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Links from .EDU .GOV and .COM are no Different

by Markets
11 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I notice a lot of places that people ask how to get .edu and .gov links, as well a lot of services offering these types of links.
I am wondering why people still ask for such things, for one it is way harder to get a relevant and helpful link from a .edu and .gov link, and it is the same as getting a .com, .org, .net, etc link, with everything else being equal.

Don't believe me? Why not take it from Google themselves.


/discuss
#gov #links
  • Profile picture of the author Ryan3
    Because Matt is definitely the best source of information.....
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    • Profile picture of the author Markets
      Originally Posted by Ryan3 View Post

      Because Matt is definitely the best source of information.....
      Why wouldn't a Google developer know how they rank, and some other SEO 'guru' does?

      So please link up a more reliable source, or maybe something that goes against what he is saying..
      I want to hear both sides, as I said /discuss :p
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      • Profile picture of the author savidge4
        Originally Posted by Markets View Post

        Why wouldn't a Google developer know how they rank, and some other SEO 'guru' does?

        So please link up a more reliable source, or maybe something that goes against what he is saying..
        I want to hear both sides, as I said /discuss :p
        First and for most.. you need to REALLY listen to what he says about facebook links. He doesn't say any link from facebook he specifically points out numerous times PROFILE links. Goes so far to discuss how if they are private Google cant see them.

        .EDU and .GOV sites have this tendency to be well back linked. I would consider these types of sites to be right in there with PBN type structure, except on a far greater level. Look at your basic American elementary school. They are linked at a city level, a county level, a state level and then nationally. ALL from .edu and .gov sites. forget all of the other linking, just that linking alone is enough to ooze juice from its seams.

        Throw in the fact almost all of the pages and sites are aged, and we are not talking a year or 2. in many cases we are talking 15+ years.

        THAT is the value and focus on these types of links.
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        • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
          Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

          .EDU and .GOV sites have this tendency to be well back linked. I would consider these types of sites to be right in there with PBN type structure, except on a far greater level. Look at your basic American elementary school. They are linked at a city level, a county level, a state level and then nationally. ALL from .edu and .gov sites. forget all of the other linking, just that linking alone is enough to ooze juice from its seams.
          What matters is the page that your link appears on. People believe that ANY link from a EDU or GOV site is good just because they are EDU and GOV sites, and that is not true. Everything else being equal, they are no different than a link from a .com, .net, .org, or .bs site.

          When you see people selling EDU links, for example, they are usually selling blog comments on some worthless student blog on the site. Or they even bought access to a student blog and are posting articles. Those links are about as valuable as the same kind of links on a brand new Blogger or Tumblr blog.

          Now if you get a link on a relevant page that is not user created content on a EDU or GOV site, sure that would be great. Get Medicare.gov to link to your insurance website from one of its top pages and you would be golden. But when people discuss EDU links and GOV links that is rarely the kind of link they are talking about.

          They are talking about the same junk you create on any other site, and those links do not have special ranking power because they are on a EDU or GOV site.
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          • Profile picture of the author savidge4
            Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post

            What matters is the page that your link appears on. People believe that ANY link from a EDU or GOV site is good just because they are EDU and GOV sites, and that is not true. Everything else being equal, they are no different than a link from a .com, .net, .org, or .bs site.

            not arguing that they are any different just pointing out that there IS a tendency for there to be a bit more ability in the links due to the nature of the back linking associated with such sites. Not even saying that this is always the case. and as you pointed out junk is junk regardless of the extension.
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      • Profile picture of the author kk075
        Originally Posted by Markets View Post

        I want to hear both sides, as I said /discuss :p
        Okay, so lets hear both sides...and we can use your video to do it. First off, did you notice how the video said, "New social sites like Facebook and Twitter?" That was a major indication that this video is years old. And by SEO standards...that's literally decades. When this video launched you could still spam backlinks to your heart's content and do a lot more that has zero positive effect today.

        Additionally, didn't say that all links were equal...he said they all started out as equal and that their total value was based on PageRank. Here's your other problem though...pagerank is officially dead and it's not a factor anymore. So you're asking us to make an argument based on two complete false statements, but ignoring the most important thing Matt said- sites with more value give better backlinks.

        And in general, a .gov or .edu site will be more authoritative than most .com's...so people go for the .gov links. That doesn't mean that there aren't great links available in other extensions, but in many cases it is easier to get a few solid .gov links than it is to get listed on a super authoritative .com.

        Again though, Matt said the same thing in his video from 3+ years ago...you just missed it entirely.
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        • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
          Originally Posted by kk075 View Post

          Here's your other problem though...pagerank is officially dead and it's not a factor anymore.
          PageRank is not dead. It is definitely a factor in determining the strength of a backlink. Google never stopped using it. They just made the decision to stop giving us the data on what PR a page has.

          Originally Posted by kk075 View Post

          And in general, a .gov or .edu site will be more authoritative than most .com's...so people go for the .gov links. That doesn't mean that there aren't great links available in other extensions, but in many cases it is easier to get a few solid .gov links than it is to get listed on a super authoritative .com.
          Just because there is a .edu on the end of a page does not make the links stronger. If it did, all those scam artists selling EDU links would not be selling them for $10-50. They would be selling them for a lot more than that. Actually, they probably would not be selling them at all. They would keep building them for themselves to rank their own stuff with the magical powers of EDU links.

          They are not though. They are taking advantage of people who believe that the TLD of a page makes its links better.
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      • Profile picture of the author Ryan3
        Originally Posted by Markets View Post

        Why wouldn't a Google developer know how they rank, and some other SEO 'guru' does?

        So please link up a more reliable source, or maybe something that goes against what he is saying..
        I want to hear both sides, as I said /discuss :p
        For gods sake there telling seo's not to build links. Is that really suppose to help you rank?
        Google: Try To Avoid Link Building Because It Can Do More Harm Than Good

        The point isnt that edu links are more powerful, its just that most of the time there well aged and usually have quite a few backlinks of their own.
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  • Profile picture of the author johnben1444
    Domain extension is NOTHING.

    I would rather take one quality .com than a hundred .edu or .gov.

    People are so inexperience that they are lost in the world of SEO.
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  • Profile picture of the author SEO Power
    The short and simple truth: PA 50 links from edu, gov, and com domains are all equal to each other. Google used to attribute more authority and trust to edu and gov links in the past. Now, they don't do that anymore.
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    • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
      Originally Posted by SEO Power View Post

      Google used to attribute more authority and trust to edu and gov links in the past.
      No they did not. That was always a myth.
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