Do Edu or Gov backlinks carry more weight?

I have always been a big believer of a link being just a link no matter where it came from. I have added lots of Edu and Gov backlinks to my site(s), and haven’t seen any difference compared to regular com/net/org backlinks.

I’m writing this post because a lot of people ask me how many Edu/Gov backlinks will it take for their site to rank on page 1 of Google. The answer is NONE, and the answer is also A LOT. 

The reason why NONE is an answer is because I rank for a lot of sites that have NO Edu backlinks. Ex. Mortgage Rates (I rank for my state and other national keyterms)

The reason why A LOT is an answer is because Edu and Gov backlinks are worth a lot because they receive a lot of natural links. They MAY carry a lot of weight but not for the reasons we make think they do.

Edu and Gov sites NATURALLY have other sites pointing to them. A site that contains a lot of back links will have a  higher chance of having a higher page rank, trust factor, and authority. I have seen Edu sites with the home page having a PR1 because it was a fairly new EDU site. I did a link analysis on the site, and saw it only had a couple of hundred backlinks. After a few PageRank updates, the site’s PR changed to a PR5. I did another link analysis on the site, and saw that the backlinks were now over 1,000. The Edu site was not even soliciting for backlinks. They now had local municipal sites with aged domains and high PR pointing a link to them.

Gov or Government sites are the same way.

Cars.gov was a fairly new Government site that was created for the Cash for Clunkers program. The site had a few instant backlinks from sites like USA.gov, and was ranking on page 1 on Google for Cars. Everyone in the US was talking about this new program, and writing press releases, articles and blog posts with a link pointing back to Cars.gov.
A lot of people speculated that they were on page 1 almost instantly because it was a .gov site. They overlooked the facts that are played into the SERPs everyday.

1. Google loves exact match domains. Search for Cars on Google or other keywords, and you will normally see an exact match domain on page1

2. Google loves a site that has strong backlinks pointing to it. I’m sure USA.gov (PR10) is not the only strong backlink Cars.gov has.

3. Google will rank the site with most AND quality backlinks, aged domain, aged backlinks, etc. Search for Cars on Google and you will see that Cars.gov is #6, and Cars.com is #1 with sitelinks! Cars.com is beating out a .gov site!

So what’s the lesson here?

Stop chasing Edu and Gov links and/or paying a lot of $$$ when other links maybe a lot cheaper, and worth a lot more in Google’s eyes.

If you need to find any Gov links you can start with Uncle Sam

Here’s Matt Cutts talking about how .Edu/.Gov backlinks carry the same weight as a .Com

Backlink Anchor Text

What is a backlink? Another website pointing to your website. Another website can be another website you own or anyplace that is willing to allow you to place your link on their website.

What is Anchor text? The text that is associated with a hyperlink. Example: SEO for Dummies <<<< “SEO for Dummies” is the anchor text that is associated with the hyperlink http://centuryhouse.net

Why is adding Anchor text to a hyperlink important? Anchor text adds ‘relevance’ to the hyperlink. Common domain names are taken so adding an anchor will help a person know what the hyperlink is about before clicking on it.

Ok here are my experiences using Backlink Anchor Text

Variations of a keyword will usually bring up different search results. I’m #4 for the keyword ‘SEO for Dummies’, but you will not find me if you search for the keyword ‘SEO for Dummy’. If you search for ‘SEO for Beginners’ you’ll see me on page 2, but with the keyword ‘SEO for Beginner’ (without the s) you will not find me. Either they are two different searches or Google has a hard time placing the two keywords together. This also applies when you’re using State abbreviations like FL for Florida. Searching for ‘FL Senior’ will give you different results than searching for ‘Florida Senior’.

My thoughts are that a Backlink Anchor Text is and should be the same as a search query. So if you search for SEO you’ll  come up with a lot more results than if you would search for SEO for Dummies. The anchor text is looked at as a closed keyword phrase. Some examples of closed keyword phrases are when you use bold tags, attach a hyper link, or adding H1 tag. You’re not adding a bold tag, H1 tag, or a hyperlink to the whole page, but just a certain phrase. The same thing applies when you itacilize or when you underline a keyword. Open ended is when the whole article contains no HTML tags that will distinguish a keyword or phrase from the rest of the article.

Ok so an anchor text is close ended, and an article is considered open ended.

An anchor text is also an exact match that needs to attach itself to the same keyword or keyword phrase on your article. Another way to look at this is hitting CTRL+F, and searching for ‘SEO for dummies’. The search will only give you the  ‘exact match’ of the phrase you placed in the search box.

Here’s an example to demonstrate.

Anchor Text you’re using = Charlotte Newspapers >>>>(Your Article) “The Charlotte newspaper released important news today…”
Some people would think that this would be an exact match to the article but the Anchor text contains an ’s’. The article does not contain the letter ’s’ in the keyword newspaper.

Anchor Text you’re using = Charlotte Newspaper >>>>(Your Article)  “The Charlotte newspaper released important news today…”
This is an exact match of an anchor text with a keyword phrase in the article. The spiderbot registers the anchor text as ‘Charlotte Newspaper’, it follows the link, then finds ‘Charlotte Newspaper’ on the article making it an exact match.

In layman’s terms …. 1 fits into 2, but 2 does not fit into 1.  FL fits into Florida, but Florida doesn’t fit into FL.

So if the above is true then why do people use these types of anchor text for hyperlinks

SEO expert, SEM consultant, Adwords (they use commas)

SEO expert/SEM consultant/Adwords (they use slashes)

Local SEO expert who also does SEM consultation (they place a hyperlink on the whole sentence)

The problem is that “Local SEO expert who also does SEM consultation” is an exact match keyword that needs to be found on the page it’s pointing with an exact match! If it actually did work then I would just add a hyper link to my WHOLE ARTICLE, and I would be #1 for everything. Using slashes and commas in your anchor text devalues the link quality. Make SURE that the robots that crawl the anchor text links will find your exact anchor text on your page. Otherwise, the robot will devalue the backlink!  This is why the Google bomb requires thousands of backlinks in order for it to work. Usually the person’s page being bombed doesn’t contain the keyword being used in the anchor text.

One of the reasons why I rank for ‘SEO for Dummies’ is because I used that key term in my anchor texts over and over again. I didn’t add any variances to the anchor text. A lot of people would disagree with that, but I don’t want to be ranking for keywords that do NOT get searched.

Make sure to do your keyword research before writing ANYTHING. There are enough keyword tools that you should NOT be picking your own keywords. Always ‘consult’ with the tool to make sure it gets searched. Nothing hurts more than being #1 for a keyword, and not getting any visitors. Adding/removing the ’s’ in your anchor texts to make it singular or plural can be a HUGE difference in your rankings.

So if you use an Anchor text make sure the same exact match keyword phrase is in your article and/or meta tags. Is this required? No, but it sure helps out alot!

*some rankings have changed since post date as I am targeting different keywords

Advanced Backlinks for Web Designers

If I had a penny everytime a web developer/web designer told me they knew SEO due to the fact that they are web people, I would be a millionaire. It would be nice if it was true, but I see a lot of web design companies who can’t even rank for their own company page. Just because someone is a web developer or designer does not make them a SEO expert.

Web designers are like artists who come up with a beautiful page, and love to leave their signature at the bottom of their work. Their signature is usually a backlink to their company page which is normally located at the footer. They use their ‘company name’ as the anchor text which isn’t going to give them the full potential of that backlink. Instead of using an anchor text Charlotte SEO they will use their company name like Century House. The point is who searches for Century House? Those who are searching the company name are searching for it specifically because they already heard about the company. Those who search on any search engine will search for KEYWORDS not a company name unless they’re looking for more information on the company.

It’s very important to place a link on the footer of the page. The reason is that the footer appears on every page of the website. This helps to generate more juice from that link. A spiderbot may not find the page you have your link on, but if it’s in the footer then it will appear on every single page of the website. If Google likes one page better than the other it will not matter as your link will always appear at the bottom. Any new page or post that is created on that domain will remind the spiderbots of your footer link.

Another issue I’m seeing is that webmasters don’t use the bold tag on their backlinks. Imagine a spiderbot going through this new page you developed for your client. The whole page is using regular text but at the bottom of the page there is something that is SCREAMING FOR ATTENTION! It reads “Look at me I’m different from the rest because I have a bold tag!” The bold tag shows emphasis, so using an anchor text with the bold tag is telling the spiderbot that the link is very important.

The last point can be considered greyhat or blackhat. Those who understand the concept will understand the potential it has for search engine manipulation which is against Search Engine TOS/Guidelines. I have seen a lot of web designers who have a whole collage of websites that they have developed/created. One thing I notice with most webmasters is that they use the same hosting provider for all of their websites. Most don’t see that as a big deal, but if you look at the IP addresses on the websites they’re all the same. There is this ‘rumor’ going around that Google doesn’t give much ‘juice’ for websites pointing to each other that are on the same IP address. It makes sense because these sites are somehow related with each other. They all have something in common, and that’s sharing the same webmaster.

Still don’t get it?

Imagine looking for references for a company that you’re about to hire. Would it matter if the company’s reference is the owner’s brother or a close friend of the owner? I’m sure you’re going to want ‘more references’ from other places unless you’re very well acquainted with the owner’s brother or his close friend. I would look at this as an affiliation more than a reference.

abc.com IP 123  points to xyz.com IP 123 (looks like the same person) Client is a nobody so this is probably an affiliation

Google IP 123 points to youtube IP 123 (same person but Major website involved) Huge affiliation pointing to another huge affiliation

abc.com IP 789 points to xyz.com IP 123 (different IP address, not the same person) This is more of a reference link than an affiliated link.

Now imagine having done 20 websites for 20 different clients, and using different hosting providers.

The links will now be references instead of affiliations.

Recap

1. Use keywords for anchor text not company name

2. Place link in the footer

3. Use bold tags with anchor text

4. Use different hosting providers for each client for more SEO reference links instead of affiliated links

Link Exchange

Link exchange with another website that is relevant to yours has been the way everyone has been taught. I believe this is one of the biggest lies or myths given to the SEO community.

When I first started out I read hundreds of articles that stated this concept. “You need revelant links or your page will be penalized”

I read that having relevant links will be the links that will put you on page 1 for Google, and other search engines.

I’m here to say from experience with my websites & others that it is a myth. I posted this story because I see a lot of new people in the SEO field trying this out, and see a lot of ‘SEO Experts’ doing this.

Here is how I came to the conclusion of the biggest myth in SEO

I started out with a mortgage website which everyone knows is a very competitive field. After reading these articles about ‘relevant links’ I decided to call around to see who would link to me. I realized that NO COMPETITOR will want to link to me. Any person would normally give up at this point, and probably have a nice looking website that nobody visits. It’s like buying a beautiful home, and all of your friends live out of town so nobody comes to visit.

So I started to obtain links from any place that would give me a backlink. Most people normally submit their sites to directories. Then I realized that nobody visits directories so I would not receive any referral traffic (wrong idea at the time). So I started blog commenting with a link back to my website. Blog commenting generated a LOT of visitors but the quality was garbage. I realized that nobody shopping for a mortgage would come from a blog or directory.

The weird thing was that people were finding me in the search engines, and from the same keyword. I realized that I was actually ranking for some decent keywords! What surprised me is that NONE of my backlinks were from a mortgage or real estate website. So I decided to go on a link spree, and start posting my link everywhere. What happened was that my site was penalized, and I dropped rankings. I realized that as fast as I posted links, the website owners were taking them down. Of course any Search Engine would see this as spam. Spiderbots would crawl the links, but would come back later to find out they were gone. Well I realized that this type of linking was going to hurt me so I stopped linking in places where they would take me down. Most of the places that do this are blogs. Most directories don’t care about your link being posted as long as it’s not an adult or gambling site.

So your question now is where you should get links.

Here are some examples

1. Authority sites – I started to Google my niche, and realized that there were a lot of nonmortgage related websites. I saw yellowpages, government sites, blog communities, article websites, etc. I noticed that ALL of these websites were/are considered an Authority website because of age, and the amount of web pages pointing to them. I also noticed that a few of them were listed on DMOZ and/or Yahoo.

2. Social Networking – There are a lot of social networking sites like Digg that rank on Google’s top 10 for pretty good keywords. These sites will give you backlinks, and a lot of them are recognized by Google as an authority site. Sites that receive over 50k visitors per month are good sites to get a link from.

3. Social Bookmarking – Believe it or not Google loves some of these backlinks. Whenever you bookmark a site, make sure to check your Google Webmaster tools within 2 weeks. If it shows up then you know Google likes it, and if it doesn’t then put that bookmarking site on the backburner. Try to stick with the websites that get crawled faster, and show up on your Webmaster tools.

A lot of people will not submit to the above because they’re afraid they will receive less quality traffic. I used to think like this until I realized that referral visitors wasn’t the purpose of submitting my links to these places. The main purpose was obtaining backlinks from websites. Sites that receive over 50k visitors per month normally have the spiderbots on their website everyday. If you post a link on these sites, then your backlink will get crawled faster, and your SERPs will update faster. This is how a lot of people can get their sites ranking for a keyword within hours or minutes. The best keywords will take longer to master, but building links will help you obtain rankings within the first page with the search engines.