Subject says it all. I have access to make a website at my school's .edu domain. Number 1 -- Does anyone have any suggestions about a type of page to make on my .edu domain that would make sense linking to my website from? Number 2 -- Do .edu links still have as much benefit as they did earlier?
It isn't the .edu that gives those types of links their power. It is the fact that those websites have been around for ages and have built up authority. An .edu website attracts links naturally from various sources. I'm just not sure whether a subdomain or folder on the same domain would carry the same kind of weight. I would think not, otherwise every geocities page would already be quite strong.
Yeah, it's one thing to get a link from www.university.edu, and another to get a link from studentpages.university.edu/public/sites/~username/page.htm. It might be worth the minute it takes to put up a little page with a link (and then hope for the best,) but I doubt there's much, if any, benefit.
Well, let's look at a case example of a random ~ page. My computer science professor has simply a list of all his prior courses as his website in my computer architecture course (it is BRUTAL by the way), but notice how it is a PR3. http://www.cs.binghamton.edu/~sgreene/ This is from a subdomain off the main page, and then a user account page off from that. And no, you can't add links to it so don't bother asking him.
Matt Cutts stated that all domain extensions are treated equally it doesn't matter whether it's .com .org .gov or .edu, .edu links are valuable because those sites have been around for a long time and they have lots of backlinks.
did you even bother to read the comments above? the question is not with PR because when it comes to PR, any backlink is the same. we are talking about SERP ranking in which case edu backlinks dont make any difference.
Yes, there are some .edu sites which are well recognised by all SEs. I believe .edu links have still importance.
A good .edu link can be valuable. Case in point: I have a .edu link from a student page at an Ivy League University (therefore, definitely an "authority" site). The page is two clicks below the university's main page. The page my link is on is a PR5, and it also gives me regular traffic, since the page is directly relevant to my niche. Overall, considering relevance, PR, and traffic, this link from a related authority site may be my best backlink out of over 10,000.
It's true... Its just so happen that most of .edu site is already an "authority" site. On subdomain .edu website, i dont think it carry the same weight since a subdomain is consider as another website.