Links for edu and gov sites
-
So it is general knowledge that links from .edu and .gov sites are valued higher by Google.
So, I hired some guys on freelance sites to help me buildlinks and get some love from SERPS.
But one thing I notice quite often is that some of these links are actually like *.edu.tw (with a international TLD after .edu)
What is your thoughts on links like that, do they have ANY edu value?
-
I'm afraid I have to generally agree with Dejan SEO. First off, the evidence that .edu and .gov links are really valued higher (at least over the last couple of years) is limited at best. SEOmoz did a correlation analysis in 2010 that suggested .gov links only slightly outperformed .com, and .edu under-performed .com -
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/google-vs-bing-correlation-analysis-of-ranking-elements
Part of that may be due to the fact that higher education sites have been relentlessly spammed. It's just too easy to set up a profile on a deep page and get a cheap .edu link. That's the core problem, too. In general, a .gov or .edu site may have more trust or authority than the average .com (although I can't even prove that). That doesn't mean, though, that EVERY link on a .edu is worth more than EVERY link on a .com. That's a gross oversimplification that ignores the dozens of factors that define a link's value. See Rand's post here:
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/10-illustrations-on-search-engines-valuation-of-links
If you have a deep link on a .edu site on a page with no inbound links that links out to 400 sites, all of which are irrelevant and spammy, that link will be crap. It doesn't matter that it's on a .edu. That page may not even be indexed. Chasing .edu or .gov links ignores a lot of other factors.
Is suspect the international links are treated much like their .com equivalents. If your site operates in the US and is in English, and you get a .edu.tw (or .com.tw) link from a Taiwanese site written in Mandarin Chinese, that link is going to be low-value in the vast majority of cases.
-
Sorry this gets me upset. What a load of bull*#& about .edu links. The only thing that's resulted from this myth is increased rate of spam on educational institutions around the world. I wish people would stop doing this.
Yes .edu domains tend to have good trust from search engines, but that doesn't mean that if you create an empty profile and whack in your link Google will factor this into their link graph, especially if you use duplicate or no content at all. Same goes for forum/comment spam.
To get great value from .edu domains (like with anything else) you would have to have a nice editorial link connected to another page or home page, pagerank and not 1000 outgoing links to viagra and payday loans. To get these types of links you would need to earn them through contribution, engagement or become some type of sponsor. Either way it isn't simple, quick or cheap.
If you base your link building on tactics like the one you describe above you're giving Google search quality team something to penalise you for if they get to review your website at some point in the future.
-
My instinct says that (if you are .com) they would be far less useful because they are not from your country - unless you really are targeting international search which I have no experience in. Of course if your TLD matches, you're golden..
-
If you think logical like google thinks yes it have. Because is is still edu site but is just local.I think if you will like to rank good in one country you should purchase edu links from local sites.Maybe this kind of links will rank you in taiwan and not global.I didnt try it to tell you for shure.I hope that helps.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How do I get rid of sites that backlink with lots of irrelevant or spammy links to our website?
This site http://herwigphoto.com/bs/ and other like it have thousands of similar links containing the word adidas We are not in the sports shoes business, therefore the links are irrelevant and many and can hurt our rankings, correct? | Page Title/URL of Linking Page | Link Anchor Text | Page Authority | Domain Authority |
Link Building | | Madlena
| Christopher Herwig Photographer » Soviet Bus Stopshttp://herwigphoto.com/bs/ | adidas Yeezy Boost 750 Grey For Sale | 48 | 47 | Below are some links to our geographics.com website that have URLs that are not ours. They will redirect to our homepage. How do we remove these links and how do we deal with the websites that send such links to us? There are thousands of inbound links to our website with anchor text containing irrelevant keywords such as these: yeezy-750-boost-light-grey-cheap or adidas-yeezy-boost-750-light-grey-sale; pirate black sale, etc Page Title/URL of Linking Page Page Authority LRDs Total External Links HTTP Status http://www.geographics.com/new/yeezy-750-boost-light-grey-cheap.html 46 120 1800 -- http://www.geographics.com/new/yeezy-350-pirate-black-sale.html 44 106 1829 -- http://www.geographics.com/new/yeezy-750-boost-gum-brown-sale.html 42 114 181 -- --- --- --- ---0 -
On-Page / Site Optimization+Link Building -check help!
HI all, have also Question One, i don't understand how is this website : competitor website http://hack-clash-royale. com/ beter them my website i analze i have more more backlink and my website is strong have good seo but not on first position, you can tell me what is problem, my website is 4-5# and competitor 1-2# .. thanks
Link Building | | Fahad5Saleem0 -
What Should You Do About Low-Quality Press Release Syndication Sites Linking to You?
Suppose a company did a press release and linked to you in it. The press release was republished on some high quality sites but also over 50 low quality press release syndication sites from all over the world. Suppose that they used a money keyword anchor text to link to you. Would this be harmful to your site? What action would you take? Should we disavow these 50 links?
Link Building | | ProjectLabs0 -
Should I work on links to a specific page or site in general?
Hi Guys, I'm trying to have my page rank better for "sell my car Houston". I'm about to start working on getting links to our site and my question is should I work on getting links to that specific page or would it be OK to just get links to the home page (same seo effect)? Specific page: http://www.motorsonwheels.com/pages/sell-my-car-in-houston-tx Home page: http://www.motorsonwheels.com Thanks! -Nash
Link Building | | nkabbara0 -
Any value in link building to local pages on my site?
If I'm trying to rank for the term 'wedding band' with my url: http://www.musicliveuk.com/home/wedding-bands will linking to local pages such as: http://www.musicliveuk.com/live-acts/hire-wedding-bands/wedding-bands-london help the main page to rank? I added the 'local' pages to try and pick up any traffic from long tail search queries but my main focus is on getting the main page to rank as the traffic from long tail queries is so small. So is it worth me spending time building links to these local pages in order to try and help the main page rank?
Link Building | | SamCUK0 -
Linking strategy between my own sites
Hi, I have one main site, let's call it food.com I also have 10 smaller sites, let's call them mexicanfood.com, indianfood.com, italianfood.com etc food.com is on its own separate dedicated server the 10 smaller sites are all on a shared IP in hostgator I don't want Google to think that I have created the 10 sites for only purpose of creating links to each other. So, would you recommend that all those 10 sites link to each other? or should there be no interlinking within those 10 same IP domains? What about linking from those 10 sites to my main site? How should I structure my own backlinks not to get penalized by Google ?
Link Building | | limens0 -
How to improve (ASAP) the linking root domain, the followed linking root domains and the linking C-Blocks? Linkbuilding (or whatever) techniques.
I have a small site (.com) like any website in my sector. 30-90 pages. I have no crawls errors. Everythings is fine, just I need to improve my linking root domain, the followed linking root domain and the linking C-Blocks. Example: my competitors have 300 (one of them have 1300) of total links. I have 30. Anyone know some good strategies? techniques? tips? I just dont want to be in a farm directory, I want free links. I'm already running two strategies but it works so slowly. I want something faster at this moment. Also, any recommendation will be thankful.
Link Building | | NicoDavila0 -
Inbound links from porn sites into a professional business services site - remove help?
The website in question was hacked four years ago and there was porn on the servers. It was used as a peer to peer torrent streamer. The images were deleted. We have just found inappropriate inward bound links (with great link juice!!) - how can we remove these links - or should we? any advice would be appreciated thanks
Link Building | | GardenBeet0