The old belief that Google gives a magical algorithmic boost just because a domain ends in .edu is long dead. They are evaluated like any other backlink based on topical relevance, page authority, and real traffic.
Most cheap EDU guest posts sold nowadays are on hacked student blogs, outdated library portals, or foreign subdomains stuffed with outbound spam links. Google discounts or ignores those almost immediately.
A genuine contextual link from an active, authoritative university department page or official resource list is still valuable, but paying for mass EDU guest posts is largely a waste of budget today.
