Forums as a Content Tool

One of the important search engine concepts that cannot be recommended enough to improve your website’s ranking is adding fresh content to your website. Webmasters use a number of ways to add fresh content to their websites and one of the methods of adding fresh content to websites is by adding discussion forums to websites. if they are used correctly, there are also a huge number of SEO benefits you can realize from adding a discussion forum to your site or blog.

Companies, large and small, regularly use message boards or online discussion forums to interact with their customers. Customers can post their questions and concerns in the company’s discussion forums and the company staff or designated individuals will respond to customers’ questions and concerns. it is a lot like an online customer service desk in several ways. Even other customer’s can, and often will, chime in with an answer.

On one level, forums are used as customer support platforms. At another level, certain sections of your online forum can be opened up for open discussions and debates on your industry related topics. Be advised, hosting open forums and discussion boards involves its own challenges. You need to think in terms of keeping the forum clean and useful for the users. Open forums are often plagued by spammers. So you may have tough time keeping the spammers away. Sometimes, you can find discussions that have gone so far astray they are useless. You need to know what to do about those.

The SEO benefits are numerous, and most webmasters believe it is worth taking the trouble. Your forums can often become a rich source of relevant keywords and contextual content. All the questions and the discussions will be revolving around your niche. Active forums will add a significant amount of fresh content to your website. Remember to integrate your forum to your website or much of that value could be lost. Keep the spammers away from your forum by make using ‘no follow’ attribute so that those who want to post in your forum just for the sake of back links will be discouraged.

You may have noticed at times that when you search using a question as the search term, you will often get number of forums listed in the search results. This can work for your website too. This will attract a considerable amount of targeted traffic to your website. Also, you will be able to use your online forum to build positive reputation. Forums are great way to display your knowledge without coming off the wrong way.

Try posting several threads in your forum to the effect of creating a positive image about your brand and services. See what kind of traffic and response they get. You will also be able to project yourself an authority figure by discussing industry related topics and then providing viable solutions to your niche related problems. You can bank on this positive image in times of reputation crisis.

Adding online forums bring a number of different benefits to your website. Fresh content to your website is great – getting targeted traffic to your website that projects you as an authority figure in the industry is even better. Your customers benefit as well because you are providing them with quick solutions to their problems by providing them a reliable platform to interact with you.

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