student sites on .edu domains usally appear after a ~ so it would be www.site.edu/~studentName -- maybe google stops at the "~"??? Whats more credible then a site that HAS to be setup by proffesinal organisations or the govenment. The .edu/.gov proves that the information on the site is by them people. I'm sure google looks into these extensions. If you read the info on "google scholar" it says it gets its information from "academic publishers" -- it must know what sites are by academics, and scholar is not a manuelly selected search engine, so i'm gussing it uses the extension. (most results on scholar are .gov .edu or (.org)) I'm sure google uses a similar idea of site importance based on domains, but scholar just refines it.
I'm sorry, I don't mean to sound rude, but who should we use as an SEO resource? Yep, the guy works for Google, but his words are the best evidence we ever gonna have. Also, can you give an example of "many things" that Cutts said and that proved to be wrong? Just curious. I don't remember any such things. Dozens. Usually it does, indeed. No, because the edu sites have usually been around longer, so they are more trusted. It's not about the extension. Look, Matt Cutts explicitly said edu carry no more weight than com, Jill Wallen says the same (is she also affiliated with Google?), lots of reputable people, including on DP say the same. And my experience tells me it's about the age of the domain. So this is what I think. Warkot
Matt Cutts works and is paid by google. He owns and runs the blog but says what google wants him to say. Edu are spammed and google wanted to stop this so he lied in his blog. I would trust Aaron Walls blog as a seo resource. Why? Because he has absolutely nothing to gain by lying but a lot to gain by providing accurate info which he has over the yrs. Also I have never seen him make a statement that could not be backed up. he doesn't do that yet he made a post saying edu are worth more. That means alot to me as for the value. And if you won't take Aaron as a resource why would you take jills? Jill ha been known to say more than once something that was not totally in agreement with the rest of the seo world. I am not saying anything bad about her as she is well known seo. I also want to make it clear I don't think Matt is a bad guy except I don't believe in lying for any reason. He works very hard for Google and I think in his own right he is a good guy but that doesn't mean he isn't going to say something in the best interest of the company. If someone stands to benefit by telling you one thing are you going to believe their totally sincere without checking unbiased resources? If you can't trust aaron wall or randfish I don't think there is anyone you can trust. I have not made a penny by advertising my opinions of these two people and their sites but I believe truly that they are true seo with a wealth of knowledge not because they are smarter than the rest of us but because they don't follow Matt Cutts they find things out for themselves which everyone should do. If you know either of these two guys personally you would feel the same way(I know neither personally but do know them and they are great guys. Just see all that free info they provide.)
actually its more the age of the backlinks, than the age of the domain. I have a domain from 2001 but it won't rank for anything because it has no backlinks.
It can be a combination. Some factors alone are pretty useless but combined make a very good foundation for good rankings. Domain age is one of them. Of itself it can do nothing but with good backlinks it can gain you soem really hot rankings.
its not about the extension, there are just some people who do that kind thing... usually if .edu is for schools and .gov is for government site.. google might penalized them and other major SE... i guess..
I'm in the US. .edu Got 1, 2 and 3 ac.nz got 4 .ac.uk got 5 Interesting test. comfims what I already suspected.
Google or any other search algorithms can detect the quality of .edu domain. There are difference in quality of such domian just like .com domain. Sure, .edu domain form a university will be more valuable than a equivelant .com domain.
I found comments spam for a subdomain on Auburn.edu The person was able to add sub-domains to the website. Talk about abuse of "Trust" rank.