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Gov Backlink Question

by jasonsluck
6 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hey everyone,
I am building backlinks for a client. We were discussing price and the question came up on the value of a backlink on a .GOV "resource / link page", like this one "http://www.utahbar.org/members" basically the client is telling me these pages are not worth much because they are a link page only for getting links.

I totally disagree and think getting a link on a high authority gov resource page would be highly valuable. Obviously most gov sites like the one in the example above will have 0 spam links. I need some hard facts, expert quotes etc to prove my point. Any and all help on this matter is appreciated. Thanks.
#backlink #gov #question
  • Profile picture of the author jamesrich1
    Originally Posted by jasonsluck View Post

    Hey everyone,
    I am building backlinks for a client. We were discussing price and the question came up on the value of a backlink on a .GOV "resource / link page", like this one "http://www.utahbar.org/members" basically the client is telling me these pages are not worth much because they are a link page only for getting links.

    I totally disagree and think getting a link on a high authority gov resource page would be highly valuable. Obviously most gov sites like the one in the example above will have 0 spam links. I need some hard facts, expert quotes etc to prove my point. Any and all help on this matter is appreciated. Thanks.
    Well the customer is always right, lol. Answer this with a story as proof... Why is getting a link on a high authority gov resource page highly valuable?

    In school we rarely remember facts but we remember stories. In copywriting stories are told to create memories with principles inside. With you being the provider this is your area of expertise, right?
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  • Profile picture of the author TheContentAuthority
    Jason,

    While you may be hard pressed to find actual academic sources on the value of .gov and .edu links, they do provide some valuable SEO signals because of the restrictions surrounding their ability to be registered. You have in your example a .org which can be purchased by anyone and these are of no more value than any other TLD that can be purchased by anyone.

    The .gov TLD however is unique in that the U.S. government is the only country to have a government specific TLD and Google uses usa.gov as a hub page in its algorithm.

    The best I can provide you are links to the Wikipedia info,

    PageRank - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    .gov - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    That sounds great right? Not so fast Jason. I hate to burst your bubble but it appears that (at least for Google), .gov and .edu links don’t carry any more authority than a .com or a .org or a dot whatever. Watch the video in Matt Cutt’s blog post below. You will hear it right from the horse’s mouth. There is nothing special about .gov’s and .edu’s (all else being equal in terms of pagerank).


    Follow @googlewmc on Twitter


    So your client is not right about .govs being spammy link havens because there are some pretty tight restrictions on obtaining one. There is however, nothing that is special about them.

    Hope that helps,

    Shawn
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by jasonsluck View Post

    I totally disagree and think getting a link on a high authority gov resource page would be highly valuable.
    You're in the SEO business, building backlinks for clients, and you imagine that the domain extension of the site on which the link is placed affects the linkjuice value of the backlink? Surely not??? :confused:

    This is an urban myth, Jason.

    Your client is completely right.

    It's explained in a lot more detail here (and in many other threads - the reference in this one - which is all I can find at short notice - mentions ".edu" domains but the principle is exactly the same): http://www.warriorforum.com/adsense-...ml#post5994962
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  • Profile picture of the author kaytav
    You will have to convince the Client that what you are doing will benefit the client. This is how business is done. Clients have the least idea and just wants their business to build up. It is upto us to make the client understand what is best for their site.
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  • Profile picture of the author dalegolden
    .edu and .gov backlinks plays a very big role to boost a site's search engine ranking. It is a fact and approved by a lot of expert internet marketers.
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