A very common request I will hear is, "do you guys have access to any .edu or .gov links?". The answer is "no" and I have felt for some time that many link builders put too much emphasis on the search for these links. For many link builders, .edu and .gov links are the "dmoz" links of a couple of years ago. Meaning, I think the height of the DMOZ craze was about two years ago when many website owners thought getting listed in DMOZ was the magic pill to shoot to the top of the search results.
Now I am not saying that DMOZ, .edu, or .gov links are not links worth having but I do think their is some evidence that they are not the silver bullet to the top. You need many quality, or as Mr. Hagans would say "trusted links", and spending weeks on end trying to get the one .edu or .gov link is in my opinion not any more valuable then securing a few other non .edu or .gov quality links. Is there now some evidence of this? Maybe...(below quote taken from Blogoscoped who transcripted off Matt Cutt's new seo video)Somebody else asked about links
from .govâs and .euâs, and whether links from two level deep .govâs and
.euâs (like gov.pl), are worth the same as .gov. And the fact is, we
donât really have much in the way to say, this is a link from the ODP,
or from .gov, or .eu, to give that some sort of special boost. Itâs
just those sites tend to have higher PageRank, because more people link
to them (and reputable people link to them).So this statement seems to say that Dmoz, .edu. and .gov links are not given special treatment from Google it is just that these links generally have higher PR and are just another trusted link. I say build quality links like crazy and not worry about these three alleged special links. What have you readers seen in regards to this? Are Dmoz, .gov, and .edu all glitter and no gold?
I could see them not being given special treatment per se, but OTOH could also see many of them as being on the TrustRank whitelist... and of course they do tend to have trusted backlinks "anyway"....
ResponderEliminarYeah, a lot of good .edu and .gov sites have trusted backlinks even if they aren't an original "trust seed". But I wouldn't waste my time trying to get on some crappy page that is more than a few levels deep on the domain.
ResponderEliminarConsidering that the first web servers were created by universities, no wonder they would have a lot of links and associated trust. I have seen .edu sites that were 20 years old even. Take into consideration Google\'s love for older domains, authority and links accumulated through all the years of their existence and you get the picture. My point is all the above factors are parts of the equation when it comes to links from .edu sites. On the other hand, these links are probably the most difficult to get unless you have a really valuable resource. Sometimes, in order to obtain links from .edu sites, I even have to create special content on my sites that looks link worthy to them. Some .gov sites state it expressly that they won\'t link to any sites other than .gov sites, the same goes for some .edu sites. In the long run, it all boils down to your particular industry - if most sites you\'re competing with have loads of .edu links you need them as well, if hardly any sites have them you probably can do well enough without them and consequently there is no need in putting effort into getting them.
ResponderEliminarConsidering that the first web servers were created by universities, no wonder they would have a lot of links and associated trust. I have seen .edu sites that were 20 years old even. Take into consideration Google\'s love for older domains, authority and links accumulated through all the years of their existence and you get the picture. My point is all the above factors are parts of the equation when it comes to links from .edu sites. On the other hand, these links are probably the most difficult to get unless you have a really valuable resource. Sometimes, in order to obtain links from .edu sites, I even have to create special content on my sites that looks link worthy to them. Some .gov sites state it expressly that they won\'t link to any sites other than .gov sites, the same goes for some .edu sites. In the long run, it all boils down to your particular industry - if most sites you\'re competing with have loads of .edu links you need them as well, if hardly any sites have them you probably can do well enough without them and consequently there is no need in putting effort into getting them.
ResponderEliminarConsidering that the first web servers were created by universities, no wonder they would have a lot of links and associated trust. I have seen .edu sites that were 20 years old even. Take into consideration Google\'s love for older domains, authority and links accumulated through all the years of their existence and you get the picture. My point is all the above factors are parts of the equation when it comes to links from .edu sites. On the other hand, these links are probably the most difficult to get unless you have a really valuable resource. Sometimes, in order to obtain links from .edu sites, I even have to create special content on my sites that looks link worthy to them. Some .gov sites state it expressly that they won\'t link to any sites other than .gov sites, the same goes for some .edu sites. In the long run, it all boils down to your particular industry - if most sites you\'re competing with have loads of .edu links you need them as well, if hardly any sites have them you probably can do well enough without them and consequently there is no need in putting effort into getting them.
ResponderEliminarI think "Killer-Content" is correct on most of the points they make (over and over). However I would think it is more important to create content that is valuable to readers in general - instead of trying to linkbait particular .gov or .edu sites.
ResponderEliminarThink what makes these websites popular and gives them high PR. It is their content and affiliations (employees / citizens / students) who link back to them on their personal websites.
Likewise, any website which delivers content or a service (such as social networking for students), can have as high a PR in the long run.
I firmly believe it's users / visitors and their perception of your website's value and credibility which makes it rank better - not what one or two .gov domains might think. Focusing on content value is the right path to a higher PageRank and a better karma rank as well.