.EDU Links

11 years ago

.edu links are powerful because they are harder to get than other links. However, having one isn't going to be the "magic button" that will get your sites to rank.

Instead of focusing on this I'd put my attention into writing great content and building connections with other people in your niche.

Best of luck!

Thanks
2 replies

Signature

I'm the host of a show at http://mikefrommaine.com

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7606184].message }}

timopalm 11 years ago

Thanks Mike - I believe I could probably get around 30-40 edu links without too much problem but I don't know of the impact.
Thanks for the advice - I almost bought a site from you last year!
TP
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7606196].message }}

JoshuaReen

11 years ago

Originally Posted by mikefrommaine

.edu links are powerful because they are harder to get than other links. However, having one isn't going to be the "magic button" that will get your sites to rank.

Instead of focusing on this I'd put my attention into writing great content and building connections with other people in your niche.

Best of luck!

I agree with you. This is the great way to increase visitors. I use the same way, and its easy way. I just create unique content and share with related niche people on social media websites and I get excellent traffic.

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7618280].message }}

Ryan Sterling 11 years ago

Remember, Google is a 260+ billion company. They have some pretty smart people working there. Unnatural link building will be the death of your site.

Ask yourself this, why would 1 site have 20 EDU backlinks within 1 week and no others.

I've tried taking shortcuts in SEO but it always leads to a dead end.

I always rank with good quality content, on page optimization and a few social bookmark backlinks. It's that simple.
- Thanks
Signature
Got Your IM Resource Guide Yet? It's FREE
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7618378].message }}

TheContentAuthority

11 years ago

Timopalm,

Getting your .edu links is great however they are no more powerful than their equivalent .com or .org or dot anything else counterparts.

Check out the video from Matt Cutts on the topic,

Follow @googlewmc on Twitter

Best,

Shawn

Thanks

Signature

Outsource to the experts...

We customize your Blog, eBook, Press Release and Sale Copy content with your message.

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7606485].message }}

steepan28

11 years ago

yes edu links best value links
Check this sample edu link

HTML Code:

http://leadingvoices.lipscomb.edu/membership/9166/

Thanks

Signature

super edu gov back links click here

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7606509].message }}

sanjayyadav

11 years ago

Try to put your website's link on a keyword of your website. Because it could be helpful to boost up website's visibility on a targeted keyword.

Thanks
1 reply

Signature

Computer Tech Support | Software Troubleshoot

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7606525].message }}

timopalm 11 years ago

ok so some say its more valuable and others not at all. Anyone else add their two cents?
- Thanks
- 2 replies
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7609351].message }}
- Andyhenry 11 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by timopalm
  
  ok so some say its more valuable and others not at all. Anyone else add their two cents?
  
  Yes - they are NOT!!!!!! more powerful.
  
  That is a myth.
  
  A few years ago - yes, they were not spammed and were worth having.
  
  Now - they've been abused like crazy by lazy link spammers and somehow people selling such links (which in reality is just link spammers with a tool to spam them in large numbers) have managed to trick many gullible newbies into thinking they are still special.
  
  This is not the case - Google have said this.
  
  Do Not listen to any one trying to sell you them - in fact, if someone says it - that should set off alarm bells for you that they don't know what they're talking about.
  
  [ 2 ] Thanks
  
  Signature
  
  nothing to see here.
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7609481].message }}
- SamDenial 11 years ago
  
  yes .edu links are good but you better build great and useful content so that people will love your content and will automatically link to you.
  
  Thanks
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7609498].message }}

webdesigndevelopment

11 years ago

Now a days, having links from .edu sites is not just enough. You should have a versatile backlink portfolio. So try to get as many quality backlinks as possible through various domains.

Thanks

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7609826].message }}

marketinguk

11 years ago

Dear me, what a load of terrible responses with the exception of Andy Henry's reply. I am sorry but the people posting here saying that they (.EDU's) are some magic silver bullet are seriously clueless. There is no special power to .EDU links over any other extension. The same with WIKI links which people here refer to have no magic power to them.

Just wait till Paulgl sees this thread.

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7610511].message }}

timopalm 11 years ago

Thanks all I had no idea I would start something so controversial! It appears that there is no clear evidence??
- Thanks
- 1 reply
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7610565].message }}
- Andyhenry 11 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by timopalm
  
  Thanks all I had no idea I would start something so controversial! It appears that there is no clear evidence??
  
  So even after everything you've read you still don't believe?
  
  The fact that some of us have tested this and are telling you - or that Matt Cutts (from Google) also said the same is not enough for you? Why? because some people who don't know what they're talking about are telling you different?
  
  Here's the short story on this: Don't believe anything anyone says - do your own testing and make your own decisions.
  
  If you want to save yourself some time - just ignore all the hype about .edu links, you will not get any special benefit from chasing them.
  
  [ 1 ] Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
  Signature
  
  nothing to see here.
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7610663].message }}
  
  timopalm 11 years ago
  
  ok great! No I was being totally impartial - hence the post.
  
  Thanks
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7610674].message }}

STLSEO

11 years ago

Links from .edu sites are very beneficial for SEO. They're authority sites.

Thanks
2 replies

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7610671].message }}

Andyhenry 11 years ago

Originally Posted by STLSEO

Links from .edu sites are very beneficial for SEO. They're authority sites.

WRONG!

Here we go again.
- Thanks
Signature

nothing to see here.
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7610756].message }}
MikeFriedman 11 years ago

Originally Posted by STLSEO

Links from .edu sites are very beneficial for SEO. They're authority sites.

No they are not. They carry no special ranking power. You are an SEO. You should know better.

Now if you can get one from the homepage of a big name university, yes, that would be an awesome link. So would a link from a big name company's .com website homepage.

The .edu links you can get without actually contacting a university directly and speaking to someone to arrange a link on a worthwhile page, are crap. They are no better than a brand new Web 2.0 site or a blog comment on a crap page.
- [ 2 ] Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7610761].message }}

gabibeowulf

11 years ago

Most of .edu links are spammed links in the comments and forum profiles. I believe these kind of links don't really add any SEO value to your linking profile, nor it will help you rank for anything.

That doesn't mean that there aren't .edu links that will weigh heavily if you obtain them. For instance if you can get a link in the recommended resources of a .edu website, or maybe you can convince professors that have an online profile recommend your website / articles. A lot tougher link to get is always the one who matters the most.

-Gabriel

Thanks
1 reply

Signature

Case Study: $200 A Day With Adsense And NO SEO - Click Here To Download The Reportl

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7610731].message }}

Andyhenry

11 years ago

Originally Posted by gabibeowulf

That doesn't mean that there aren't .edu links that will weigh heavily if you obtain them. For instance if you can get a link in the recommended resources of a .edu website, or maybe you can convince professors that have an online profile recommend your website / articles. A lot tougher link to get is always the one who matters the most.

-Gabriel

WRONG!

Listen to what you said - you know that .edu domains get spammed for links and that those are not given any special treatment because of it.

Then you say but if you get one from a site people can't spam then it will get special treatment?

That's wrong.

.EDU does not give you any special value - wherever it comes from.

The domain extension does NOT get special treatment and SEO weight.

However - ANY website that has high PR and traffic that gives you a valid and genuine link is worth having.

This thread is about if it being .edu means you get extra weight - that is already answered by Google - the answer is no.

The fact that it's a .edu and you can get your friend to give you a link on there is irrelevant - you don't get extra weight because of the domain. You just get whatever weight you would get the same as if the site was a personal blog in any niche.

[ 1 ] Thanks
1 reply

Signature

nothing to see here.

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7610771].message }}

gabibeowulf

11 years ago

I agree that the .edu extension does not add any value by itself, but edu domains usually have high pagerank and incredible domain authority.

Then you say but if you get one from a site people can't spam then it will get special treatment?

That's not what I said.

If you get links from inner pages that are already established and have page rank that helps quite a lot in terms of SEO. Getting a link from these kind of pages is very tough though as commercial sites are usually ignored.

-Gabriel

Originally Posted by Andyhenry

WRONG!

Listen to what you said - you know that .edu domains get spammed for links and that those are not given any special treatment because of it.

Then you say but if you get one from a site people can't spam then it will get special treatment?

That's wrong.

.EDU does not give you any special value - wherever it comes from.

The domain extension does NOT get special treatment and SEO weight.

However - ANY website that has high PR and traffic that gives you a valid and genuine link is worth having.

This thread is about if it being .edu means you get extra weight - that is already answered by Google - the answer is no.

The fact that it's a .edu and you can get your friend to give you a link on there is irrelevant - you don't get extra weight because of the domain. You just get whatever weight you would get the same as if the site was a personal blog in any niche.

Thanks
1 reply

Signature

Case Study: $200 A Day With Adsense And NO SEO - Click Here To Download The Reportl

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7611033].message }}

Andyhenry

11 years ago

Originally Posted by gabibeowulf

I agree that the .edu extension does not add any value by itself, but edu domains usually have high pagerank and incredible domain authority.

Then you say but if you get one from a site people can't spam then it will get special treatment?

That's not what I said.

If you get links from inner pages that are already established and have page rank that helps quite a lot in terms of SEO. Getting a link from these kind of pages is very tough though as commercial sites are usually ignored.

-Gabriel

Hi Gabriel,

You seem like a decent person and genuinely wanting to share your view and I suspect it's not too far from mine, however, having this discussion in a forum thread is not the same as a one-on-one chat where we can factor-in each others knowledge.

When I make these comments about this subject I make my statements more abrupt on purpose, not because I don't appreciate the nuances of the subject or that a decent high PR link is worth having, but because that stuff goes without saying - it's linking 101. The core element of this issue and the one I'm focusing my comments on is this constantly regurgitate lie that a .edu link is somehow given special treatment by Google. It's not. Many of us have tested it, Google has stated it. The problem is that many people don't know the difference between a good link that happens to be from a .edu site and a worthless link that comes from a .edu site (or one of the other domains people push as special) but is just a worthless link on a 2 year old post with 1000 other link spammers comments.

The only reason people still talking about this rather than the generic benefits of high PR pages/sites regardless of domain extension is........ drumroll - because there are tons of idiots with link spamming tools telling gullible noobies that they will get special treatment if they get a bunch of these links.

This is just common sense stuff but common sense goes lacking when people get fed BS about these things.

i think we're both on the same page - but I do not want to confuse people that don't understand this subject by trying to expound the instances where chasing .edu links might not be spammy.

[ 1 ] Thanks

Signature

nothing to see here.

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7619136].message }}

marketinguk

11 years ago

This thread is pretty scary with even some SEO guys getting this totally wrong. How many times will Andy and Mike need to reiterate the obvious before people here get the idea. 99% of .EDU domains are junk links no better or worse than many .com, .net domains etc.

Embarrassing!

Thanks
1 reply

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7610901].message }}

timopalm 11 years ago

Hi all, I notice some people getting pretty aggressive. Please note that I have NO knowledge of SEO so just asking the question.
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7610943].message }}

seobuzz

11 years ago

EDU links are good for your website when they are not coming from low quality sites. If you are able to get edu links from high authority site, I will suggest you to get them!!

Thanks

Signature

SecondIncomeBlog.com

Ideas and Techniques to Make Money Online

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7705576].message }}

AlmightyGreg

11 years ago

I think the whole EDU and GOV backlink is a bit of a myth in my opinion. There are many really low quality edu and Gov site that don't have neither pagerank nor any authority. The reason why some EDU AND GOV sites are ranked higher than "regular sites" is because they are reliable sources of information and other powerful websites tend to link back to them because they trust the information they contain.

Thanks

Signature

--AFFORDABLE, PROFESSIONAL SEO CONTENT[CLICK HERE]

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7705970].message }}

patco

11 years ago

.edu links are not so powerful these days... They were like a MAGIC before an year... Now, most of .edu blogs are spammed to death and other .edu links are almost impossible to get a backlink from. You could try them, but believe me -> If you are going to pay -> do NOT do it!

Thanks

Signature

A blog that will show you How to Lose Weight with a cool Quick Weight Loss guide...
Also enjoy some of my favorite Funny pictures and photos that will make you smile :)

{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[7706213].message }}

.EDU Links

Trending Topics

How did you turn it all around?

Any thoughts on golf's latest phenom...Scottie Scheffler??

What's the Best IM-Related Skill to Learn Today That Can Help in the Future?

Some interesting stats about brand comms

best high quality crypto traffic.