How to get .edu backlinks, the holy grail of backlinks

EDU backlinks are the holy grail of all backlinks. Google gives extra emphasis to these backlinks so building just a few can dramatically improve your site's performance.

Harvard Crest SIMPLE EXPLAINATION OF WHY YOU NEED TO BUILD BACKLINKS: other sites that link to your site are considered"friends" of your website. A website with "friends" that have influence like a Donald Trump or an Oprah Winfrey are given greater trust by Google than sites that have Jenna Jameson or Tara Reid as friends. So, in a backlink campaign, you want to attract quality, authority sites and forget about anyone who has a lesser PageRank than your site or sits in a bad neighborhood. Basically you want your site to hang out with cool, popular and trust worthy sites rather than loser sites, i.e. sites below a PR3.

Read also: Ultimate guide to building backlinks

WHY YOU WANT TO BUILD .EDU BACKLINKS

EDU backlinks are the holy grail of all backlinks. Google gives extra emphasis to these backlinks so building just a few can dramatically improve your site's performance. For example, if youa re able to build just 5 .edu backlinks, you can see a small leap in SERP within 72 hours and larger leaps over time. Now, this topic is highly debated and while Google often says it does not give extra weight to .edu sites, Matt Cutts and others have often tipped their hand at conferences alluding to the greater trust placed in .edu sites. The article below by SEOCrimson quotes Matt himself inadvertantly mentioning the importance of .edu links.

Nod to my Crimson blood: The Secret Truth About .EDU Links

SEOMoz Shout Out: 10 Ways to Earn .EDU Backlinks

JUST FOR FUN: SETH MACFARLAND GIVES HARVARD GRADUATION SPEECH AS PETER GRIFFITH OF THE FAMILY GUY

HOW TO SNIFF OUT YOUR COMPETITION's .EDU BACKLINKS WITH SEO FOR FIREFOX

To find quality backlinks from .edu sites, you can use the SEO for Firefox tool.

Download the tool and install it into your browser.
Now, go to Google and type in the key phrase you want to rank for
Under each result, you will see a bunch of new links, one of which reads Yahoo .edu links, click that
Now Yahoo will display the list of .edu results for each result.
This is a pretty easy way to identify where your competition is getting its .edu links from and where you can likely garner an .edu link as well.

For example, this Yahoo! search query represents many of the .edu results for my site (and yes, these ar REAL .edu backlinks, not the ones you can get from spammy sites posing as an .edu - you wnt to be mindful that you are not building spammy .edu links)

EXAMPLE: Links to all .edu links for RSS Pieces

EXAMPLE OF EDU LINKS WITH SEO FOR FIREFOX IN YAHOO!

· Gene Cooperman's Computer Science Information

· Texas Tech University Libraries :: 3D Animation Lab, 07282007

· UCF Libraries Site Search Results

HOW TO FIND .EDU BACKLINKS IN YAHOO!

Yahoo! Is by far and away the best search engine for keyword and general link research. You can create simple queries to sniff out .edu links of competitor sites with the following search calls:

linkdomain:www.domain.com +site:.edu -site:.com -site:www.domain.com

OTHER RESOURCES FOR .EDU LINKS

Google's Directory of Universities

Backlink Directory

SLEEZY WAYS TO BUILD .EDU LINKS

Alright, there are plenty of sleazy ways to build backlinks, and I feel compelled to mention this one. I want to make it clear, I do not recommend this but it is an option when all else fails. Find a job posting board on local college sites and post jobs or internships for your business. If you go this route, be sure to only do this if you have a real job posting so as not to get some poor college student's hopes up.

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http://www.rsspieces.com/002279

http://www.rsspieces.com/how-to-get-edu-backlinks-the-holy-grail-of-backlinks

Posted on March 06, 2008 09:36:21

Comment from: DB [Visitor]

· http://www.derekburress.com

1. If you are a student like me, you can put it on your own page.

2. Get all your classmates to do the same.

3. Put it in the student annouce section.

4. Blackboard it.

5. Write a good paper and have your professor to feature it.

6. Stick it in the one stop discussions!

7. School newspaper's discussion forum.

Permalink March 06, 2008 20:17:23

Comment from: Jay Thompson [Visitor]

· http://www.phoenixrealestateguy.com

Mary Mary Mary.

"Basically you want your site to hang out with cool, popular and trust worthy sites rather than loser sites, i.e. sites below a PR3." (my emphasis)

So any site with a PR less than three is a "loser site"???

How many RSSPieces client sites are currently loser sites? When you guys create a new site for one of your clients, do you disclose that you consider them a loser until their PR gets to 3?

Why not 4? 5? or even 2?

What's magical about a PR3 site that makes it "cool, popular and trustworthy" and not a "loser"?

I've seen a lot of great real estate blogs with a PR of 2 (and 1. And 0). Conversely, I've seen some lousy sites with a PR of 3 or more that couldn't pay me to link to my blog, no matter what that link might be worth in Google's eyes.

Permalink March 07, 2008 13:53:51

Comment from: Guest [Visitor]

· http://www.rsspieces.com

Jay,

I don't make the rule, I just state them. If you want your backlinks to count- you need to build them from sites with trust n Google- that means a site with a PR 3 or above. And yes, a new site will be a loser site until it gains autority. My client's site or anyone elses'

-Mary

Permalink March 07, 2008 14:58:39

Comment from: Jay Thompson [Visitor]

· http://www.phoenixrealestateguy.com

Ohhh Kay. "Loser site" just seems a bit, I dunno, harsh. IMHO, there's more (much more) to judging a site than PR. I think there's more in Google's eye as well. PR is not the purple pill. If it were, how does one explain PR2 sites ranking higher (sometimes) than PR 5 sites for the same search term?

Permalink March 07, 2008 20:07:34

Comment from: Sam Chapman [Visitor]

· http://www.austinrealestateguy.com/

Cool operator to look for edu links. Thanks for sharing.

Permalink March 07, 2008 20:29:27

Comment from: Mohit [Visitor]

· http://www.data-india.com

Excellent information

Permalink April 02, 2008 01:12:50

Comment from: Hitesh Jain [Visitor]

· http://bangaloreofficeinteriors.com

Thank you for such a valuable information.

I was trying since 3 months to get a high PR for my blog and by your technique i got it just in 1 week.

Keep it up.

Permalink May 05, 2008 10:46:14

Comment from: elena [Visitor]

· http://www.india-designs.com

.edu or .gov links are good - and when there are good links, .edu links tend to be a little better on average

useful and informative page

Permalink May 14, 2008 12:01:55

Comment from: elena [Visitor]

· http://www.ixava.com

.edu or .gov links are good - and when there are good links, .edu links tend to be a little better on average;

Permalink May 14, 2008 12:02:42

Comment from: aishwarya [Visitor]

· http://www.advancedataentry.com

if matt cutts said it obviously the real deal. Nothing else need be said!

Permalink May 17, 2008 08:08:41

Comment from: yeni oyunlar [Visitor]

· http://www.oyunf.com

Cool operator to look for edu links. Thanks for sharing.

Permalink June 02, 2008 12:06:18

Comment from: mihaela [Visitor]

· http://www.pixeltracing.com

There is no boost based on the fact that it's an .edu TLD.

What you must think about is WHAT IS ON EDU TLDs. This is often crusty-old, stable, trusted information that gets lots of link juice from other stable, crusty-old trusted sites. It's just a correlation in the same algorithm that clusters around .edu for normal Google reasons.

Permalink June 06, 2008 09:20:42

Comment from: Spb [Visitor] · http://stay-with-us.ru

edu or .gov links are good

Permalink June 21, 2008 16:20:14

Comment from: partoba [Visitor]

· http://tobablog.com

This is really an awesome article. Getting backlinks from .edu sites were really make our sites rank significantly high for our keyword. Thanks for sharing this priceless information

Permalink November 24, 2008 02:22:35

Comment from: Toronto Home Staging [Visitor]

· http://www.StagingWorks.ca

Thanks for the article, very helpful. I have been wondering how to ethically obtain edu back-links. Someone recently told me to post for a job on a university site, even if I didn't have a real position to fill. This didn't sit well with me.

Permalink December 02, 2008 17:59:08

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