Hi Everyone,
In this weeks post I am going to stick to the theme of working smarter and not harder, and I am therefore going to show you a very simple and effective way that you can leverage the work of your competition, and also get some very valuable links from .edu and .gov domains.
Building back links to your website is absolutely key when it comes to getting good search engine rankings. However if you have spent any time doing this you will realize that it can be hard work.
However there is are free ways that can help you see what your competition have done, in regards to back linking their sites, and that is by using search strings in Yahoo.
The first thing you want to do is get a few url’s of your top competitors and for example purposes let’s use this site: www.barkbuster.com. What I would do is then type this into Yahoo: link:http://www.barkbusters.com
Below is a screen shot with an example of some results:
Keep in mind that when you are searching like this, if you are searching for a professional well established site, you will find that a lot of the links, .edu and .gov included, are natural links and therefore it will be tough for you to get links from these sites.
However if you search for a typical affiliate websites back links then it is a safe bet that these links will be all forced and therefore there is every chance that you can go off and create a link there also! What I mean by forced is the website owner went off and created them, so they didn’t just get linked to naturally from other sites.
Government and Education Links
Not long ago I did a post on how to search for blogs and forums that were on .edu and .gov domains, which I hope you found helpful, and below is another example of how to to this. All you need to do is type these strings into Google:
site:.gov blog
site:.edu blog
You can also add you niche keyword before the word blog to find specific blogs to your niche , but to be honest I find this narrows the search field too much so I rarely do it.
By typing this into Google the results are for government and education domains that also have a blog. Where there is a blog there is often comments, and that is where you want your links to be.
Oh and if you are really lucky you might find a military domain to get a link from: site:.mil
Now you may also want to find forums on these domain also, so one way to do that is to search on:
inurl:edu forum
inurl:gov forum
What you have to realize is that finding these blogs and forums that will allow a link to your site can take time, but you have to remember that these links are worth A LOT more for your search engine results than regular links.
Also if the links you do successfully place are ‘No Follow’ then don’t be discouraged, because many leading SEO experts agree that ‘No Follow’ from these trusted domains still getting indexed and help your sites rankings.
My last point before I finish this weeks post, is that once you find a site that you want to post a link on, make sure you use the Google Advanced Search technique that I talked about a few weeks ago. If you missed it then here is the link to that post: High Page Rank Links
These are just some ways of searching for back links, there are many more, but this should help you find some useful links for your sites.
Have a great day!
Matt
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Absolutely, if your competitors are ranking above you then it’s worth finding out why. Like many people I have always struggled to find .edu and .gov domain to get links from but just yesterday I examined the links of a competitor site and found EXACTLY where they had gotten two .edu backlinks from. Needless to say I have now got backlinks from there as well.
I like to think of it more like ‘Advanced Tactics’ rather than spying :).
Matt Carter Reply:
January 15th, 2010 at 10:04 pm
Hi Ben,
Thanks for sharing, and yeah sourcing .edu and .gov from your competition is a smart move!
Look forward to more input from you on the blog!
Cheers
Matt
Thanks for the helpful tips! Please keep them coming.
Thank you for that tip Matt. I’ve gotten a lot of great advice here on your blog and I truly appreciate them. jesse
Matt Carter Reply:
January 16th, 2010 at 7:36 am
Hey Jesse,
That’s ok, I am happy to share all my tips with my loyal followers!! All I ask in return is that you tell others about my blog and video course
Thanks
Matt
I heard that so many people are flocking .edu and .gov sites that govt is considering strick action who ever leave their unneccesary links. I have never in my experience got a .gov or .edu blog results in google when they are not ranked good themselves how can they help other sites get better rank. I have heard it from 100’s of IM guru’s and believe it is not true.
Matt Carter Reply:
January 16th, 2010 at 8:21 am
Hey Ram,
All I know is that I have got quite a lot of .edu and .gov links and I have tested this and seen big jumps in the SERPS even if they have low or no page rank, as I think Google trust these domains as not just anyone can go out and get one.
Cheers
Matt
Hey Matt, I am a loyal flower and wanted to thank you for these tips. I really appreciate it.
Matt Carter Reply:
January 16th, 2010 at 12:52 pm
Hey Mike,
No problem at all, glad you got some useful stuff out of it.
Have a great weekend,
Matt
Matt, I always look forward to your emails with a note about a new blog post. This is great information and a must for everyone who is serious about their online business. I appreciate your high level of knowledge and simple delivery of the content. Blessings in 2010!
Matt Carter Reply:
January 16th, 2010 at 2:10 pm
Hi Bill,
Thanks for your feedback, glad you like the content, if you are interesting
in any area of internet marketing in particular let me know and I will
see if I can do a post about it
Matt
Hi Matt,
Why are you sharing this information? It’s suppose to be secret! Id be honest with you man, you should charge your readers to have access to your knowledge…
I was just kidding…on the “charge your readers” part.
We are fortunate to have an honest marketer like you sharing your knowledge to us.
Thank you and stay unselfish!
Renato
Matt Carter Reply:
January 16th, 2010 at 11:17 pm
Hey Renato,
Nice to hear from you again!!
Thanks for your nice comments
Matt
Hi Matt,
Thanks for he tip. Surprisingly, I’ve found several .edu blogs for my learn guitar niche. Nice work!
Keith
Matt Carter Reply:
January 18th, 2010 at 8:28 am
Hey Keith,
Great job and keep up the good work
Matt
Hi Matt,
I have been following you for a little while now, and I love the fact that you are an Aussie IM too 🙂
Do you find that gov and edu sites generally allow comments?
Also, a little off topic, but do you know how to become an affiliate of Market Samurai?
Cheers,
Chris
Matt Carter Reply:
January 26th, 2010 at 11:08 am
Hey Chris,
Not sure about Market Samurai,
And if you search for Gov and edu links it can produce results that are hard core spammed, it takes practice!!
Try forums, they are ok, and you can get a link from your profile page anyway, where you put your signature, just
put your link there, or in the about me etc….
Cheers
As usual, killer stuff. I have learnt alot from your blog and have recommended to everyone I know involved in internet marketing (who aren’t in my niches!)
Cheers and thanks,
Kyle
Matt Carter Reply:
January 26th, 2010 at 10:49 am
Hey Kyle,
Thanks man, I really appreciate your comments
Matt
Hi Matt Just invested in Googlesniper, and its looks great. Any comments ?
Sean
Matt Carter Reply:
January 28th, 2010 at 8:47 am
Hey Sean,
All I can say is that Google Sniper is THE BEST course out at the moment, and make sure that you go after BUYER keywords when building your site and also HEALTH products are good to target.
One last thing, in Google Sniper George teaches people to go after keywords that require no back linking, which are low competition, but I go after higher volume higher competition and I have a number of very profitable Sniper sites.
All the best
Matt
Thanks matt for the videos it’s an eye opener for newbie like me look to hear from you.
Thankx
Matt Carter Reply:
January 30th, 2010 at 1:25 pm
Hi Gideon,
Great to see you on the blog, I look forward to more comments from you.
Glad to see you are getting into also, just remember to keep learning
Thanks
Matt
Recently I started the internet marketing business and I’m checking the web for various tactics and best practices for this field. Now I’m also thinking of applying to online classes I can take to develop my skills in online marketing. I appreciate the time you spent to share this strategy.