Back in the early days of SEO, using forums and online directories was an easy way to promote your search engine optimization. Discussing about using online forums for SEO is still a hot topic because many experts argue that going to forums in 2020 is not a good idea like it used to be in 2014. In the past decade, much of the SEO knowledge revolved around making forum and blog posts to improve your rankings. However, in today’s SEO, this is not exactly the case.
A lot of blogs are published every day that are providing new knowledge to the readers. Moreover, social media sites are also playing a key role in improving the information delivery and knowledge of users. Are these trends indicating that our old important SEO forums are obsolete and are no good? Or SEO people still have a good reason t post on forums. Let us get into the details of this matter.
A Recent History of SEO Forums
Online forums and blogs have always been a foundation of search engine optimization industry since the beginning of this practice. There has been a lot of drama and controversy regarding forums although; the differing level of accountability has always been an issue. Many forums are able to promote the black hat see practices in the past because most of the information was challenged by the readers and people used unethical tactics to promote their sites on forums.
For example, IHelpYou Forum of Dough Hail gotten a negative reputation in the industry for exposing the names of many people who have been involved in the spamming activities. In addition to negative controversy, there have been some political and personality battles as well. For example, some forums provided the information that was outstanding to the users; however, there was a mystery created about the reality and identity of companies and individuals posting on the forums. There have been some top SEO forums in the past from 2005 to 2016; however, when you look at the data of the growth of these SEO forums that used to be the kings in the past, it shows a disappointing result. Every single forum except one saw a reduction in the overall activity of its members.
So what can we confer from all these facts about the SEO forums?
Do SEO Forums Continue to Grow?
The data by Search Engine Journal shows that most of the SEO forums have grown the number of users in the past couple of years. Nowadays, things are different. People used these forums in the past so much to rely on them significantly; however, with the advent of blogs and websites, the need for forums has decreased significantly.
Many prominent SEO professionals and firms are not publishing their own blogs; now people are more informed and much more knowledgeable, which is why they are providing the same knowledge on their own forums instead of using online forums. Every expert individual has a website of his own and a social media page. But real SEO professionals are still using SEO forums for their advantaged despite all drawbacks. Knowing that they are on their own in this challenging field, they know that clouds are going to bring rain and them every resource like forums and social media to project their work.
The knowledge gained from online SEO forums was unbelievable in the past decades. Many SEO educators and students used these forums to enhance their skills and knowledge of the industry. Nowadays, these forums are significantly been replaced by websites such as Search Engine Watch, Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal, and Webmaster World to name a few. Another well known Pakistani site for best SEO blogs is SEO.COM.PK; the oldest digital marketing firm in the country with highest rankings.
As Jeff Quip of Search Engine Journal states, “forums play a vital role in improving the SEO education, and would play a huge role even today. Most of the benefits you can receive from thousands of websites today used to be received via forums. So forums played a crucial role in the advent of SEO. These forums also helped many SEO networkers to meet with other like-minded people and made ways to enhance ether networks. Therefore, forums may have lost some of their popularity, however, forums are still a powerful way to improve and enhance your SEO results.
The conclusion
Forums used to heart and soul of SEO tactics in the early days. Nowadays, educational websites and blogs have mostly replaced the forums and reduced their need or effectiveness. However, educational forums can still contribute heavily to the success of SEO professionals because they can ask any question to learn a new trick they never tested or tried before. Forums can still work magically if used wisely for SEO.
