Gather .edu and .gov backlinks (enhanced)

Sometime ago I wrote the article “Gather .edu and .gov backlinks” where I argued that, despite the lack of official documentation, most SEO experts agree that .edu and .gov backlinks do carry a higher value for search engines.

If you are looking to increase your search engine juice, therefore, it could be a good idea to collect some of those backlinks. On the article I described a simple search query that could be used to find blogs with .edu or .gov extensions:

site:.edu inurl:blog “keyword″

The only problem with that query is that it will return all the .edu blogs with the specified keyword, including the ones where comments are closed or where you must be logged in order to post a comment.

Using a couple of Google operators we can exclude those blogs from the results, making the whole process much more efficient.

site:.edu inurl:blog “comment” -”you must be logged in” -”posting closed” -”comment closed” “keyword”

Bear in mind that you should not post meaningless comments just for the sake of getting a backlink. Always try to add value and contribute to the discussion, otherwise you will just be polluting the blogosphere.

Daniel Scocco on May 10, 2007 Subscribe to our RSS Feed

Bookmark

37 Responses to “Gather .edu and .gov backlinks (enhanced)”

Alex on May 10th, 2007 1:10 pm

Yesterday I found an .edu site giving away free links. It got me interested so I started searching for other .edu sites (with no success). You just helped me a lot Daniel, thanks!
Community Building Blog on May 10th, 2007 1:34 pm

You would also need to ensure those blogs have removed the ‘nofollow’ attribute from the comments section.

- Martin Reed
Daniel on May 10th, 2007 1:49 pm

Martin, that would be optimal, but almost impossible.

Also the “nofollow” argument is a shady area since search engines are not 100% regarding how they treat them.
egon on May 10th, 2007 8:52 pm

Great post, Daniel. This is something I’ve been meaning to do for a while. Thanks for reminding me.
egon on May 10th, 2007 8:52 pm

forgot to subscribe to comments…
richard on May 11th, 2007 2:15 am

Useful tips. I tried it for my keyword, economics and found some interesting blogs, I’m not sure how much comment links are worth to search engines though, but if it gets traffic that’s good.
Baxter Tocher on May 11th, 2007 5:00 am

Thanks for this tip.

@egon, you might wish to try coComment, which saves you having to manually subscribe to comments:

http://www.cocomment.com/
Narendra.s.v on May 11th, 2007 7:18 am

nice blog
Amanda on May 11th, 2007 9:05 am

Like narendras comment?

I don’t know much about getting the link backs carrying more, I think its more about the work you put into it.
Dave Butler on May 12th, 2007 6:10 pm

Based on what I’ve seen with some domains that I own I’d agree that the.edu do carry more weight (ie trust or whatever you want to call it). Honestly hadn’t looked at .edu blogs earlier something to consider.
Tim on May 21st, 2007 6:22 pm

This post couldn’t have come at a better time! I just started my backlink/PR intitiative for my site. Great info! Thanks.
kevstelo on June 10th, 2007 11:14 pm

I think I’ve read something simillar a few days ago. I don’t remember where, might have been on digg.com or slashdot.
auto cars on June 23rd, 2007 4:11 am

i think the gov or edu backlinks are hardest to get.
term paper on July 3rd, 2007 9:34 am

For my niche edu sites is the best way to promote.

Thank you.
sara on July 4th, 2007 7:11 am

Thanks for the great tip.
toplist on July 7th, 2007 5:32 am

thanks
jimmy on July 22nd, 2007 6:36 am

that is some great tips

it depends what keywords you use but this is great information for the newbsite or people that want more traffic.
Buddha on July 24th, 2007 6:14 am

Thanks fr the tip!!!
Burak on August 7th, 2007 7:46 pm

Really does this work?
Also will it be a backlink?
Preston on August 25th, 2007 11:15 am

.edu and .gov links are more powerful than any other TLD. Example: http://www.google.com/search?h.....digits.com - out of 5650 google backlinks, 5 of the top 11 are .edu.

Google also ranks backlinks by their strength.

I have access to get very powerful .edu and .gov links including on http://www.adison.edu - If you need .gov or .edu links contact me.
vca examen on September 19th, 2007 6:47 am

Thx for the backlink i should say
but indead its a good technique for backlinks in blogs and so on !!

http://www.vcadirect.nl
Dunstan on December 3rd, 2007 9:29 am

Thanks for the post, it has been very very informative indeed. SEO rocks!
tomibmtom on February 5th, 2008 7:31 am

more than I didn’t to ramble caught it horizontal that returned leaf
Free Traffic Tips on February 9th, 2008 12:23 pm

Hi friends

It’s difficult to comment in .edu & .gov sites.
anyone have a list of these sites. Please post here.
hattrick on February 10th, 2008 1:13 pm

Thanks for the info on backlinks (especially edu and gov sites) and site building very useful fo a newbie setting out in the world of internet and web building
Rizki Akmanda zaymi on March 2nd, 2008 9:26 am

thanks for the tips….
gout on May 8th, 2008 4:33 am

backlink from edu and gov…not easy to get. I already many article thats gov and edu very powerfull backlink. I need not only backlink but also traffic…. give me some positive suggestion , thanks
Will Gruver on June 6th, 2008 2:30 pm

Thank you for the information. I am interested in consulting with you sometime. Thanks for the backlink to….

http://www.uspowerco.com
SEO Genius on June 22nd, 2008 7:18 pm

I read about this a while ago on DP forums however i have never came across any edu sites that are relevant to my website and to be honest i doubt i will be able too.

Where is the evidence that edu sites are much higher quality backlinks?
seewoman on July 9th, 2008 9:50 am

look speed yahoo busy busy deliver red head
Otel Rehberi on July 21st, 2008 9:55 am

nice article