As part of my linking strategy, which includes article writing, social profile links, and some text link ads, I recommend a heavy emphasis on authority links from .edu and .gov links.
Google sees links on .edu and .gov links as authoritative – even though they’re almost always free to get. Getting “authority links” is one of the challenges in search engine optimization, and most people resort to buying them. Truth is, all it takes is punching a few search codes into Google to find sites that allow you to put a link there.
Here are three of the ways that I get links from .gov and .edu sites (tip: they are usually the same types of links that I’d get elsewhere, they just *happen* to be really, really authoritative):
1) Social profile links
A lot of government and education websites will use social networking applications on their own websites, and they leave them open to public access. That means you can create a profile on a government or education website and link back to your stuff (using your anchor text) on the social profile. Do that a bam! you’ve got a link from a government site. Use these search codes government links that allow links.
2) Blog comments
Similar to the social profile links, education and government websites often allow their employees or their students to have blogs. When you comment on these blogs, use your keyword in the “name” field and your website as the URL, and you’ll have a comment link back to your site on a .edu or .gov link.
Some .edu and .gov blogs will require you to have an account with them first. In some cases, you can get a double-whammy here, because you can create an account with the site (and include a link on your profile) AND now post comments to all the blogs on the site. Score! See this walkthrough of how to put comments on .edu and .gov sites.
This concept also works with news reports. If an authority site releases a new report, you can often comment on it and leave a link back to your stuff. These are often “no-follow” links, but that largely does not matter.
3) Forum links
Especially in countries outside the United States, governments use forums among their employees and to facilitate discussions. These forums are often wide open because they are on public scripts, so you can walk in and start commenting on the topic. Just include a link in your signature (or a link in your forum profile – or BOTH) to get the link juice from the .gov or .edu backlink.
You’ll notice that these linking strategies aren’t much different than traditional backlinks – the difference is the authority of the sites that the links are on. Some will argue that one high authority backlinks is worth as much as hundreds of low quality backlinks.
Few people, however, dig deep enough to find these free backlinks from .edu and .gov sources, but a few search strings will bring back more than enough for you to dominate the first page of Google.
See ya on the first page!
Excellent information Ryan! I will apply this right now to my sites. I just downloaded the report and I’m going to give it a read…
Cheers!
Frankie
I agree with this. I have noticed that one of my sites jumped from oblivion to page 4 after getting a .gov link. It took a couple weeks for google to notice this link, probably because the .gov site I chose isn’t really busy with comments, so doesn’t get crawled as often.
I can’t wait to use this information to find more .gov and .edu links. Thanks Ryan!
Peggy
I gotta give it up to you, Ryan, you’re doing it right. High quality, unique, actionable information, both in your free content and in your paid offers. I follow a lot of marketing ‘gurus.’ You’re one of the very few providing consistent quality material that is helping my business grow.
Thank you,
David L. Kern
Apple Poly LLC
Hi, Ryan!
I knew you were a hard worker when you were in school carrying a double load of work and study. Well, you haven’t cooled down. You are putting more good input into Internet Marketing than anyone else. Like I told you, Mount Moran should be your icon.
My health is much improved with much lower weight and near normal blood sugars. I thank you for your part in this.
John
I would have to agree with what David said. This information is high quality that you provide! Just wanted to say thanks and I hope this will help my business grow over time!
Hi Ryan
Well this report was a real eye-opener!
You really are a ‘class act’!
thanks indeed
regards
Graham in UK
well ryan my google reader doesn’t show posts from you too often anymore but when it does they have been awesome quality.
im going to give this a go and get me some .edu .gov links tonight thanks
I will try this on some of my sites and report back to you! Love it; very very interesting stuff. It makes me want to write my own additional authority codes for Google. Thanks for enabling me to continue expanding my SEO knowledge!
Hey Ryan – some good ideas here. The only thing I’d note is when I’ve done testing, there isn’t an inherent level of authority given to .edu or .gov links. Rather, these sites, on average, have far more authority to them because of the amount of links coming to them. It’s correlation and causality. Government and university sites usually have so many links coming to them that their domain authority is pushed higher. Same reason that there is a correlation between higher link juice and .org sites. There is nothing special about .org, but on average these sites get a lot of links (think non-profits, etc). A really good test of this is doing a search for “buy viagra” or something spammy like that, but limiting it to site:.gov – you’ll see the amount of spam there is out there. I guarantee you Google has a way for determining and devaluing spammy links. So end of the day – .gov and .edu links are worthwhile, but so long as they are still quality links from quality content pages. Do a search for spammy terms on the page – if someone has already garnered spam links from that page, I would guess that the page will be either devalued or soon to be devalued.
Good post though dude!
Hey Ryan
Solid information as always. Authority links are the way to go because as you stated one of these links can make a huge difference versus hundreds of lower quality links. I do want to add that a .gov or .edu site is not always a sign of authority (which I’m sure you agree) especially with this “tactic” becoming more widely known, the chances of increased abuse is more and more prevalent. As Chris above said..check on the other comments and determine if they are spammy. If they are then your time would be better spent finding other places since the search engines will surely devalue that page/link soon enough.
As you’ve shown here, the technique is what’s most important. Find authority sites and find creative ways to add value to the website and the internet as a whole and you will reap the rewards
You rock man! Keep on posting your awesome content
Mark
Great info. Thanks for the post
Ryan,
Thanks so much for the information. Posting comments on edu/gov websites should also be relevant to your website’s niche, in order to avoid being penalized. Quality should also be emphasized.
Take care!
Kris
Often remarks such as these are hard to believe but there is a lot of relevant and useful information here. People that post this info are to be thanked.
Ryan,
You are definitely someone worthy of following. I discovered you through a FB PPC ad and I just wanted to google your legitimacy and BAM!!! VALUE, VALUE, VALUE all over the internet. Trust me, it doesn’t take much to prove expertise and define brand on the internet. I definitely use site:edu to find good domains with relevant places to post and get high quality link backs. I’ll be checking in on you…
Ryan, this is a wonderful information.
Thank you.
Thank Ryan!
There are softwares that charge silly amounts of money to buy backlinks, when really you dont need to as you have mentioned here.
Great information! I new about blog comments but not edu and gov links.
I’m not sure how to go about it yet? Ive been trying socail monkee but finding rubbish at the mo.
Thanks again Ry
Thank u for posting.
A company that I came across used infographs to generate backlinks. I thought this was a fantastic idea. Although, it takes a lot of creativity to create an infograph. You may need to hire a professional to do it.
Wow great article. This stuff clearly works I found you on the first page of google but it’s a pity the links on the page are broken.
I heard of one guy that used hang out in bars in order to get the bar staff (uni students trying to make ends meet) to post his 500 word articles with links back to his site on the universities .edu or .gov blogs for us$200.
Nice post! Really easy tips for getting .edu and .gov backlinks. Through this i am going to implement it in my off page activity. Thank for Sharing.
Excellent tips, thanks
I want to know doesn’t google reconginse these site as spam?
I want to know doesn’t google reconginse these site as spam?that’s so hard
Great post. Edu and gov links are the key to get your web page a higher rank. And taking your advice into account, I am dropping this comment with seo intentions,
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I can see that you are genuinely passionate about this! I am trying to build up my website and you’ve helped me with some great information.
Sounds fairly straight forward. I been on the warrior forum and i found this more helpful!
thank you ryan!!
Always have to post a comment, I cant help it! Thanks, Sarah
I wish to express appreciation to the writer for this wonderful post.
My friend and I were just talking about this specific subject, she actually is normally attempting to prove me completely wrong! I am about to show her this blog post and rub it in a little!
Good tips! I was thinking about this the other day and voila!
I am fairly new to seo, but I have done as you advised regarding .edu and .gov baclinks. Have found a few interesting links, so just waitung for Google to acknowledge these and jump start our site up the search engines.
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Sorry I’ve just read your tips and thought I’d repost with my keywords…..thanks ever so much for your tips.
This week i am going to start off with both EDU and GOV backlinks!
I am waiting for that @ayub..
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Thank you for all of the effort on this blog
Good article , thanks and we want more! Added to FeedBurner as well
Awesome blog you have here but I was wanting to know if you knew of any community forums that cover the same topics talked about here? I’d really like to be a part of group where I can get opinions from other experienced people that share the same interest. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. Cheers!
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Thanks for providing this informative article.
If I may add another tip, then I would suggest your readers to always add “Powered by *” in their Google search queries. This phrase is actually used by several content management systems and the “*” tells Google to complete the phrase by itself. For example, WordPress uses the tag line, (in the footer area) as “Powered by WordPress”.
By simply exploiting this single hack, you can find several content management systems which might allow some kind of user participation in exchange for a backlink.
Hi,
I tried Forum Posting , Blog Commenting on .edu and .gov sites but not getting backlinks.
Now, I am going to try the link on this post.
Thanks.
Hi, this is great info, tnx. Everybody is always writting how it is important to get edu and gov backlinks but it is never that easy. Finally I see some info how to do it by myself and not only pay for them
do you have some info how to get your own edu blog?
Hi,
I tried this but not getting backlinks from .edu and .gov site. Can you please tell me that how many times it will take to give backlink?
I believe that backlink in .edu or .gov website.
It must be strong link juice and able to bring high traffic from there.
Everyone want it like everyone which their content on the wikipedia.
But how can we do it ? while we understand that .edu and .gov are not allow to exchange link everywhere with .edu or .gov.
There are some people offer that backlink, can we trust it ?
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