How to Get EDU Backlinks: 10 Tactics that Work

As a business owner or digital marketing agency, you’re likely aware of the importance of backlinks for improving your website’s search engine rankings. But have you considered the power of edu backlinks? These links come from educational institutions like universities and colleges, and they carry significant weight in the eyes of search engines.

In this article, we’ll share 10 tactics that work for building powerful edu backlinks. You’ll learn about local link building, offering scholarships, interviewing prominent faculty staff, broken link building, creating a careers page, and more. By implementing these strategies, you’ll be able to improve your website’s search engine rankings and attract more traffic to your site.

So, keep reading to discover how to get valuable edu backlinks and boost your online presence.

What Are EDU Backlinks?

Edu backlinks are hyperlinks from educational institutions’ websites like universities and colleges. These institutions are well-established and respected sources of information, and their websites have high domain authority and page authority. These types of backlinks are considered high-quality links because they are believed to be from authoritative sources. When an edu website links to your website, search engines see it as a vote of confidence, indicating that your site is a trustworthy and reliable source of information. 

Are EDU Backlinks Powerful?

Yes, edu backlinks are considered some of the most powerful backlinks you can obtain. As mentioned earlier, educational institutions are respected, and well-established entities and websites have high domain authority and page authority.

In the eyes of search engines, a link from an edu domain is considered more trustworthy and valuable than a link from a typical commercial website. This is because educational institutions are seen as objective and impartial sources of information. When they link to your website, it indicates that your content is high-quality and relevant to the educational community.

How to Build Powerful EDU Backlinks

When it comes to building backlinks for your website, EDU domains can be incredibly valuable. They are generally considered authoritative because they reside in respectable link neighborhoods and do not distribute backlinks indiscriminately. Consequently, search engines assign significant importance to these backlinks, which can help improve your website’s search engine rankings. 

Let’s explore some effective strategies for creating impactful EDU backlinks. These techniques will assist you in generating robust links that can enhance your search engine rankings and website traffic.

Local Link Building

To acquire quality edu backlinks, a good strategy is to start locally. If you’re building links for a local business, focus on local schools and colleges first. Search for sites with a “Local Resources” or “Local Businesses” section and request inclusion.

For better relevancy, search for a local section of the site pertaining to your business’s specific niche, such as local dining for restaurants or local accommodations for hotels. Taking this approach can help you gain more powerful edu backlinks from local sites that are relevant to your business.

Offer Scholarship

Another effective way to earn quality edu backlinks is by offering scholarships to students. Creating a scholarship program lets you get links from schools, colleges, and universities with scholarship pages.

To create a scholarship program, you must decide on a specific study area or topic related to your business. Then, create a webpage on your site that outlines the scholarship details and eligibility requirements. Once you have created the program, contact relevant schools and universities and ask them to include your scholarship in their list of available scholarships.

Not only does this strategy help you gain valuable backlinks, but it also allows you to give back to the community and support students in their academic pursuits. By offering scholarships, you can establish your brand as a socially responsible company and build relationships with academic institutions in your industry.

We tried this white hat link building strategy for our intellectual property law firm client and got a whopping 116 edu backlinks for this campaign alone. Here’s a sample of one of the backlinks we built:

Read this link building guide for law firms to learn how we built 100+ edu backlinks.

Interview Prominent Faculty Staff

Another effective way to build quality edu backlinks is to interview prominent faculty members or local college or university staff members. This can be a great way to generate interest in your website and provide valuable content for your audience.

To get started, contact local colleges or universities and request an interview with a faculty member or staff member who is an expert in your industry or niche. You can ask questions about their work, research, or opinions on current events related to your industry.

Once the interview is complete, publish it on your website and include a link to the interviewee’s profile on the university’s website. This can lead to more traffic to your site and help establish you as an authority in your industry. Additionally, the interviewee may be willing to share the interview on their own social media platforms, further increasing your reach and visibility.

Overall, interviewing prominent faculty or staff members can be a win-win situation for you and the university and a valuable way to build quality edu backlinks.

Offer Exclusive Discounts and Perks

Another effective way to gain backlinks is to offer exclusive discounts or perks to universities or colleges’ students, faculty, and staff. You can start by researching the universities or colleges in your area and see if they have any programs that offer discounts to students or staff. If they do, you can reach out to them and offer an exclusive discount to their members.

You can also reach out to the university or college’s marketing or student services department and propose a partnership that would benefit both parties. For example, you could offer a discount on your product or service to their students, and in return, they could include a link to your website on their university or college’s website.

You can create a win-win situation for you and the university or college by offering exclusive discounts or perks. You get a backlink to your website, and they get to offer their members a valuable discount on your product or service.

For example, this discounts page from The George Washington University offers discounts from companies such as Amazon, Amtrak, etc.:

Broken Link Building

Broken link building is another effective way to improve your website’s SEO. The idea behind broken link building is to find broken links on other websites and reach out to the website owners to suggest replacing the broken link with a link to your website’s content. By doing so, you help website owners to fix their broken links, and at the same time, you get a backlink to your website.

To start broken link building, you can use a tool like Ahrefs to find broken links on relevant websites. Once you have identified the broken links, you can contact the website owner with a polite email informing them of the broken link and suggesting a link to your relevant content as a replacement. It’s essential to provide value to the website owner by offering high-quality content that would fit their website well.

Broken link building is a win-win strategy that benefits both the website owner and your website. The website owner gets to fix their broken links, and you get a valuable backlink to your website, which can improve your search engine ranking. Therefore, broken link building is an excellent opportunity to improve your website’s SEO and increase your website’s visibility on search engines.

We’ve worked with a client in the gaming space and used broken link building as one of our main strategies. Our goal was to find broken links to games that are available on our client’s online gaming site, and we managed to build 2,099 backlinks.

Here’s an example of a link we got for our client in the gaming niche through broken link building:

Create a Careers Page

A careers page is essential for attracting talented individuals to your organization. It should provide comprehensive information about job openings, company culture, benefits, and hiring processes. Creating a visually appealing and user-friendly careers page can significantly affect how candidates perceive your company.

Your careers page should also reflect your company’s values and mission. This can help attract individuals who share those values and are passionate about your work. To make your careers page more effective, consider including employee testimonials, videos, and other engaging content highlighting the benefits of working for your organization.

Make sure to keep your careers page up to date with the latest job openings and company news. This can help maintain the interest of potential candidates and keep them engaged with your organization. Creating a compelling and informative careers page can attract top talent and build a strong team that drives your business forward.

For inspiration, check out Slack’s career page:

Get Featured in Local Resource Roundups

One effective way to increase your local online presence is to get featured in local resource roundups. These roundups are typically compiled by local news outlets, bloggers, or community organizations, featuring the top resources or businesses in a particular area. Getting included in one of these roundups can help boost your visibility, credibility, and traffic.

Research local news outlets and bloggers in your area to get featured in a local resource roundup. Reach out to them and introduce your business and its unique value proposition. Highlight any recent achievements, awards, or community involvement that may make your business stand out. Offer them additional information, high-quality images, or even a discount code for their readers.

By getting featured in a local resource roundup, you can gain exposure to a wider local audience and drive more traffic to your website. Remember that these roundups often have a limited number of spots, so make sure to pitch early and follow up if you don’t hear back.

Create a Resource Page That is Specific to Your Industry

Another way to attract links and boost your website’s SEO is to create a resource page that is specific to your industry. This page should provide valuable information and insights about your industry, such as statistics, research, and case studies.

You can include visual content like infographics and videos to make your resource page more attractive to other websites. You can also contact other websites and ask them to include a link to your resource page in their content.

When creating your resource page, make sure it is easy to navigate and visually appealing. Use clear headings and subheadings to organize your content and ensure the page is mobile-friendly.

Finally, regularly update your resource page with the latest information and insights related to your industry to keep it relevant and valuable to your audience.

By following these tips, you can create a resource page that provides value to your audience and attracts links from other websites, improving your website’s SEO and visibility in search results.

Alumni Pages

Creating alumni pages on your website can be an effective way to attract more backlinks. Alumni pages usually include profiles of notable individuals who have graduated from your institution, along with their achievements and contributions to society. Alumni pages can also feature job opportunities, events, and networking opportunities for alumni.

To attract backlinks, you can contact your alumni and ask them to share your alumni page on their social media profiles or personal websites. This can help increase your website’s visibility and traffic and establish your institution as an authority in your industry.

You can also create a dedicated section for alumni testimonials or success stories. This can be a powerful way to showcase the impact of your institution on people’s lives and careers while also providing social proof to potential students.

Overall, creating alumni pages can help to build strong relationships with your former students and boost your website’s visibility and authority in your industry.

Offer Free Webinars to Faculty and Students

Another way to gain exposure and build relationships with faculty and students is by offering free webinars. These webinars could be on a variety of topics that are relevant to your industry or niche. For example, if your company specializes in digital marketing, you could offer a webinar on the latest trends and strategies for social media marketing.

By offering free webinars, you provide value to your audience and position yourself as an authority in your field. This can lead to increased interest and engagement from potential customers or partners.

To make your webinars successful, be sure to promote them across your social media channels and email lists. You could also partner with relevant student organizations or departments to help spread the word. And don’t forget to follow up with attendees after the webinar with additional resources or offers.

In conclusion, offering free webinars is a great way to build relationships with faculty and students, establish your authority in your industry, and increase your exposure to potential customers or partners.

For example, Savvas Learning Company offers different kinds of webinars for educators that EDU websites would love to add to their resources:

Should You Get EDU Backlinks?

Getting EDU backlinks can greatly boost your website’s authority and improve its search engine rankings. By implementing the strategies outlined in this article, you can build high-quality EDU backlinks to help your website stand out from the competition. Remember, creating valuable content and building relationships with relevant educational institutions are important to earn these coveted backlinks.

At the end of the day, link building is a time-consuming and complex process that requires expertise and experience. If you’re struggling to build high-quality backlinks for your website, consider hiring a professional link building service. Our team has years of experience helping small business owners and digital marketing agencies improve their online visibility through targeted link building strategies. Contact us today to learn more about our services and how we can help your business succeed.