Can (DOT)com beat out a (DOT)edu for #1?

[revjoe]

I am looking to rank a site that would be competing with a lot of (DOT)edu websites in them, my domain would end in (DOT)com. Most of the sites are colleges since my subject deals with education. Please let me know what you think of this issue, since I have not even started to work on ranking this site yet. Thanks.

[quarkinc]

Originally Posted by revjoe

I am looking to rank a site that would be competing with a lot of (DOT)edu websites in them, my domain would end in (DOT)com. Most of the sites are colleges since my subject deals with education. Please let me know what you think of this issue, since I have not even started to work on ranking this site yet. Thanks.

If your dot com can get some backlinks from .edu you will surely rank higher

[bnetwork]

Of course you can outrank them... No one can tell you more without knowing what keyword/phrase you're competing for.

Okay a few things to consider:

1. Edu sites rank good because they have loads of incoming links. Not because they are edu sites.
2. If you're competing for edu keywords... well, those edu sites are likely to be more relevant when it comes to those keywords.

[revjoe]

Originally Posted by quarkinc

If your dot com can get some backlinks from .edu you will surely rank higher

Thank you that is what I was thinking.

[visimedia]

surely you can, no worry about it... I've seen it quite a few , com outrank edu.. just build quality backlinks

[bnetwork]

Originally Posted by quarkinc

If your dot com can get some backlinks from .edu you will surely rank higher

Originally Posted by revjoe

Thank you that is what I was thinking.

EDU backlinks are no different from any other type of backlink. Get links from pages with strong backlink profiles - that's all that matters.

[RimaNaj2011]

I beat an .edu page (Harvard) that was over 10 years old. It's possible.

[Joseph G Spiteri]

You can outrank .edu easily enough with .com and .org it all depends how well
your on page seo is how much content you have and of course the backlinks to your site.

[Michael Curran Smith]

TLD's don't matter, unless you're flipping.

[timbarker]

Everything is possible. As long as you give enough effort. Build campaign plan, implement it and achieve your goals.

[packerfan]

Why do people just make general statements. There's no way to answer your question with the information given.

If you're trying to outrank "how to get into harvard" and harvard .edu/admissions ranks #1, then good luck.

Sure in some cases they can be outranked. But it's quite likely they have very high PR, tons of real links, and a ton of domain authority. So it's not like it's easy.

It's like trying to outrank wikipedia that's a PR7 page. People say it's easy. Flat out wrong, period.

[danlew]

I think its really possible, as long you build backlinks with your .COM domain with .EDU or .GOV links, which they are considered as high authority links by Google.

[gundammeister]

You have to determine the level of competition in order to determine where or not the .com can be the .org. Yes it can in some cases, but it varies depending on the strength of the website that you are dealing with.

[oldvintageguy]

Does anyone know if .edu's have as much "weight" as they did 2 or 3 years ago?

[paulgl]

.edu's have no special weight. Just a myth. People fall all
over this one because they think they see many .edu's with
authority. Well, sorry to say there are a zillion more dot
coms out there, and I guarantee there are more dot coms
with more weight than there will ever be .edu's.

This myth goes on because people think that if they see
a lot of .edu's with weight, they must all have weight.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

It's like saying that being Canadian means you will have special
powers to begin playing hockey. Just because a good lot of
great hockey players come from Canada, does not mean all
people from Canada have any great ability to play hockey.

The question cannot be answered now, or for any site.

Like stated above, why people cargo on nonsense with
answers like, sure, you bet, just do seo, etc. Crazy.

We know nothing about you, your ability, your websites,
your history, your competition's history, your content,
your content's uniqueness, your site's make-up,
internal link structure...nothing. Zip. Zilch.

So to say, sure you can beat em, would be just crazy.

I don't know why people ask this question over and over.

So many people think it's just easy to beat sites.

The last intangible in this is that there are sites google loves
and NOBODY is going to unseat it. We have no idea if this
is the case here either!

Paul

[oldvintageguy]

Originally Posted by paulgl

It's like saying that being Canadian means you will have special
powers to begin playing hockey.

LOL Actually, your post makes me feel a lot better. I sometimes find myself wracking my brain trying to figure out how I can get .edu links but then I tell myself that maybe it doesn't matter as much as I thought it does.

[bnetwork]

Originally Posted by paulgl

.edu's have no special weight. Just a myth. People fall all
over this one because they think they see many .edu's with
authority. Well, sorry to say there are a zillion more dot
coms out there, and I guarantee there are more dot coms
with more weight than there will ever be .edu's.

Exactly what I've been saying all along in this thread, lulz. Hey how come when new members talk no one listens? It's a funny forum phenomenon I have to say!

So yeah exactly what Paul said.

This whole "get more EDU backlinks" BS needs to end. Get more high quality links, be those EDU or not it doesn't matter, as long as the source has a strong backlink profile.

[pbbiet]

I think you can for them. They will rank well until you have relevant and unique content. I you just copy the content or provide anything non relevant you will get hurt in ranking due LSI technique of Google.

[revjoe]

Great conversation and very healthy in the Internet Marketing world.
Anyone know of any more IM myths?

[packerfan]

Originally Posted by revjoe

Great conversation and very healthy in the Internet Marketing world.
Anyone know of any more IM myths?

Basically take everything you read in here and do the opposite. If you took that advice, you'd be 95% ahead of the competition.

Here's what all it takes...

1. Great keyword research to find terms that YOU are capable of ranking for
2. Great site structure
3. Content your VISITORS deem to be high quality
4. Back links - Submit a real press release, do manual blog commenting, maybe use a blog service, etc. (this is where it's more art than science, or at least to us because we don't know the exact science).
5. Capture the emails of your visitors so you can turn them into repeat visitors.

Learn to do those things and you will be successful.

If you want to be a "big boy" you need to either hire great copywriters or become one yourself. You are always selling, it may be just selling someone on the idea of coming back to your site, or it might be actually selling them a product. That's why copywriting is so important.

I suppose if you want to become a "guru" you need a giant list, and a bunch of JV kinda stuff.

But anyway, there you go.

[synergyxtr]

We were able to outrank a local .edu before. What we learned is that if the .edu does not have proper seo and low number of links. It is possible to outrank them.

[RECarolina]

I'm ranking above a few EDU and GOV sites with a PR1 wordpress(dot)com blog, but I had to write about 1200 words, use a lot of <h2> tags, and keyword density.

[TourPlanet]

dear you have to do a lot of work to compete dot edu domain. here is a site i've seen ilmkidunya dot com which is also competing all the dot edu sites of pakistan very well.
so if you wanted to do the same you have to follow them... they are doing very well

[Dexter AJ]

Edu is better than Dot Com but you can always beat Edu with a Dot Com. It all depends on the proper keyword, backlinks and content. Edu are more respected because they are mostly owned by some educational institute or gvt education sector, but that dosent mean you cant own one.

[sadek]

It's all about Backlink.
though .edu sites get some additional benefit in Google but if your .com has more quality backlink than competing .edu site then it's definitely possible.

[thatkeywordguy]

A more interesting question is, can an EDU beat a COM.

I think it would be a little tougher, given that EDU content is often quite academic and not particularly digestible for the masses.

But that's just a theory...

[Praney Behl]

It has been done before and can be done again and I do it every now and then for clients

[McCoy]

I think if it's in education category better use dot edu.. well I don't know what's cheaper..

[revjoe]

My field is in education but am not registered school or institution. Its alright I am going to give it a shot and will give an update on how I did. There is enough here on this forum I believe to cut through the just and hit page one with the best of them. It's all a matter of time.