Google Ignores Edu Links Because They Are Spammed More

[djbaxter]

The longstanding myth that there is something special about getting links to your site from .EDU sites and other TLD's with presumed extra link juice or authority has been debunked repeatedly over the years but it is still surprisingly resilient.

Here is John Mueller debunking it again, in perhaps the strongest language yet.

Google Ignores A Lot Of Edu Links Because They Are Spammed More
by Barry Schwartz, Search Engine Roundtable
September 3, 2018

Google's John Mueller said that Google ignores a lot of links on EDU TLDs because they are more often link spam targets. Google said there is a misconception that EDU links are more valuable, hence why they are more of a spam target and thus why Google ignores more spammy links here then other places.

John said this on Twitter "Because of the misconception that .edu links are more valuable, these sites get link-spammed quite a bit, and because of that, we ignore a ton of the links on those sites. Ideally, they should just nofollow all of those links instead of us having to ignore them."

John ☆.o(≧▽≦)o.☆ @JohnMu

Because of the misconception that .edu links are more valuable, these sites get link-spammed quite a bit, and because of that, we ignore a ton of the links on those sites. Ideally, they should just nofollow all of those links instead of us having to ignore them.

4:55 AM - Sep 3, 2018

Read more...

 

[OnlineLobstar]

First of all, every relevant links matter if it can drive referral traffic.
Check the backlink source If-

• It is publishing relevant content regularly.
• It is getting good amount of organic traffic.
• Users are interacting with their content.
• The link can bring referral traffic
• The link are published through editorial review process.

Google is gradually decreasing the value of links. But the value of quality links can never be ignored. My advice will be,

• Focus on quality over quantity
• Stop counting No-Follow and Do-Follow links
• Stop looking for exact matched anchor text links
• Stop worrying about 3rd party link quality metrics.
• Focus on getting backlinks from related websites

 

[Yan Gilbert]

EDU links were all the rage back in the day. Old SEO tactics take long to die out. FOMO it is.

 

[djbaxter]

EDU links were all the rage back in the day. Old SEO tactics take long to die out. FOMO it is.

Exactly. It was always a myth, even back then. But clearly there are some who still believe it.

 

[rclark]

New competitor in a local luxury niche buying up donor/sponsor/grant links and jumping high up quickly...I imagine it'll drop within a month or two.

 

[Eric Rohrback]

Take everything Google says with a dose of skepticism. Edu links might be doing fine in some niches that only need a small boost to gain powerful results. They didn't say they completely ignore, just devalues a little bit. They'll ignore when it's clear spam, but I bet if you had a few relevant edu links (like if you're hosting a seminar at a college) then you could see some good value.

If given the opportunity to snag a few edu links with partial anchors, I'd definitely do it.

 

[djbaxter]

The problem is that most of the edu links people went after were worthless student account links.

Google is not saying that edu links as a whole are ignored or have no value. What they have been saying clearly for years is that just because they have the edu TLD doesn't make them special. If the links from that site are relevant with good PR, etc., etc., they will have some value, not because they are edu links but because the site itself has value. Generally, this will only apply to direct links from the college or university site itself.

 

[Phil Rozek]

What @Eric Rohrback said. JohnMu needs salt.

I'd add that a good link is a good link, whether or not it's on a .edu TLD. The corollary of that: an already-good link isn't better just because it's a .edu. I've seen those links (appear to) help and not help clients and non-clients alike.

If a link takes a little work to get and it's good enough that the .edu part doesn't matter to you, I would guess it's not in Google's "ignore" pile.