The importance of .edu backlinks for SEO which drives lots of contorversy,the truth is that .edu links are freakin powerful...
They're no more powerful than links from other TLDs. If you have unbiased and impartial facts to the contrary, then present them.
I have two .edu links. One is from a state university, is PR0, and brings no traffic. The other is from an Ivy League university and brings a modest average of about 15 unique visitors per month. But it has three upsides: (1) it is a deep link to a valued page on my website, and (2) the link is a PR4, and (3) those visitors from the .edu site are highly focused and targeted on my "niche" and the "bounce" rate therefore is quite good (low). Of my thousands of inbound links, this .edu is one of my few favorites.
Dan is correct. Please stop repeating this crap. You're either totally misinformed or disingenuous. http://www.bruceclay.com/blog/archives/2007/03/fun_forum_finds.html http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-article-in-newsweek In comments: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1756437348670651505
To be honest you don't have any proof to say they don't carry more weight than standard. The reason they are good links to have is because they are trusted websites and that is one of the primary reasons for buying any kind of links.
Obviously (from your signature) you are selling .edu links, so I'm not surprised you don't want people to know that .edu links are nothing special. Indeed, it's to your financial advantage to try to fool as many people as possible into believing that what you're selling has value. However, facts are facts. If you can somehow get a link from one of the main pages of a major university, you might have something. Getting a link from www.someuniversity.edu/~student/mypage.html is worth nothing. The point you seem to have totally missed is that the .edu domain is NOT what matters. What matters is what matters for any othr page - PgeRank of the page containing the link, number of other outgoing links from that page, relevance, authority, and etc. Nothing to do with whether it's .edu, .org, .com, or .info. I also have a few of those. However, I'll point out again that it is the characteristics of the page giving you the link that is helping you when it helps, NOT the .edu domain.
.edu links was important once upon a time (yahoo) cause .edu sites was authority sites and was providing good information.But those days has gone , I have some .edu links and did not seen any unnormal boost in my results.
A load of rubbish tbh, so take a seat and calm down Im not denying that other websites that arnt .EDU wont be as good. As long as a website is old/trusted then it will be worth more than a new PR 5 or whatever - FACT.... And the FACT is that most .EDU links carry this trust - read up on it mate before shouting off about something like this EDIT: Also just for a side note - buying .EDU links for the sake of PR or whatever is a bad approach and people that do this don't understand SEO, simple
So what exactly was "rubbish"? I have read up on it. Extensively. So "take a seat and calm down". And then read what I wrote earlier - buying a link on some student's blog page isn't going to be worth anything no matter whjat the TLD. "FACT." And yet you're selling them?
.edu sites are authorative because they get a lot of inbound links from other authority sites and have useful content. So a link on these domains is a good thing - doesn't really matter if it doesn't have PR - although the more PR the better.
Nonsense. Read the excerpts from Bruce Clay and Matt Cutts posted above. In order to agree, one has to actually look at and consider the evidence, which some people appear reluctant to do. The verdict is that there is nothing special about an .edu page per se - any value they can pass via links to other pages follows the same rules as pages with non-.edu TLDs.
This thread could not have come at a better time, since I was in the final stages of paying for 5 different .edu weblinks from five different major universities. Although the 'deal' did not pass the smell test I have been convinced that a link with .edu was much more valuable than a regular link. Over the years, I have come to really respect the comments, opinions and views expressed by "mistrel" above. Just a big THANK YOU, once again for all your valuable comments.
Nope, just let you know where to get them I'm going on experience and really couldn't care what you think, don't have any .edu links and see if it bothers me. Next you'll be saying PR is what to look for or some other rubbish. .EDU carry trust, doesn;t matter if its a PR0 But you really dont know what you're talking about, period
All right everyone, calm down. NOW. One of the main reasons why I haven't been coming here lately is the mercenary attitude of this place. Call me an elitist all you want, it's because I know what the hell I'm talking about. Now, let's take a look at some of the arguements made in this thread so far, shall we? Rubbish. Web pages are ranked individually irrespective of the domain name, PageRank, and TLD. I know, it's a hard concept to grasp (sense the sarcasm yet?), but it's true. When the average person (and let's face it, we're not average people, so we don't count) looks something up in a search engine they're looking for CONTENT, not the page's PR, what domain or TLD the page is on or any of that nonsense. They're looking for something and they're expecting a search engine to find it. Furthermore, your commercial bent has nothing to do with this discussion, so please save it for another thread. The age of a Web site really doesn't have anything to do with this either. And trust is gained by people linking back to your pages from pages with related content (yes, what's on the page linking to your page has a lot to do with it), not your site. And again, PageRank is over-rated and frankly worthless. Google should never have released that into the public since it has no real effect on search engine results placement. It's just a cute toy and nothing more. Most .edu pages these days are user-generated content created by students. I highly doubt Missy's university blog is is as trusted as a major research paper published by the same university. Wha'ts this mean? It means that for the most part, those links are worthless and anyone selling them should be ashamed of themselves. See above. While it's true for those pages that matter (like articles and such) the pages themselves get no added benefit from being hosted on a site with a .edu TLD. I'll agree with that in spirit. IF the page linking back to you is authoritative and has a lot of links pointing to it from elsewhere. Other than that, you might as well be getting a link from some crappy MySpace page. And therein lies the problem - in this case a two-fold problem. First off, things change - and in this industry (anything concerning computers - including the Internet) they change quickly. The day you think you've learned all there is to know is the day the rest of the world leaves you behind to eat your own words. And the fact that you don't care proves that you're too closed-minded to continue learning, which just furthers the first problem. I don't mean this as a personal attack, and I truely apologize if it came off as such (was not my intent), but it's a proven fact that those who don't continue to learn get left behind. I've been doing this stuff (Web/Internet) for five years now, and I've never ceased to be amazed by how people are coming up with new ways to do the same things with the same set of tools. And when somebody comes along with something totally new that works, well let's just say that I need to surgically re-attach my jaw afterword once I pick it up off the floor and wash it off. Things change. Try to keep up with them. What was true a year or two ago isn't always true today. Search engines could care less about the type of TLD being used, except in the case of country-specific searches. To the contrary, he does know what he's talking about. And he's presented evidence from the people who know best about the subject to back it up (do you really think Google doens't know what it does?). Google has nothing to do with this. EDU links have no extra special benefit, powers or advantage. If you can get one, great. If you can't, well you know what they say about not crying over spilled milk.
Dan - you are the funniest guy i have ever heard I really really really hope you learn how to work seo lol cause your answers are complete rubbish. My job is seo, i know how it evolves and what works and what doesnt,if you honestly believe that "trust" has nothing to do with seo you should stop giving "advice"
One more time: I asked you earlier to specify what exactly you though was "rubbish" in what I posted - you had nothing. I'll ask you again to now specify what extactly you think is rubbish in Dan's reply. Do you have a refund policy? I think your clients are entitled to one, don't you?
I also have an access to .edu site & that to Harvard site... of which's home page is PR6 & I m happy.... as i got a goood link from that site... Let edu give more or less value but PR will really matter.... so i m happpy.....