Google says edu backlinks dont work - true?

Does getting backlinks on .edu sites really help your rankings? I have always read they did, then I stumbled on this today from Google. I know they are not going to tell you the truth on what works - but has anyone put any real research into this?

Googler, JohnMu, wrote in a Google Groups thread that links from EDU domains are not in itself better links than .com or .net links. John said:

In general, I would like to add that no, backlinks from .EDU domains generally do not get "additional credibility from Google"

i think the issue is that certain .edu links are worth more than others. this is because with so many online schools coming on board, there are more .edu domains out there.
i would still think that they have a higher link value than your average .com or .net though.

not that I work at g00gle and know the algorithm, but it would make sense that a low PR .edu is far better than a low PR .com or .net. on the other hand, a high PR .com or .net is probably going to have more link value than a low PR .edu.

it is all relative to what domains you are comparing

.edu links themselves maybe don't but the fact that .edu in general are very aged and have a ton of backlinks themselves, therefore they are very good links to target and do give more linklove than the average .com or .net.

They are correct in that the fact it is a .edu probably means little, the age and backlinks / history is what makes them great for linkbuilding.

I hope not, I was under the impression that .gov and .edu links were worth more. Maybe they did start discounting them since there are so many slick ways to get those links nowadays Do you have a link of where we can see this or is it a private group?

.gov and .edu are usually considered to hold more authority... personally if you can get a backlink from any of these resources get it!

its certainly not going to do you any harm!

I'm undecided about this myself. I took a new site to a page rank of 5 in only three months, building less than 300 backlinks in the first three months of the site. A piece of this was grabbing two edu links I think. I also commented on a couple of high page rank webmaster type forums that are easy to join. But looking back on it, I'm thinking that it was the power of the edu links that might have done it. I'd never had any luck getting a completely new site to get decent page rank after just three months - so the fact that this happened to me means that I did something smart! Now if I could just figure out what it was....lol. But it has to either be the commenting on the high ranking forums and/or the two edu links I got.

Anyway, edu links are useful - so keep pursuing them as much as you can!

Dan

Yeah a lot of .edu have age and tons of backlinks already, so some are useful

yes, the .gov and .edu help out alot.

.edu links are easy to get especially from china site. But it is work if we put our link together with other spam link?