EDU Links are still desired and valuable

By Julie Johnson

It has been common knowledge in the link building world for years that .edu links are valuable. Practiced widely and accepted, the coveted EDU link is prized. But as of late, you may be hearing a twitter or two that Edu links are no more valuable than any other link.

Google claims outright that their algorithm is not skewed to add any additional value to an .edu domain. Matt Cutts has been quoted claiming this, even has a blog page from 2005 blatantly stating that the EDU is just not given any weight over a .com.

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.

Why do the EDU links still work?

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. EDUs tend to have loads of inbound links and very high page rank of 7 or 8 or 9.

4. Content, content, content: Google likes the content on EDUs: lots of it, research, educational, non-advertising, adding value to the web.

This is why the topic of "how to get edu links" pops up frequently in webmaster forums. College papers, as a fad, is still actually viable but not too valuable. Be sure they are cheap. And sidebar links are nearly worthless now anyhow. The classified listing is an idea that I still read, but again is weak.

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.

When I get hit with an email linking to a forum ragging on the EDU link, inevitably I read the rest of the thread and there are countless supporters explaining the WHY and HOW of the edu link. Read and think for yourself, get edu links, and watch firsthand.

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