Why .edu backlinks are the best?

They're not.

The subject is hugely misunderstood.

Don't assume that .edu backlinks are necessarily going to be valuable "just because they're .edu backlinks".

That isn't how it works.

Domain-extensions have no bearing, in themselves, either on SEO or the value of backlinks. It's perfectly true, of course, that many .edu backlinks are very good backlinks to get, but correlation isn't causation, and it's not the fact that they're on .edu pages that, in itself, confers any "extra benefit" at all.

The point here is simply that many (by no means all!) .edu sites are also, at least to some extent, authority sites, and that's what makes their backlinks valuable ones.

Other .edu pages aren't "authority sites" at all.

I have a couple of .edu blogs, myself, but sadly their backlinks are worth no more than a backlink from any of my .com, .info or any other sites, and in fact usually worth quite a bit less, because some of my main .info/.com sites are now building up quite a bit of "authority" and some of their pages are building up some higher PR's, too.

So don't imagine that "being on a .edu site" necessarily makes a backlink better than any other sort of backlink. Sadly.

The analogy that always springs to mind, in this context, is the belief that having a "blog" rather than a "non-blog website" is going to confer extra SEO/backlink benefit "because Google loves blogs". Again, the logic here is pretty mistaken, and in the same way: it's the attribution of causation that's at fault. The reality, in this case, is simply that "Google loves regularly updated websites", and a lot of blogs do happen to be regularly updated websites. Again, correlation is not causation.

If you have a niche site about arthritis remedies, for example, a .edu backlink from a university's/med-school's rheumatology site is going to be potential gold-dust, while a student forum or blog which - like so many - is non-context-relevant and PR-0 will actually be no better at all than any other random non-context-relevant, PR-0 backlink such as an article directory.

Contrary to popular belief, it isn't the "being on a .edu site" aspect of it that gives any advantage.

Call me a skepchick, but if you ask people selling them, of course, you may hear a slightly different story.

Some people think that .Edu links are authority links because .Edu and .Org websites get extra page rank. This is no true. Getting links from .com websites is sometimes better than getting them from .Edu or .Org websites.

.edu backlinks are not the best. They are just the part of SEO game. Google treats .edu backlinks with respect and .edu site are the authority site.

EDU backlinks alone cannot rank your website high. You need other SEO stuff to do along with edu backlinks..

What Alexa said....

The whole 'best' thing is a crazy mindset and there is no one 'best' anything.

Links have value in many ways and the reason why people talk about .edu links as some of the best is largely...........




wait for it............




Because everyone is looking for the secret sauce that gets Googles attention.



and......



Lots of people sell links and link building and need some way to make you pay more than you would normally for them.

.edu sites tend to be privately administrated and therefore less open to public abuse, therefore some search engines consider them more reliable sources of information.

However - they don't get any special treatment as far as Page Rank etc. is concerned, and as Alexa rightly stated - it's a false mindset to think of them as special in their own right. There are LOTS of places to get good links that are not .edu or .gov etc. and letting people trick you into thinking that getting a few links from .edu sites by posting comments and profiles is all you need to do is naive and probably going to result in you getting disappointing results.

There is no fast-track to long lasting results.

You need to focus on your target audience and customers NOT on the links in and of themselves.

Many people get so wrapped up in chasing links that they forget to create a proper business and good sales channels and when they do get visitors they do a really bad job of monetising them and providing an experience that makes people want to keep spending.

You'll get much more return for your efforts if you focus on your customers and what they value rather than chasing irrelevant links in some desperate hope that they'll bring you the customers you want.

Andy

I haven't gone after .edu links but the info I read stated they get more google juice because not everybody can create a .edu website - only schools, colleges, etc.

The replies in this thread make me second guess that information. That's one more reason that I'm glad to spend time on this board.

EDU and GOV links are unique in not being available on the open market, institutions have to provide some sort of proof of entitlement to receive the names, Educational institutions were supposed to be above commercial corruption, and more trustworthy than other sites.
Student blogs sub-leased for every imaginable advertising purposed helped lead to a reduction of the Google trust factor for EDU sites. They still tend to provide morevalue but how much is debatable.

Edu backlinks are considered a authority sites by google.

But , you have to understand that , as it has been mentioned above , edu backlinks are not decisive , they are simply part of the whole game.