I came across this yesterday - an official statement by Google regarding two SEO truths myths that are very common.
They are…
1. The effect of linking out to other websites.
This is one that really gets on my nerves. There’s an old (and now “officially” defunct) school of thought that linking out to other websites from your site is a bad practic, it’s going to lower your page rank, and blah blah blah.
Check out Google’s statement about linking out to other sites.
Basically, like most SEO, it’s common sense.
Linking out to other quality, authoritative sites in your niche is helpful for your site’s visitors and improves the quality of your site. Hence, it’s not going to get you an SEO penalty, and in fact, can improve your authority and rankings in the engines.
2. Links from .gov and .edu sites.
This is one I’d fallen prey to up until this point too. I would try to obtain links from .edu blogs where I could, in hope for an SEO boost. Not the case.
Google says they treat .edu and .gov links like any other links. Quoting Matt Cutts:
“”This is a common misconception - you don’t get any PageRank boost from having an .edu link or .gov link automatically. If you get an .edu link and no one is linking to that .edu page, you’re not going to get any PageRank at all because that .edu page doesn’t have any PageRank. [...] We generally treat all links the same - be it from .gov or .edu or .info sites.”"
.Edu links the same as .info links???
The word “generally” bothers me a little, but I think we can say that this is “generally” advice we should heed.
Good news? Bad news?
I suppose it’s neither.
But it’s another victory for common sense in online marketing, that’s for sure.
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Thanks for the myth busters.
The problem is - when so called ‘gurus’ are telling SEO this and SEO that, lots of people tend to eat what they say. Especially so when the same myths get told by guru after guru after guru.
I always look for factual support whenever someone made such claims. Otherwise I just put it aside until I or someone can justify it.
Most people have the wrong idea about gov and edu links.
Most of them are valuable because theyre old and authorative domains and not because of the domain extension.
Hey Andrew,
How are you doing? Was checking out your blog after a while and decided to drop you a line.
By the way, are you on Twitter? Searched but couldn’t find you there.
Have a nice day,
Ladan
I never fell for the edu link craze. I think SEO is just about common sense. I lot of people make it way to technical.
Great to hear of SEO gossip ( coz that’s all it was) not only being disproved but being dismissed by big G.
Any more like that Andrew?
Alex
Just found out about this now. I also thought .edu were good backlinks. Thanks for the information.