EDU Backlinks and SEO
The whole concept of link building as an SEO strategy has gone through quite a metamorphoses in the past several years. For some time, the pendulum hung far to one side encouraging an all-out effort to get as many links from whomever, wherever possible. Then, in what seemed like in a flash, it whipped to the very opposite side prophesizing doom for any site that had even one link. Finally, we may be coming to a place of balance regarding links.
Links can help you but they can also hurt you. It really depends on how you approach them. Links received from organic and logical relationships truly connected to you or your business are like gold. Anything else is garbage. This is true of any link—including a .edu link. That said, a .edu link can be looked upon more favorably by Google than some other links, making it something you might want. But, knowing that it has the potential to do more harm than good if it’s not the right .edu link, how do you navigate finding the right ones?
Let these ideas be your guide:
- Connect with a Local University Community
Let’s say you operate a diner near to a local university and you offer 24-hour delivery. It’s well worth your time to contact the university and see if you can be included in a local services section on their website. This would give you a natural link from their .edu page.
- Leverage the Experts
When writing a blog for your site, reach out to a professor for expert input and advice and cite that person in your post. Because university’s always like to promote their professors, you may easily receive a link in exchange. And, the professor does not necessarily have to be in your local area so feel free to reach out to someone wherever it makes sense to you.
- Be the Expert
Community colleges or universities that focus heavily on courses for working professionals often seek out local businesspeople as guest speakers for classes or events. Contact a school near you to offer your expertise. For example, if you own a small boutique, you could give a presentation on fashion merchandising or social media marketing for brick-and-mortar businesses. You could receive links from pre-event promotion as well as post-event summaries.
- Seek an Intern
Internships are critical for most college students anymore. They offer you the ability to get some unique insights from someone who is freshly engaged in a career path or industry. When you connect with a school to be part of the internship program, your business will commonly get a natural backlink from their site.
This is not an exhaustive list of how you can obtain high quality .edu links by any means but it should give you an idea of how to go about it.
Perhaps the golden rule in seeking .edu links is to not seek them. The link should really be simply a by-product of another relationship or experience, not the goal in itself. This is actually true of all links and adopting this philosophy for all of your link building activities can be beneficial to your SEO efforts.
