Forums and blogs are a great way to post content rich articles that can benefit your site's traffic as well as build back links - which can boost your search engine positioning. What is the most effective way of utilising these methods of search engine optimisation?

Newsgroups and forums are a rich source of search-engine friendly content and can be a good addition to your search engine marketing programme. If you are using them, here are some things to think about.

• Check whether the blog, forum or newsgroup uses the "nofollow" tag on links. This tag originated because of people abusing newsgroups and forums in an attempt to generate search-engine-friendly links. If this tag is present on the site, then you won't get any search engine benefit.
• Always post with your URL in the "signature" of your posts - even if there is no search engine benefit, you may get traffic benefit and help boost your own personal image as an authority in your area of expertise.