crowd has been, is, and, most likely, will for a long time remain a part of modern link building. It’s just that today it requires much more understanding, experience, and common sense than ten years ago. And if you use it precisely as a tool for communicating with an audience, and not as a way of mass link placement, it will continue to bring value both to search engine promotion and to the business itself.