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Like many SEO practices, you have a choice on how to pursue GOV backlinks. You can take the short-term approach and buy GOV backlinks of questionable quality. Alternatively, you can play the long game with patience and earn quality links that last. I favor the high-quality approach, but we should explore why the short-term approach is problematic. 1. Avoid This: The Short-term Approach to .Gov Backlinks On some corners of the web, you can find companies that offer .gov backlinks for sale. These providers market these backlinks like commodities: 10 .gov backlinks for $5 If anything, this approach reminds me of the SEO approach based on cheap, quick “wins” like article spinning, automated content creation and the like. While the price of these shady services is attractive, there are significant drawbacks to keep in mind. Your .gov backlink will be in bad company. If someone placed this backlink for you for less than $5, then it’s a cheap service and too easy to get that backlink. How many other times do you think that person’s taken money for a .gov backlink? If dozens or hundreds of other paid links surround your .gov backlink, you won’t stand out. Furthermore, you’re likely to be next to at least a few broken backlinks. It’s not a good browsing experience for your potential customers. Minimal relationship development opportunity. When you treat .gov backlinks as a commodity to be bought at bargain basement prices, you won’t have a chance to build relationships. That’s a problem! The .gov webmaster will probably not feel any particular connection to you. They’re unlikely to check your website and give you additional .gov backlinks over time. It’s just one more bad SEO practice to avoid because it limits your long-term potential. Even worse, Google may directly penalize you for “link manipulation.” What does that hit look like? To put it gently, it’s one of the SEO mistakes you should be striving to avoid. You might gain a brief boost in traffic, but you’re likely to lose those benefits in the long term. 2. Do This: The Long-term Approach to .Gov Backlinks There’s one guiding question that will help you build long-term, high-quality GOV backlinks. How does this backlink help the website visitor and website manager? Remember that incentives for government workers are different. A civil servant isn’t seeking to maximize profit or revenue. Instead, they measure themselves on how many people they help. Alternatively, they may be concerned with other performance indicators like reducing wait times to deliver service. With this outlook in mind, think about the specific backlinks you’re requesting and how that helps the government achieve its goals. When you go this route, you’re bound to score some great contacts and backlinks.

Why should you bother earning .gov backlinks? Put simply: They’re powerful links with high Domain Authority. Even better, these links tend to be long-lasting. In the examples from the previous section, these web pages have been online for several years. The time and effort it takes to earn .gov backlinks are likely to pay dividends for years to come. The Law of Supply and Demand. The average person can’t purchase a .gov domain, so there’s a limited supply of .gov backlinks. Due to their rarity and the other factors in this section, there’s high SEO demand for .gov backlinks. The Endorsement Factor. How many clothing companies can boast that dozens of Presidents have worn their product? That’s a powerful statement. Likewise, if your company earns a backlink on a .gov domain of recommended resources, your firm is more likely to be trusted. Why? The government has significant authority. As we learned from Robert B Cialdini’s book “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion,” a message from an authority figure tends to be highly influential. The SEO Link Juice Factor. As noted earlier, .gov domains tend to have a high Domain Authority score. It’s not just by nature of being .gov domains, it’s due to the effort and funding that’s behind these pages, producing the highest-quality content possible. Here are a few examples of the domain authority for different .gov domains: FBI (DA 94) California Board of Accountancy (DA 93) City of Austin, Texas (DA 75) .Gov Backlinks Aren’t Easy to Get. On some websites, you can email the website owner and request a backlink. With .gov backlinks, the process tends to be more involved, especially for high-value pages like “recommended resources.” Many government agencies have complex processes that regulate their websites, so they’re not open to any old outreach email. Learning your way around these rules take some effort. This makes .gov backlinks rarer and all the more valuable. Now that you know some of the reasons .gov backlinks are worthwhile, how exactly do you get them? We will find out next. At least now you know that, when you score a .gov backlink, you’ll have reason to celebrate.