Links from .edu and .gov sites are worthless

[stymiee]

Matt Cutts recently confirmed what many of us have been saying all along: .edu and .gov links are worth no more then any other link. Just watch his videos and see.

http://www.websitepublisher.net/blog/2006/08/03/a-google-myth-busted/

[ocinternetadv]

We just spoke about this in our incoming links thread from several days ago.

I'm not sure that your post sends the right message. You can't dismiss the fact that, as you mentioned, .edu and .gov sites are not weighed any differently from normal sites. However, if you listen to what Matt says, he admittedly announced that .edu and .gov sites have higher PageRank and isn't that what we SEO's are after?

It is a myth that .edu and .gov get special credit. It is not a myth that they have higher PageRank.

My advise is to everyone would be to disregard the statement that these sites are worthless. In fact, I'd advise that you keep pursuing .edu and .gov because they have higher PageRank. Just make sure that the page linking to you is related to your page, preferably with the keywords you're targeting in the Title and the content. Also make sure that your keywords are actually in the link text for optimal results.

All the Best,
Steve Wiideman

[stymiee]

You're missing the point. Google does not give .edu or .gov pages any extra PR boost nor do links from those pages receive a PR boost. They have higher PR for the very reasons I outlined in that other thread: because they tend to be relevant and useful pages and thus tend to have more links pointing to them. That's the point I made (and exactly what Matt Cutts confirmed in his video). The fact that they are .edu and .gov domains are meaningless in Google's eyes.

So the advice you should be giving is to seek any link from a relevant page with quality anchor text regardless of the domain extension. A link from a .edu page that isn't about the same topic as your page and doesn't use your anchor text has extremely little value and is worth far less then a link from an on-topic page with the anchor text containing the keywords you hope to rank well for.

BTW, the "worthless" part of the title was to get people's attention. :)

We just spoke about this in our incoming links thread from several days ago.

I'm not sure that your post sends the right message. You can't dismiss the fact that, as you mentioned, .edu and .gov sites are not weighed any differently from normal sites. However, if you listen to what Matt says, he admittedly announced that .edu and .gov sites have higher PageRank and isn't that what we SEO's are after?

It is a myth that .edu and .gov get special credit. It is not a myth that they have higher PageRank.

My advise is to everyone would be to disregard the statement that these sites are worthless. In fact, I'd advise that you keep pursuing .edu and .gov because they have higher PageRank. Just make sure that the page linking to you is related to your page, preferably with the keywords you're targeting in the Title and the content. Also make sure that your keywords are actually in the link text for optimal results.

All the Best,
Steve Wiideman

[ocinternetadv]

Agreed. I like the 'worthless' strategy to get your topic read (I may even it use it in the future). I think everyone's got the point now. :)

[ketan1]

Hi

I do not think EDu and Gov links are treated any diffrenet from normal ones.