Okay, there’s an obsession with *.edu backlinks — and I’m here to fill that void. Essentially, this will be a tutorial on how to find .edu/.gov backlinks (nothing too fancy). Be forewarned, the last few suggestions are slightly less serious.

• Competitive Backlink Checking - Look at a domain name that is in direct competition for your site and then run the following “backlink” query on Yahoo.

1. To rank this site highly, I might check a site that ranks high for the term “SEO”. I see that SEOinc.com ranks highly on Yahoo, let’s run this query: linkdomain:www.seoinc.com +site:.edu -site:.com -site:www.seoinc.com
2. If I was in direct competition with Jim Boykin, I’d run this: linkdomain:www.webuildpages.com +site:.edu -site:.com -site:www.webuildpages.com at Yahoo.
3. So, running this on any site that looks to have artificially produced backlinks would be a good start.

• Add Links to User Contributed Pages - Find a site that uses some type of software to have pages produced. i.e., guestbooks, ffalp, forums, blogs, etc. So, check-out a demo of that script, and scroll to the bottom to see any type of copyright notice or a link back to the original site — now, copy that text and run a query (like one of the below):

1. Using a Free For All Links Page: It had the text on the bottom of the demo: Script Created by Matt Wright and can be found at Matt’s Script Archive. Now search: site:.edu “Script Created by Matt Wright and can be found at Matt’s Script Archive”
2. Remember adding to related sites will have the best results. This is not spamming as long as you add your site to just relevant pages. To do this, search site:.edu “name of script” “desire query for optimization”. Doing this will dramatically decrease your number of pages to submit to, but at least you’ll get much higher quality results.

• Provide a Business Service - I’ve personally added some of my sites (other sites) into online business directories.

1. If you take a look at this post — you can actually offer internships and receive a decent backlink because of it. Now, you’ll certainly need to be innovative while trying this technique, but it can work quite nicely.

• Go to College - I doubt all of you will take this advice.

1. …Harvard might be a good start, though (see the link — then you’ll see why).

• Buy ‘em

1. Buying backlinks is no longer considered “white hat seo,” so maybe I should say, “donate.”

• Other Techniques - Acquiring links without pushing for them.

1. Create something that reference-able (yeah, I know its not a real word).
2. Create a mathematical application or tool related to programming or any related subject at schools. Essentially, all educational tools work well. (I’ve done this one fairly well for one of my sites.)

Is the “.edu” really that necessary?

It’s not any better than any other TLD (or maybe I should say they aren’t supposed to be — Matt Cutts confirmed this before). Other than the reason Matt Cutts gave, age is also a factor.