Last Updated on by Artem K.
Everybody wants .EDU backlinks, but only a handful of people know how to get them for free.
Right now I am going to share a very simple way of acquiring these backlinks and show you the exact 3-step way of how I did it for a client of mine at Linkshero, my link building service.
All you’ll need to do is just to replicate everything I did.
It can work for SaaS link building and E-commerce link building.
Let’s build some links! 😎
For video lovers – here is my quick (under 5 minutes) explanation on how to actually land those .EDU backlinks.
Check it out!
How to Get .EDU Backlinks Point to an E-Commerce Store for FREE
There are few ways of actually doing it, but I am going to focus on the one that is REALLY simple and gives the highest ROI.
What is it?
Student discounts.
As I said previously, there are only 3 steps to it:
- Step 1: Create a Discount for Students
- Step 2: Find Universities that List Student Discounts on their Sites
- Step 3: Reach Out to Them & Get Your Links
Time for more details, Artem!
Absolutely. Hence I move on right to it.
Step 1: Create a Discount for Students
If you are an e-commerce store, then you are capable of doing it in a few clicks.
All you need to do is to create a student discount – a promo code will do just fine.
I recommend offering, at least, 10% off.
Got the promo code?
Great! Time for…
Step 2: Find Universities that List Student Discounts on their Sites
I prefer using an example for this.
Imagine you are an e-commerce store located in California. You sell all kinds of bags all over the country.
All you need to do is go to Google and get a list of all universities in California.
Here is what it looks like:
After you got those, you will need to manually look through each of those trying to find a discounts page (not all unis actually have those)
Sounds like a lot of manual work, right?
Yes, but…
First, these links are worth gold.
Second, here is a quick(er) way to do it:
Type this into Google’s search bar:
discounts site:[URL goes here]
Basically, you are telling Google to look for a page that contains a word “discount” (or something very related because G is very smart) within that specific site.
Once you find something that looks like a discount page, click on it (it’s always at the top) and analyze it.
Here is what a legit discounts page looks like:
Which brings me to the final point…
Step 3: Reach Out to Them & Get Your Links
This is when you basically get in touch with the university and tell them about your exclusive student discount.
I highly recommend you to use call them first to, at least, pinpoint the right person responsible for site updates. Universities are notoriously bureaucratic, so it will take quite a while (and a ton of follow-ups) before you land something. Obviously, conversion rates are easily harmed by emailing approach and this is why I, once again, recommend calling directly.
If, for some reason, you can’t call, here is an outreach email I recommend you steal from me:
Important: send them the text which you want to be included on their site because they will not write it for you.
This is when you need to be smart and target your brand keywords pointing that link directly at your homepage.
Once you found the right person, it’s very simple and this is when you get these in your inbox:
(Yes, Angie is my persona’s name for the outreach purposes 😉 )
This was it.
Now tell me, are you going to get some EDU backlinks for free…using this student discounts method?
Comment below!
Artem the LinksHero
P.S. Please don’t share this article unless it is useful.