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Backlinks from .Edu, .Gov sites are NOT superior links!

by intelinside
13 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I have read quite a few times that backlinks from .edu, .gov sites carry more weight as compared to other sites. But according to Matt Cutts, this is NOT true.

"At least in our web search (our organic rankings), we treat links the same from Twitter or Facebook or, you know, pick your favorite platform or website, just like we'd treat links from Wordpress or .edus or.govs or anything like that," says Cutts. "It's not like a link from an .edu automatically carries more weight or a link from a .gov automatically carries more weight. But, the specific platforms might have issues, whether it's not being crawled or it might be nofollow. It would keep those particular links from flowing pagerank."

So that means we should also treat links from .edu, .gov sites as we do from other sites. Right?
#backlinks #gov #links #superior
  • Profile picture of the author HCLee
    I would say yes and no. No it does not carry more weight just because they are edu or gov links and Matt rightly put it across quite matter of factly. Yes because I still have high regards for edu and gov backlinks because they receive a lot of natural links because other sites like to link to them and point to them. So they become a real trusted sight in Google's eyes in the long run. So it's still good to link to them and they are a lot better than most other sites.
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    • Profile picture of the author Marekso
      Originally Posted by HCLee View Post

      I would say yes and no. No it does not carry more weight just because they are edu or gov links and Matt rightly put it across quite matter of factly. Yes because I still have high regards for edu and gov backlinks because they receive a lot of natural links because other sites like to link to them and point to them. So they become a real trusted sight in Google's eyes in the long run. So it's still good to link to them and they are a lot better than most other sites.
      Well yeah what HCLee said, they aren't better on their own anymore but the fact that they are and edu make them more likely to be linked to so they are seemingly better, but by how much that's another question.
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  • Profile picture of the author MusicisMagic
    If you study the stats from high keyword ranking results, you will almost invariably see the higher serps have links to higher PR pages. But then again I think the statement made is just being careful not to make things too black and white or rather to make a hard and fast rule.
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  • Profile picture of the author rockstar99
    The reason people say they are "Better" or "more powerful" is really because often times these .gov and .edu sites have a lot of high quality pages linking to them. Basically they have a higher Page Rank which gives you ultimately more juice.

    So yea, a .com that has a PR of 5 beats an .edu that has a PR of 3. Does that answer your question?
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    • Profile picture of the author intelinside
      Originally Posted by rockstar99 View Post

      So yea, a .com that has a PR of 5 beats an .edu that has a PR of 3. Does that answer your question?
      Yes, I agree with you. I think we should only do the basics right like good, fresh content with good decent links from authority sites but when I see a site with 10,000 spammy backlinks at #1, this really puts me off
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  • Profile picture of the author Davioli
    Its so boring to see the same debate over and over again. I sometimes feel SEO is so easy..it is people that make it complicated.
    What Rockstar99 said above is exactly what I have said in the past.. and will continue to say.
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  • Profile picture of the author Daniel Harken
    Davioli I couldn't agree more. I wasted so much time trying to figure out everything about it, and devouring every bit of information and getting on every SEO-related mailing list. Now, I've come to realize that there's nothing hard about offpage SEO other than trying to figure out how fast to backlink. I really wish I could find a table or something with some guidelines instead of just trying to guesstimate.
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  • Profile picture of the author turbohips
    They are more powerful links because they don't share as much link juice as most forum or blog sites. Common .com forum site have tons of spammers and users linking tons of links in which the link juice gets divided up. Most .edu and .gov site do not have as many link spammers and therefore you end up with more of the link juice. This is basic stuff people.
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  • Profile picture of the author lior1970
    .gov or .edu page with poor content worth less than a .biz page with high quality content that links to your site.
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  • Profile picture of the author intelinside
    Guess what...The University of North Dakota (www.ucard.und.edu/) is coming at no. 18 for keyword 'buy viagra'. Spammers have really abused .edu sites especially the viagra spammers.

    But, this indicates that .edu sites do carry some weight
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    • Profile picture of the author FredJones
      I agree with what many said and I agree with the title. No extension such as .com or .edu or .blafoo can make a site more powerful. It is just the PR.

      The reason that .edu and .gov are seen as powerful is that they tend to already have high PR due to others naturally linking to them, and they would continue to have high PR for the same reason. Also these are the domains that are not going to be deleted easily. So in the longer run having a .gov and .edu link is valuable - exactly as valuable as any .blafoo domain with the same PR if you could guarantee that it is going to receive comparative number of same-quality links over time and the .blafoo domain is going to last long.

      That is all there is to it.
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  • Profile picture of the author dbadwal
    As per my experience of backlinking: my .edu links comes on 3rd, 4th and 7th place of the first page of google. I am not sure if thats because of the nature of the domain, I mean .edu site or because of high PR 6 & 7 sites, although page rank of that particular page is zero. But if .edu have same effect as that of a normal site, then why some of the most reputed SEO softwares like Market Samurai have the special columns for .edu & .Gov sites. And sometimes whatever Matt Cutts says is not all true. You can understand the impact of his affirmation that .edu or .gov sites carry more wheitage. Hope to have a nice big discussion on this topic as its heart of SEO tactics.
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    • Profile picture of the author James Ross
      I think there is no difference with the exception that .edu/.gov will be stronger as they will attract more backlinks.
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