at what rate do you add .edu and .gov links?

[Li Weng]

Hi guys,

at what rate do you think it's safe to add edu and gov backlinks?

Let's say if you create a total of 300 "regular" links per week, are you safe to add 1 gov/edu link?

How about if you created 600 backlinks, would you then be safe to add 2?

What's your take on this?

[tomm]

TLDs don't make any difference. Whether it's .com or .edu or .gov, they are all the same SEO wise.

[Li Weng]

Originally Posted by tomm

TLDs don't make any difference. Whether it's .com or .edu or .gov, they are all the same SEO wise.

I have to disagree with you on this one. Google counts each backlink as a vote, and votes from different sites are weighed differently according to Google's criteria. Edu and Gov sites are deemed trusted authority sites and therefore backlinks from .edu and .gov have more link juice than regular links. This concept is what google had said themselves.

[KirkMcD]

From an interview with matt cutts:

Question: Is there PageRank boost from .edu or .gov links?

Google’s Answer: You don't get any PageRank boost from having an .edu link or .gov link automatically. If you get an .edu link and no one is linking to that .edu page, you're not going to get any PageRank at all because that .edu page doesn't have any PageRank.

Translation: If the .edu or .gov page is linked to, then yes, because that webpage now has some authority, just like with any (non-.gov or .edu) page.

[hibernate]

I was at a recent internet search conference and all the experts, including Aaron Wall, felt that .edu and .gov links are preferable to comparable .com or .net links.

[flashgordon]

I had a site that was ranking on page 4 of Google's SERPs for a keyword. I then got a single backlink from a .edu site (that has lots of links pointing to it). My site now ranks #1 for that keyword. Could have been simply a coincidence or the fact that .edu links ARE valued slightly higher.

As for the rate, I'll take any and all .edu and .gov links I can get. One of the best ways I've found to get them is to join a .edu hosted listserv and put the links in your sig.