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Last Updated on February 12, 2021 by Arif Chowdhury
Forum is an ancient way to collaborate with similar minded people. A web-based forum started in 1994. Since then it has become highly popular among internet users. However, upon the arrival of social media like Facebook, it’s popularity slowly reduced. Though, even after that nowadays there are millions of users still using forums for their personal or business purpose. The USA alone has more than 550 million active forum users.
In this article, I will talk about forum backlinks & will give you a massive forum list. But, the question is, what can you do with “forum backlinks”. Well, before we begin, keep in mind that forum backlink is not “do-follow”. This means it will not pass any link juice to your targeted website.
However, a link is a link. That is – you are supposed to get thousands to millions of targeted referral traffic from it. It doesn’t matter whether it is no-follow, if you can place a link in the right forum & among the targeted audience, then you will get a stream of visitors. Yes, this is it. Your target is referral traffic, not a do-follow backlink. If you are okay with it, then let’s continue.
How did You suppose to Use Forum to Get Massive Backlinks?
This is a tricky part. You cannot just visit a forum & suddenly post a link from your site. If you do, it will count as a spam thread or comment & most probably forum admin will remove that link as well as ban you from the forum temporarily or permanently.
Well, if this is the case, then how are you supposed to do it? Simple, you have to familiarize yourself with that forum rules & regulation. First, open an account by reading their terms & conditions. It will take some time, but do it. They will send you an email confirmation, upon activating it, your account will be fully activated.

Now, visit every section & read how they communicate with each other. Every section has its own rules. You will find it at the top of every section. Read it thoroughly. Most of the time you cannot post a link at your first thread or comment. You may have to post at least 30-50 comments before you are eligible to do that. However, even after that, without any reason, you may not post a link.

Golden Rule: When trying to build forum backlinks do not chase for high domain authority (DA) as you are not going to get any link-juice from forum backlinks. Thus, check how many visitors a forum is getting, as you are targeting the high amount of referral traffic.
My advice is – try to start a conversation & then when people ask, post your link. It will be better & looks natural. Also, search other conversations & see how other people are posting links on the forum thread. It will help you to understand their way of acting.
Recommended Reading: 400+ High DA Guest Posting Sites for 2020 (Massive List)
120+ High DA Forum List (Verified)
List | Forum Name | DA | Monthly Traffic | Link |
1 | Microsoft Answers | 99 | 1.10 Billion | answers.microsoft.com/en-us |
2 | Google Webmaster Community | 99 | 92 Billion | support.google.com/webmasters/community |
3 | Cpanel | 94 | 2 Million | forums.cpanel.net |
4 | Oracle Communities | 93 | 30 Million | community.oracle.com/hub |
5 | Shopify | 93 | 62 Million | community.shopify.com/c/Shopify-Community/ct-p/en |
6 | Stack Overflow | 93 | 274 Million | stackoverflow.com |
7 | Cprogramming | 61 | 979K | cboard.cprogramming.com |
8 | OVH | 93 | 125K | forum.ovh.co.uk |
9 | Parallels | 92 | 2 Million | forum.parallels.com |
10 | MySQL | 93 | 5 Million | forums.mysql.com |
11 | 000Webhost | 93 | 2.4 Million | 000webhost.com/forum |
12 | Republic of Gamers (Asus) | 93 | 104 Million | rog.asus.com/forum/forum.php |
13 | The Verge | 93 | 56 Million | theverge.com/forums |
14 | The Guru of 3D | 80 | 4.7 Million | forums.guru3d.com |
15 | Hawk Host | 47 | 613K | forums.hawkhost.com |
16 | Mac OS X Hints | 86 | 3.4 Million | hints.macworld.com |
17 | AMD | 91 | 19.4 Million | community.amd.com |
18 | Ubuntu | 79 | 1.1 Million | ubuntuforums.org |
19 | Gentoo | 77 | 627K | forums.gentoo.org |
20 | Skyscraper City | 86 | 8.4 Million | skyscrapercity.com |
21 | Host Gator | 91 | 4.8 Million | forums.hostgator.com |
22 | Dynamic Drive | 69 | 120K | dynamicdrive.com |
23 | ASP Net | 84 | 2.1 Million | forums.asp.net |
24 | Caspio | 58 | 625K | forums.caspio.com |
25 | Web Developer | 56 | 81K | webdeveloper.com |
26 | Webmaster World | 82 | 152K | webmasterworld.com |
27 | Video Lan | 90 | 7.3 Million | forum.videolan.org |
28 | Mozilla Zine | 74 | 371K | forums.mozillazine.org |
29 | Digital Point | 74 | 205K | forums.digitalpoint.com |
30 | Web Hosting Talk | 67 | 266K | webhostingtalk.com |
31 | Sitepoint | 87 | 4.1 Million | sitepoint.com/community |
32 | Ultimate Guitar | 89 | 62 Million | ultimate-guitar.com |
33 | Utorrent | 91 | 28.7 Million | forum.utorrent.com |
34 | XDA | 92 | 22.8 Million | forum.xda-developers.com |
35 | World of Warcraft | 91 | 29 Million | us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow |
36 | Kaspersky | 91 | 11 Million | community.kaspersky.com |
37 | Stat Counter | 88 | 3.4 Million | forum.statcounter.com |
38 | Warrior Forum | 68 | 333K | warriorforum.com |
39 | Wicked Fire | 50 | 42K | wickedfire.com |
40 | Black Hat World | 59 | 2 Million | blackhatworld.com |
41 | Audacity Team | 83 | 3.2 Million | forum.audacityteam.org |
42 | Techsmith | 79 | 2.7 Million | support.techsmith.com/hc/en-us/community/topics |
43 | Moz Q&A | 91 | 3 Million | moz.com/community/q |
44 | BitDefender | 87 | 6.1 Million | community.bitdefender.com/en |
45 | Foxit Software | 85 | 3.5 Million | forums.foxitsoftware.com |
46 | Whatismyip | 84 | 3.9 Million | whatismyip.com/questions |
47 | AVS | 76 | 3.4 Million | avsforum.com |
48 | MikroTik | 80 | 2.7 Million | forum.mikrotik.com |
49 | Apache Friends | 91 | 1.3 Million | community.apachefriends.org/f |
50 | Pagalguy | 53 | 1.1 Million | pagalguy.com |
51 | Filezilla | 87 | 1.5 Million | forum.filezilla-project.org |
52 | Notebook Review | 82 | 866K | forum.notebookreview.com |
53 | Daniweb | 70 | 814K | daniweb.com |
54 | Daemon Tools | 76 | 1.3 Million | forum.daemon-tools.cc |
55 | Mtbr | 68 | 2.5 Million | forums.mtbr.com/forum.php |
56 | Adblockplus | 88 | 76 Million | adblockplus.org/forum |
57 | Blenderartists | 64 | 1.4 Million | blenderartists.org |
58 | Hockeydb | 66 | 1.7 Million | hockeydb.com/vb |
59 | VB Forum | 56 | 663K | vbforums.com |
60 | Superherohype | 80 | 1.3 Million | forums.superherohype.com |
61 | Thai Visa | 76 | 2.3 Million | thaivisa.com |
62 | Purseblog | 71 | 2 Million | forum.purseblog.com |
63 | Tech Support | 67 | 284K | techsupportforum.com |
64 | XAT | 85 | 1.3 Million | forum.xat.com |
65 | RPG | 68 | 845K | forum.rpg.net/index.php |
66 | After Dawn | 74 | 1.1 Million | forums.afterdawn.com |
67 | Core77 | 82 | 1.2 Million | boards.core77.com |
68 | Maxthon | 77 | 482K | forum.maxthon.com |
69 | Omnigroup | 78 | 330K | discourse.omnigroup.com |
70 | Lawnsite | 46 | 495K | lawnsite.com |
71 | Vtiger | 57 | 308K | discussions.vtiger.com |
72 | Caspio | 58 | 625K | forums.caspio.com |
73 | Quora | 93 | 544 Million | quora.com |
74 | Forex Factory | 60 | 8.9 Million | forexfactory.com |
75 | Delphi Forum | 61 | 1.1 Million | delphiforums.com |
76 | CBR Community | 87 | 46 Million | community.cbr.com |
77 | Garden Web | 67 | 514K | gardenweb.com |
78 | Media Monkey | 70 | 335K | mediamonkey.com/forum |
79 | Sanparks | 71 | 279K | sanparks.org/forums |
80 | Luminous Landscape | 68 | 198K | forum.luminous-landscape.com |
81 | Ummah | 54 | 230K | ummah.com/forum |
82 | Free Website Templates | 50 | 46K | freewebsitetemplates.com/forums |
83 | Axis History | 57 | 249K | forum.axishistory.com |
84 | Wilders Security | 68 | 510K | wilderssecurity.com |
85 | Kirupa | 57 | 174K | kirupa.com |
86 | Ask About Money | 39 | 238K | askaboutmoney.com |
87 | Wysiwyg Web Builder | 57 | 125K | wysiwygwebbuilder.com/forum/index.php |
88 | Chef Talk | 53 | 299K | cheftalk.com |
89 | Devx | 73 | 57K | forums.devx.com |
90 | UK Business Forums | 59 | 167K | ukbusinessforums.co.uk |
91 | vBulletin | 79 | 75K | forum.vbulletin.com |
92 | Discourse | 76 | 268K | meta.discourse.org |
93 | phpbb | 89 | 317K | phpbb.com |
94 | Simple Machines | 74 | 143K | simplemachines.org/community/index.php |
95 | Xenforo | 83 | 346K | xenforo.com/community |
96 | Mybb | 60 | 279K | community.mybb.com |
97 | Flarum | 47 | 68K | discuss.flarum.org/t/blog |
98 | Invision Community | 67 | 148K | invisioncommunity.com/forums |
99 | Tech Republic | 88 | 7.5 Million | techrepublic.com/forums/software |
100 | Patient Info | 75 | 7.6 Million | patient.info/forums |
101 | Health 24 | 90 | 21 Million | news24.com/health24/Experts |
102 | eHealth | 60 | 76K | healthboards.com/boards/index.php |
103 | Medhelp | 65 | 564K | medhelp.org/forums/list |
104 | Growth Hackers | 65 | 219K | growthhackers.com/posts |
105 | Affiliate Fix | 37 | 71K | affiliatefix.com |
106 | Afflift | 35 | 105K | afflift.com/f/ |
107 | Affilorama | 51 | 68K | affilorama.com/forum/ |
108 | Dream Team Money | 41 | 70K | dreamteammoney.com |
109 | SEO Forum | 57 | 213K | seo-forum.link-assistant.com |
110 | dbPoweramp | 67 | 144K | forum.dbpoweramp.com |
111 | Forumosa | 47 | 167K | tw.forumosa.com |
112 | Dpreview | 88 | 8.9 Million | dpreview.com/forums |
113 | Photography Talk | 54 | 329K | photographytalk.com/forum |
114 | Flickr | 91 | 56 Million | flickr.com/help/forum/en-us |
115 | Fredmiranda | 58 | 703K | fredmiranda.com/forum |
116 | Talk Photography | 44 | 181K | talkphotography.co.uk/forums |
117 | Amateur Photographer | 66 | 213K | amateurphotographer.co.uk/forums |
118 | The Photo Forum | 49 | 84K | thephotoforum.com |
119 | Photo | 82 | 605K | photo.net/discuss/ |
120 | Discuss Cooking | 45 | 145K | discusscooking.com/forums |
121 | ChowHound | 79 | 3.3 Million | chowhound.com/community |
122 | eGullet | 60 | 303K | forums.egullet.org |
The Difference between Blog & Forum Backlinks?
Unlike other backlink generating methods i.e. guest posting, broken link building, link swap, etc. you will not get any do-follow backlinks from forums. And also search engines like Google give little value to backlinks from forums. However, you will get at least 500% more traffic than any other backlink generating methods.
Do you know why? Because in the forum people are highly engaging in conversation. Thus, posting a relevant link at the right moment will give you an instant boost in referral traffic. Which is kind of impossible in a blog or website.
For example, let’s say you have a backlink from a blog post from the X.com website. This website has high organic traffic, let’s say over 1 million. Now let’s say that blog post where you have a backlink gets around 100K visitors per month. The possibility of getting traffic from this backlink is a maximum of 500-1,000 per month. Or even less.
Don’t believe me? Use a tracker in your blog post link then test this out. You will be surprised by how much less traffic you are getting from links. This is because people are not likely to read the entire article/blog post. Most of the time they will simply skim your article for specific information. When they get it, they will simply leave.
According to research, 55% of your visitors spend less than 15 secs on your page. Another research tells us that only 20% of your visitors read the entire article while 80% of them simply pass it by reading only the headlines.
Quick Note: If you are looking for referral traffic then build a strong forum backlink profile for your site. Or, if you want to get organic traffic then build a strong backlink profile from different blogs & websites.
As you can see, the truth is – you are not supposed to get lots of traffic from blog or website backlinks. Then what you are supposed to get? Well, backlinks from relevant blogs or websites will increase your website authority which will allow you to rank higher on search engine result pages (SERP). Therefore, getting backlinks from those places will give you a permanent boost in ranking & you are supposed to get lots of organic traffic from search engines.
Now the opposite things are going to happen when you are getting backlinks from forums. As you are not going to rank in search engines, however, you are supposed to get lots of referral traffic instantly.
Why Forum Backlinks Are Cheap & Effective?
I guess you already understand the difference between forum & blog/website backlinks. Now, let me tell you why forum backlinks are much cheaper & effective than blogs/websites.
When you want to generate backlinks from a blog/website you have to be ready for lots of patience. If you have started your backlink generating campaign, then perhaps you already know about it. Most of the time you have to wait for days to months to get a single backlink from a high authority website. If you send an email to 1,000 people only 50-60 of them will reply. Still, there is no guarantee that they will give you a backlink. Some of them might ask you to spend hundreds to thousands of dollars to get a backlink.

It is a frustrating & long waiting task. However, getting a backlink from a forum is rather easier & cheaper. All you have to do is – open an account & post your link at the right time. If they have some requirements for a new account i.e. at least 50 threads must have to post. Then upon completing this task you are free to start your backlink campaign.
Let me recap what you have learned here:
How to get backlinks from a forum?
- Open an account using email
- Read forum requirement before posting anything
- Read other threads & comments to familiarize yourself
- Start a conversation before posting your link
- When someone asks only then post your link (safest way)
- Use signature to showcase your link in every comments & thread
What should you expect from forum backlinks?
- Mostly no-follow backlinks
- Even if some forum gives you a do-follow backlink, it won’t pass link juice
- Much easier & cheaper to get backlinks (instant)
- You will not get rank in search engines from forum backlinks
- You will get lots of referral traffic (instant)
- Irrelevant link posting will cause your account temporary or permanent ban from the forum
Hope I am able to teach you something useful. The difference between blog & forum backlinks. Why is it cheaper & effective? Why should you use it? When you should use it? And what you should expect from it.
Executive Summary
Most of the time people are wrong about forum link building. Some people think it will give them lots of backlinks that will increase their website authority. Others think it will give them nothing instead it will jeopardize their overall authority ranking.
All of them are wrong. Forum backlinks once used to get rank higher in SERP. And that’s why search engines implemented no-follow backlinks in the forum to prevent it. And that’s why you are not supposed to rank higher in authority. Even if some forums provide you do-follow, it doesn’t matter.
Therefore, your task is to use forum backlinks to receive thousands to millions of referral traffic. The good news is – it is rather easier & cheaper than general blog & website backlinks. However, if you want long-term growth in search engines by increasing your rank then do not waste time in forum link building.
Further reading on Cliobra: I assume you want to grow your site authority by using link building technique. In that case, do not forget to check my other guides about link building strategies “Why Should You Focus on Link Building?” and also “Keyword Optimization Insight & Why It’s Important?”