Monday, June 23, 2008

EDU Links are still desired and valuable

By Julie Johnson

.Edu links and .Gov links have long been accepted as authority valuable links. Search engines count them as higher votes. Everyone knows this. But lately that theory has come into question.

After all, Matt Cutts said so. He said officially in 2005 that Google's algorithm does not value the .edu tld any more than any other extension. As recently as May 2008, there were confirmations that Google did not place any more importance on the .edu domain.

Then why still the demand? Simple: They work. Regardless of what Google says. Of course they cannot admit this, they guard their algorithm. Not that they are blatantly lying, it's just that the EDUs work not so much because of the 3 letters "e" "d" "u" on the end, but what that typically represents.

4 Reasons why an EDU link is more valuable:

1. Old grandaddy domains. Established. Not going anywhere. That equals value in Google's eyes.

2. EDUs are not public domains, not anyone can get a link there. Thus edu links are harder to obtain.

3. Inbound links are extensive, the page rank of the domains is typically 7 or above, and traffic is plentiful.

4. Content rich domains are weighted. And edu's have their share of content.

Ideas pop up in forums all the time on how to obtain edu links. The classified ad idea surfaces now and again, and it worked for awhile, but most have a no-follow now. College papers sometimes sell off some links but again that method is dated and less effective.

Why is that? The edu value can be discounted somewhat by several factors: irrelevant sidebar links, links not in content, sitewide links (for example, links often sold in college papers-- why do you think they are so cheap?) A link in content on an EDU or GOV site however, with or without page rank on that page, is quite a value.

So if you read a know-it-all forum poster blah-blahing about Matt Cutts claim that EDU links are not valued, do read the the rest of the thread. You will inevitably read exactly what I am saying: that the EDU link is certainly valuable for many reasons, is an authoritative link that should be sought after and prized.

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