MajesticSEO study : .gov/.edu Backlinks myth debunked !?

SaulGoodman · Feb 7, 2014

I just stumbled upon an interesting study on the impact of .edu & .gov backlinks on the official MajesticSEO blog, and thought this might be interesting for some of you as well

The study itself gets a bit technical, although I think its a quite interesting insight, that having .edu & .gov backlinks doesn't (seem to) increase website rankings dramatically.

Bottom line of the study :

It would seem that search engines would be wise not to show EXTRA treatment for links just because they are on .edu or .gov sites and it would seem that any such impressions by SEOs are probably based on myth and legend than statistical theory. Most likely the myth arose because some search engines ? Yahoo in particular ? used to make it quite easy to search for links with a particular TLD such as .gov or .edu and this may have led SEOs into the mistake worse than the regular error of treating correlation as causation. I say worse, because there IS no obvious correlation, which suggests that SEOs relied on the only data they could glean from the search engines at the time, rather than gather enough data to make a statistical observation.

It seems at if another SEO myth has been debunked

Or maybe Google changed the algorithm, since so many people are abusing .gov & .edu backlinks for their "ranking power".... however I at least believe that .gov/.edu domains still pass a certain trust.

Check out the complete study here : http://blog.majesticseo.com/researc...erring-domain-ratios-in-the-majestic-million/

And don't forget to share your thoughts

JustUs · Feb 7, 2014

While I do not necessarily discount the study, I must take it with a few grains of salt.

The problem is there is no reproducibility. Majestic SEO did not include their data set and they did not mention the statistical formula(s)/methods they are relying on.

In short, based on some unknown set of websites, Majestic SEO is cherry picking the data that they choose to give reliance on. Each person should draw their own conclusions as to the importance to give the post; for myself, I give it the importance of incomplete, inconclusive, and irreproducible based on the lack of the data set.

SaulGoodman · Feb 9, 2014

I partly agree with what you've said, although I think that the "Majestic Million" (top 1,000,000 domains in terms of inbound links) are a quite good data set, since those domains are more likely to have .edu/.gov sites than others.

However, like always in life, don't rely on studies but own experiences

fc-dh · Feb 9, 2014

I have never seen any proof att all that .edu and .gov links have more trust then other links, i never bought or will buy or will search for .edu .gov links as i am a firm believer that this is a myth made up and is being kept alive by people who sell links/domains.

So this is no news for me

zebrahat · Feb 9, 2014

The real issue is does a TLD extension by itself pack any value as far as domain/page authority is concerned. Even without a study, the instinctive answer should probably be no. Just because gov/edu sites may in general gather more authority over time by nature of their natural development, doesn't mean Google will or even should automatically confer authority to a specific page carrying that extension. Marketers are best advised to build natural looking authority for their sites, instead of relying on 'TLD extension magic' to get them there.

turbopugsleylx · Feb 9, 2014

I think they did at one time years ago...but since have been relegated to the dustbins along with reciprocal links, keyword stuffing and Adsense blog farms..among other things.

Posted via Topify using iPhone/iPad

StraussCan · Feb 10, 2014

They still work. End of story.

.EDU and >GOV links pass some serious trust if acquired on a highly and extremely legit site.

Kralj187 · Feb 10, 2014

Well this sentence fits even without the edu/gov - pass some serious trust if acquired on a highly and extremely legit site...

StraussCan said:
They still work. End of story.

.EDU and >GOV links pass some serious trust if acquired on a highly and extremely legit site.

MajesticSEO study : .gov/.edu Backlinks myth debunked !?

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