Black Hat Techniques using Google

How to get .EDU and .GOV Backlinks


I get a lot of emails concerning Black Hat techniques and I usually tell the writers to stick with white hat methods of making money online. This isn't because of ethics rather it has to do with the fact that most Black Hat methods are quite involved and have to be done correctly or the user may find all the hours of hard work is wasted or worse they find themselves banned by Google or their sites are removed by their ISP.

Having said that there are certain areas that Black Hat techniques work quite well with. Getting backlinks is one such area and if done right there is little chance of getting into trouble although you might annoy a few people.

Here is a recent email I received concerning backlinks from .edu and .gov domains;

Hi Grizzly,

I bought project Black Mask before reading your review and wish I hadn't. I found most of this stuff to be old and if any of it works it would be short term at best. One thing that I am interested in is how do all these black hat sites find .edu and .gov website links? The ebook mentions this but - as your review pointed out - the author doesn't bother to tell us how to get on such domains, he only tells us that these domains are much sought out. It sounds as if you are familiar with black hat techniques and I would really appreciate it if you could tell me how to get backlinks from .edu domains and .gov domains. I love your blog and if there is anything I can do in return for your help just ask.

Thank you.

Sincerely Jared H.

A little background for you beginners. Conventional wisdom states that Google gives more weight to sites that have incoming links from .edu (education) and .gov (government) domains when compiling its page ranking. Google doesn't confirm this but it certainly seems to be the case that you can achieve high search engine results if you have a .edu or .gov backlink or two. The assumption is that links from these sources are less likely to be corrupt than those coming from commercial domains (.com .net .org etc). For the most part this is true except that black hatters have been corrupting these domains for some time now.

So... how is it done?

Actually it is a two step process that really isn't that complicated.

Step one:

Finding .edu and .gov websites.

Most of you can find these sites by doing a simple Google search using the term .edu or .gov in the search box. Typing in .edu and clicking search will bring back a list of 344 million sites give or take. Great right... not really as that is an awful lot of sites to sift through looking for the ones that you can get backlinks from. Short of paying the site administrator to add your link to his/her domain the only way you can get backlinks from these domains is to find the ones that have blogs and then you need to find the blogs that allow comments. Yup... thats right, you will be spamming the comment sections of .gov and .edu blog sites. If this bothers you then stop now.

If not then I have listed several advanced Google hacks that while not always perfect will give you what you desire; they do take you to .EDU and .GOV domains that are actually hosting blogs with visitor comment capabilities.

Be aware that there are numerous syntax variations for search queries capable of finding these blogs. There are 2 different search methods that I use for this task. Listed below are a few of the queries I find most efficient… grouped according to the search method used.

Find .EDU and .GOV backlinks based on the typical URL structure of the most popular blog management software (i.e. Wordpress):

The following queries target .EDU and .GOV domains hosting the main wordpress login file “wp-login.php” or the Wordpress admin path “/wp-admin/”. This simply means that the domain hosts a blog. These queries will take you to the Wordpress login page - don't panic as you just simply click the link that points back to the blog's homepage - you don't have to login to post comments. (some sites will make you login - skip them and search for those that don't)

* site:.edu inurl:wp-login.php +blog
* site:.gov inurl:wp-login.php +blog
* site:.edu inurl:”wp-admin” +login

Just cut and paste any of these 3 queries into your Google search box and see what you get.

Search for .EDU and .GOV backlinks based on textual keyword combinations that are typically found on blogs:

These 3 Google search queries take you directly to the main blog pages by searching for .EDU and .GOV domains containing the keyword terms “no comments” and “blogroll” which are keywords commonly found on blogs. You can always mess around with different sets of the keywords for additional search results. The "keywords" are enclosed with the (") quotation symbol.

* site:.edu “no comments” +blogroll -”posting closed” -”you must be logged in” -”comments are closed”
* site:.gov “no comments” +blogroll -”posting closed” -”you must be logged in” -”comments are closed”
* inurl:(edu|gov) “no comments” +blogroll -”posting closed” -”you must be logged in” -”comments are closed”


Again, just cut and paste each query into your Google search box.

Here is one more method of querying Google but it does limit the results by requiring the URL to contain the term "blog". It does have an advantage though in that it allows you to filter your searches by using the trailing "keyword" in the query. For example you can put a date like "2007" in the trailing "keyword" location and this will eliminate older inactive blogs from being listed in the SERP's. You can use this trailing keyword for specifying "country" or "city" or "university" etc. Basically you can narrow your searches however you like.

site:.edu inurl:blog “comment” -”you must be logged in” -”posting closed” -”comment closed” “keyword”

Again just cut and paste this query into your Google search box - substitute whatever keyword you like between the trailing "keyword" quotation.


That wraps up step one - how to find appropriate EDU and GOV domains.

Step Two

The Work

From this point on it is trial and error as you will have to visit each of these blogs and where appropriate and when comments are accepted you then proceed to leave your words of wisdom (doesn't that sound better than saying spam them?)

I am not condoning this method but I am a realist and know that many of you will try this method out. Keep this in mind; most of the "comments" are moderated so you will have to leave a relevant comment about the subject matter if you want your comment to be posted. Don't be obvious - if you use some tact you will succeed as most moderators are civilians (ie. they are not internet marketers and haven't a clue as to what backlinks are or why anyone would post a comment for arterial motives) If your comment is relevant they will be happy to accept it.

Your Anchor Text.

To post a comment you have to give your name, email address and website URL. This is perfect as your "name" gets hypertexted and points to your website or blog (the URL that you give). If you use your name or any name then this becomes your anchor text and Google will index you accordingly. If you use the name "paul" then your backlink will point to your site and Google will rank you high in the SERP's for "Paul".

This is not what you want. The name you use should be one of the keywords you want your site ranked for in the SERP's. (see my previous posts for more details on Anchor Text and Backlinks.)

This can be tricky as you don't want to be to obvious, ie using "how to make money online" as your name. Sometimes it is better to target secondary keywords like "SEO Tips" or "backlinks" or "work at home mom" as your "name". Ultimately you want the EDU or GOV backlink first and foremost but it should have an anchor text that will benefit you more than a regular name would.

Keep in mind that some "names" will automatically be flagged as spam and your comment will never reach the moderator. Keywords like "free" "sex" "money" etc should never be used. As I have said before - black hat methods are time consuming and involve a lot of trial and error. Normally you should stay clear as the rewards are usually not worth all the effort or at best are short lived. Getting a few optimized backlinks from EDU and GOV domains are the exception as I have found that these backlinks can propel your site to the top of the SERP's and quickly. If you try this then I caution you to take your time and find the right blogs (relevant to your keyword) and spend some time creating a comment that will get posted. Don't just start spamming every blog you come across - even if successful Google will notice that you suddenly have a ton of new backlinks from all sorts of unrelated sites and most likely penalize you. Always remember that backlinks should appear natural - one or two EDU or GOV backlinks a week is plenty but be sure they are from relevant blogs.

A final note; Keep in mind that a lot of the blogs may use the no-follow attribute and Google will not pick up the backlink. This is too bad but Yahoo and the other search engines will. This can still boost your traffic considerably if you have a popular niche. You will also have to spend time sifting through all the crappy PR0 student blogs and whatnot in order to find some decent PR blogs. This is why black hatting can be time consuming to say the least.

That's it for now.

Good luck,

Grizzly