Forum backlinks: what forums' own rules say about posting a link

Forum backlinks are links to your site from forum threads, question-and-answer replies and member profiles. Each forum sets its own rules on who can post a link and why, and the forum's software decides which attribute the link carries.

This page covers what counts as a forum backlink, what four platforms' own rules say about posting a link, how one forum platform sets nofollow and when it lifts it, how to earn forum links, how to measure them and what a search for a forum link building service returns.

What are forum backlinks?

A forum backlink is a link from a forum-style site to your website, placed by a member. It can sit in a reply to a thread, in an answer to a question or in a profile field. The link lives on the forum's own pages, where other members can see it.

Reddit, Quora, Stack Overflow, the WordPress.org support forums and the community forums that run on Discourse, a forum software platform, are examples of the format, not a target list.

Because a member adds the link, two things decide what happens to it. The first is the forum's rules on links and self-promotion, covered in the next section. The second is the forum's software, which sets the attribute the link carries, covered in the section after.

Forum backlinks are one of several types of backlinks a site can pick up. Links on social platforms are covered in our guide to social media link building.

What forums' own rules say about posting a link

Four platforms publish their own rules on links and self-promotion, and the four do not match. Each rule below is that platform's own, in its own words, read in October 2026.

Stack Overflow

Stack Overflow is a question-and-answer site with its own help centre. Stack Overflow's help page on promotion sets the condition for mentioning your own product or website:

Post good, relevant answers, and if some (but not all) happen to be about your product or website, that’s okay. However, if you mention your product, website, etc. in your question or answer (or any other contribution to the site), you must disclose your affiliation in your post.

The same page explains what a link is for in an answer:

Don't include links except to support what you've written. Links are not a substitute for including information in your answer itself, and the links you include should always be directly relevant to a part of your answer.

So on Stack Overflow a link to your own site can appear, but the answer around it has to carry the substance, and your connection to the page has to be stated in the post.

Quora

Quora is a question-and-answer platform. Quora's question and answer policies state:

Self-promotional links or self-promotion that does not form a part of a direct and helpful response to the question is not allowed.

A user should disclose any relevant affiliations explicitly in an answer or in the credential that appears with the answer. Affiliate links are not allowed.

The policies also describe the answer from the reader's side:

The gist of the answer should be able to be understood without having to leave Quora to access an external website.

On Quora a link can support a direct and helpful answer, but the link cannot be the answer.

Reddit

Reddit is a network of communities, and its help centre says:

If your contributions to Reddit consist primarily of links to a business that you run, own, or otherwise benefit from, please be thoughtful about the frequency of posting, or consider advertising opportunities using our self-serve platform.

The sentence is about frequency: if your posts are mainly links to a business you run, Reddit asks you to think about how frequently you post them, or to look at advertising instead. The same help page tells you to check whether the community you want to post in has rules of its own as well. It adds that each community's moderators decide what counts as unwanted content there. Read those rules before you post.

WordPress.org support forums

The WordPress.org support forums are where WordPress users and developers ask for help with plugins and themes. The forum guidelines, the body of which was last updated on 25 July 2024, state:

The forums are not a venue to promote your own (or others’) plugins, themes, websites or services.

The guidelines list the only public links permitted in plugin and theme support topics, such as the plugin or theme author's own website or support site and WordPress.org itself.

Two of these pages, Stack Overflow's and Quora's, share three ideas, each in that platform's wording. The answer has to stand without the link. The link has to support the answer. And you say who you are when the link is to your own site. One of the four, the WordPress.org support forums, does not take promotion at all. The first step with any forum is to read its rules page.

Nofollow, UGC and dofollow forum links

The attribute on a forum link is set by the forum's software and its administrators, not by the member who posts. Two rel values a forum link can carry are nofollow and ugc.

Discourse, the forum software platform, adds nofollow to members' links by default. The text of its setting reads:

Add rel nofollow to all submitted user content, except for internal links (including parent domains).

On a Discourse forum running that default, a link a member submits carries the nofollow attribute, and the forum's internal links are excepted.

Discourse lifts the default by trust level. Discourse's post on trust levels, first published in June 2018 and updated in December 2025, lists what members at trust level 3 gain. One item on the list is: "Have all their links followed (we remove automatic nofollow)".

New members face tighter limits. Among the things a trust level 0 member cannot do is: "Post more than 2 hyperlinks in a post".

Administrators of a Discourse forum can change these settings, so one Discourse forum can differ from the next.

The Stack Overflow, Quora, Reddit and WordPress.org pages quoted earlier do not state which attribute their links carry. To check a link on any forum yourself:

1. Open a thread that has a member's link in it.
2. Right-click the link and choose Inspect.
3. Read the rel value on the link.

The value you see is the one that forum's software has added. For what each value means, our guide to dofollow and nofollow explains the attributes in detail.

Forum threads in search results

Forum threads appear in search results in their own right, and an analysis published by Ahrefs on 27 August 2026 measured their presence in Google results. Ahrefs wrote:

Our recent analysis of 145M US Google search results found the 'Discussions and forums' feature present in 16.93M (11.7%) of them.

The 11.7% is the share of the Google results in that sample that showed the feature. Inside the feature, Reddit was the top domain: it showed up in 87.8% of the results pages that carried the feature, with an average of 1.29 link appearances. Ahrefs notes that the feature can include several sites, and more than one link from the same site.

For a forum link, this means the thread your answer sits in can itself be a page that searchers land on. The people who read your answer are then not only the forum's members.

How to earn forum backlinks

You earn a forum backlink by taking part in a forum as a member and linking only where the link helps the reader. The five steps below rest on the rules of Stack Overflow, Quora, Reddit and the WordPress.org support forums, and on Discourse's settings.

1. Find the threads your customers already read. Search the forum for the problems your product or guide solves, and note where those questions are asked.
2. Read the forum's rules page before your first post. Stack Overflow, Quora, Reddit and the WordPress.org support forums each set different rules, so the rules page is where to start.
3. Write the answer so it stands without the link. Quora's and Stack Overflow's pages both ask for this: the reader should get the full answer in the reply itself. If the link were removed, the reply should still answer the question.
4. Add a link only where it supports a point in the answer, and say so if the page is yours. Stack Overflow and Quora both ask for disclosure when you link to your own site, and a sentence naming your connection to the page meets that ask.
5. Keep answering where no link is needed. On a Discourse forum, the limits on links ease as a member's trust level rises, so a history of answers comes before links.

How to measure forum links

A forum link is measured in two places: in your analytics, where the visits it sends are recorded, and on the forum itself, where the link and the thread can be checked.

In Google Analytics, a visit that arrives through a link on another site is grouped under the Referral channel. A visit from a site on Google Analytics' own list of social sites is grouped under Organic Social instead. Either way, the traffic acquisition report shows the source, so each forum appears by name. To tell one thread from another, add UTM campaign parameters to the URL you post. The utm_source parameter carries the name of the referrer, and the parameters you add appear in the traffic acquisition report, so visits from one thread can be told apart from visits from another.

Keep a short log, one row per thread: the forum, the thread, the date and the URL you linked to. The log ties each visit in the report back to a specific answer on a specific forum. When a thread sends visits months later, the log shows which answer earned them.

After one of our own placements is published, we check that the page is live, that the link is in the body copy, that the anchor and target URL match the order and that the page is indexable. Only then is the URL reported to the dashboard as part of our quality assurance process. You can run the same kind of check on a forum link before you count it: is the thread live, is the answer still visible, does the link still point at the right page.

To see which forums link to sites in your field, checking a competitor's backlinks shows the forum domains that appear in a competitor's profile.

Forum link building services

When we searched for "forum link building service" on 3 October 2026, all ten results were sellers' own service pages. Where a result showed a price, it was set per link, per campaign or per package of links.

We do not offer a forum link service. Our Curated Links are links added to articles that are already published, and our Guest Posts are new articles of 750 words or more, each on a real, independently owned website in your niche. A forum link is something you place yourself, as a member, under that forum's rules.

Frequently asked questions

What are forum backlinks?

Forum backlinks are links to your site from forum threads, question-and-answer replies and member profiles. A member places them under the forum's rules, and the forum's software sets the attribute each link carries.

Are forum backlinks good for SEO?

A forum link puts your page in front of the people reading that thread, and forum threads appear in search results. Ahrefs found the discussions and forums feature in 11.7% of 145M US Google results in an analysis published on 27 August 2026.

Are forum backlinks usually nofollow?

It depends on the forum's software and its settings. Discourse adds nofollow to members' links by default and removes it for members at trust level 3. For any other forum, inspect a link in a thread and read its rel value.

How do I get backlinks from a forum?

Read the forum's rules page before your first post. Answer questions in full so each reply stands on its own, add a link only where it supports the answer, and say so when the page you link to is yours.

Can I put a link in my forum profile?

It depends on the forum. On Discourse, a member at trust level 0 cannot have working links in the about me field of their profile, and those links show as plain text until the member moves up a trust level. For any other forum, read its rules page before you add a link to your profile.

What are forum website examples?

Reddit, Quora, Stack Overflow, the WordPress.org support forums and community forums that run on Discourse are examples of the format. Each sets its own rules on links, so treat the list as examples, not as targets.

What is the difference between forum backlinks and social media backlinks?

A forum backlink sits in a threaded discussion or an answer to a question. A social media backlink sits in a post or a profile on a social platform such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X or YouTube.