I was reading this SEO tip guide and find something odd: http://operationsuperaffiliate.org/2010-01-21/secret-seo-ranking-factors-unveiled-part-5/ What are you thoughts on the quote that edu and gov extensions are ranked higher. I found that .com in PPC does better as a general rule, but what about SEO? ----------- Links from .edu or .gov sites are deemed more valuable by search engines than links from .com or .net or .org sites. It is also important to note that all backlinks matter in SEO.
No, it's not really true. What is true is that links from some places are deemed more authoritive, and more trustworthy than links from others. For example, a link from the stanford university website is deem to be more authoritative and more trustworthy than a link form joeschmoe.com. And it just happens to be that many of the .edu and .gov sites are more authoritative and more trustworthy....but not because of their TLD.
All links are treated equal whether it's coming from .edu .gov .mil...take it from Matt Cutts. It only differs in link reputation.
Not exactly anymore, in none of my niches i can find any site on first 3 spots on google having a edu or gov backlink, of course if you get it nothing like it
When did Matt say this? He's often strangely vague on purpose. And more than once has been less than fully forthcoming. It's always been my understanding that .edu and .gov DO INDEED carry more weight because google inherently considers them more trustworthy. Still only ONE piece of google's weighting system. Though I don't know this to be 100% fact.
.edu and .gov have no extra weight to them at all just because of the domain extension. The thing is most gov and edu domains are very high in trust, authority, and pagerank throughout the website so by getting a link it is powerful but the domain extension plays no part in this.