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