Remember at the beginning of this eBook we told you that some backlinks from
pages with higher PageRank were worth more than many backlinks from those with
a zero PR? If you understand that, then it will probably come as no surprise to you
that getting just a few backlinks on .edu or .gov sites can also boost your PR
considerably more than other sites. Here we will go into depth on how to obtain
backlinks on .edu sites. You can use some of the same information to scout out
information on .gov sites as well.
So, why are these links so valuable? The reasoning is that a .edu extension, by
nature, implies an educational institution. What education institution is going to link
to sources that aren’t credible? The same is true for .gov sites, which are typically
governmental institutions. It would only cause them to ruin their own reputation to
link to frivolous sites. For .edu, if too many poorly researched sites turned up this in
turn would keep students from applying to their programs. Google, in particular,
heavily weights backlinks from educational institutions and governmental
institutions and trusts them significantly more than other WWW extensions.
HOW TO ADD BACKLINKS TO .EDU
There are a couple of different ways you can get links on a .edu site. You can be a
student at an educational institution that posts student papers online. This is a good
way to get a backlink back to you, if the webmasters allow it. It makes you look
very credible and gives you the blessing of your alma mater.
A different way to get backlinks to .edu sites is to look for students, professors, or
anyone that keeps a blog on an .edu university or college site and see if you can
comment on it. You will have to locate these sites and then see if you have
anything relevant to say. Never post spam or extraneous information these sites or
you could get banned from them. At the very least, your comments will be deleted
and all your hard work will be for naught. So, respect the sites as valuable partners
in your bid to build PageRank by contributing something back when you post.
Finally, there are a variety of places on a .edu site that are set up to take job
postings for the local community or offer services to students and faculty. If you
can get in on some of these pages, they can also offer a link to an .edu page.
HANG OUT WITH THE FRESHMEN & Graduates
Well, it could be any grade level really, but you want to hang out with students,
whether you are one too or not. Many universities and colleges offer their students
an area under their .edu domain to post student pages. If the student is in
engineering, computer science, or some other technical or graphic design field, the
odds increase that they have a student page. Many of these student pages also
include contact information for the student.
The next step is to offer some type of information, product, or service that students
would be interested in knowing about. Post that on your website. Then, simply get
a list of email links and offer to send the information for free in exchange for a link
on their student page with some copy of your choice. Most students are not earning
much income and will like the idea of getting what they perceive to be a free deal.
Of course, you should get some good juice from the link to make it worth your
while. Check out the PR of the .edu links before you engage in this type of mass
backlink campaign. Once the student leaves the university, the pages are often
archived or deleted. Some student pages are only access through security and those are useless for backlinks. Look for some with student pages that are visible to
all and that have a good PageRank.
Don’t forget to add your own student page up, if you have a university account or
an alma mater with an alumni area. This is available to you when you enrolled and
sometimes after you leave too. Many universities and college want to hear back
from their alumni. While they may not have student pages for everyone, they will
be glad to include you in an alumni directory.
Don’t just leave it at a single link. Network with the students who are still in school
and also have them link back to you and you to their sites. This way, you all get a
little extra boost from the .edu love juice. And, since you certainly paid enough to
be enrolled, it’s nice the school can actually give something back besides just a
little piece of paper (diploma).
Join the alumni organizations and keep your information updated. When you
publish a book or have some business success, don’t forget to advertise it with a
link to a press release on your site. This is another great way to get a backlink from
a recognized .edu site and patronize your alma mater too.
ACADEMIC BLOGS
Another great source of backlinks at .edu sites is open blogs. Professors, speakers,
and even some students, are engaged in blogging in the academic world. You can
get a link back by either writing a guest post (if you happen to also run in academic
circles and have something to say) or you can follow the easier route of just
commenting on the blog with a backlink added.
However, if you’ve ever tried to find a particular page on a .edu site, you will
quickly realize how much time that can take. Universities and colleges host huge
sites and finding the one page that happens to be an academic blog that also allows
you to post a comment would be very tedious (if you had to do it manually).
Fortunately, you can use the power of Google to quickly locate open academic blogs
that are in your area of interest and that allow you to post comments, without
needing to log in.
To locate all the blogs on the Internet which are located on .edu sites, you want to
type into the Google search engine the following syntax:
Site:.edu inurl:blog
This will bring up a listing of blogs on the Web that are under .edu domains. You
can do the same for .gov sites by replacing the .edu with .gov in the search terms.
You will probably start to notice that many blogs don’t allow you to comment. To
find the one’s that do let you comment and avoid those that are closed, you can
refine the search term further by typing in the following:
Site:.edu inurl:blog “post a comment” –“comments closed”
This will narrow the list down significantly. As you are searching, if you see any
items you want to exclude from your list, all you have to do is put a minus sign
(dash) next the phrase in quotations to exclude it. So, if you wanted to exclude
sites that ask you to log in, you can add a –“you must be logged in” or some other
phrase that similarly represents a blog with security.
Anything that does not have a minus sign (dash) next to it is included in the search
terms. So, if you want to find only blogs that deal with pets, then you might try the
words: dog, veterinary, or animals. Don’t forget that if you have two or more words
together that you are searching you need to add them in quotes.
After putting this final customized phrase into the Google search engine, it will
come up with the relevant blogs and you can start adding comments with a
backlink. Remember to avoid duplicate content and to change your anchor text to
vary it. You can write one generic post comment and cut and paste that, simply
modifying it somewhat once you have a new blog comment added. This way you can get multiple blog comments done fairly quickly. Once you have a reputable list
of good PR ranking blogs to post in, you can keep doing it to get more and more
links under different blog entries.
OTHER AREAS UNDER A .EDU DOMAIN
Don’t think that you are limited to only putting up blog postings or signing up for as
a student to get access to student pages. There are many different areas under a
.edu domain where you can find a sneaky way to add your backlink. Just be sure
not to abuse these areas or you will quickly be targeted by the webmasters as a
troll and be banned.
Other areas that you might find are open and available for posting under a .edu
domain are:
Employment
While these aren’t permanent links, they can get you good placement in the
SERPs. If you want to hire a student to do something and the university has an
open job board, this is an excellent place to list your offering and put in a
backlink to your website.
Discount programs
Are you offering a product or service that you can give discounted to the
school’s student body? They will often give business people a link back to the
website if they offer a discount for students on goods and services. You might
even try giving them an affiliate link that is direct to help provide the school with
money off your offerings while giving the student’s a discount.
Student announcements
Are some of the people who do work on your site also university students?
Maybe you want to feature the good work that they do and how valuable an employee they are and notify the school so they can also show off their top
students.
Interview academics
If someone in the university fits in your niche of services, by promoting them
you might get a backlink back from their .edu pages.
Profile the school
Is there something in particular about the school that you find noteworthy and
relevant to your website niche? If so, you might want to profile them and send a
copy to the school’s publicity director.
Open forums
Besides student pages, the university might host open community forums. You
can find these by searching for the following search phrase: site:edu
inurl:forums. You can also add a word or words at the end to narrow the search
to a specific topic of interest.
Attend university conferences
Sometimes the listing of attendees at important conferences are published on
the web, especially if you are a guest speaker or involved in it in some way.
DESPERATE FOR A .EDU DOMAIN BACKLINK?
You can always set up a .edu domain of your own and try to market into a viable
online school. This is not as easy as it sounds and takes a lot of effort. The
backlinks are only good if the PageRank is good, so a newly started site starts off
with zero PageRank and zero credibility. However, if you are the type of person with
multiple contacts and people who are dying to start some form of online venture,
an educational institute can be something to think about. Whoever comes on board, especially if they are already located in academia, will look to you – especially if you
let them do workshops and courses at your school.