What are EDU links and why should I care? The dot EDU top level domain is a restricted domain since 2001 to accredited institutions only. That is, unless you have been grandfathered in, you can not operate an edu page without being an accredited university or educational establishment. Many institutions have held their domains for a long time: both Harvard and MIT registered their domains in 1985. Currently, there is only one registrar that handles .edu domains. That registrar is educause, and one most prove accreditation to them in order to register a domain. The limitation on those who can create. edu pages and the age of the pages themselves means that they are tightly controlled and regulated.
As these pages are hosted by universities, the topics they have can span the gambit from sports to academics. Most professors will have a page that will list their classes and research. Their will be web pages for many classes as well as pages for the different departments and levels of administration. Everyone on campus from the bursar to the gym will get their own page that has a section with contact information and hours. Many universities will have a human resource section that includes a trusted source of suppliers who have promised to give discounts to community members. It may be useful to check your local university to see if you can get a link from their trusted resource page. In fact, trusted resources are often a giveaway. So many people know about this strategy that it's value is often not that high from a Search Engine Marketing (SEM) perspective. At the same time, the price could not be better: free. For this reason, many companies that are targeting their local area, as opposed to Internet businesses, love to get promotions from their local university.
There are several other strategies for finding ways to get links from university pages. Some people will post a job for an intern on a college job board. That is very easy, as interns generally are able to do useful work for a small amount of time for experience instead of pay. Others try to find a page of a professor a university that needs updating to include CSS or RSS feeds. In exchange for redesigning an older page, they will get a designer link. Designers should note, however, that Professors often have very exacting standards. Be prepared to work hard to make the page have both the proper aesthetic and text fitting for whatever field that professor is in.
Other strategies for acquiring these links are buy purchasing them. Links can be acquired through a link broker or directly. Buying EDU links directly may reduce the cost of the link, but can take a lot of time to develop relationships with universities. That is why many people use brokers for acquiring these links. Different brokers will have different inventories, costs, and types of pages that they sell. Some EDU pages are grandfathered into their domain, and not actually universities. One should be very sure what type of link one is looking before paying for it. Proper due diligence beforehand is much cheaper than cleaning up a mess later. For more information, please visit www.edulinkjuice.com.
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