Scholarship Links: How to Do It Right

by Venchito Tampon Jr | Last Updated on July 10, 2023

Getting scholarship links to your website has been a practice in the link building industry for many years. It has been used by hundreds, if not thousands, of SEOs worldwide.

While most have successfully gained their desired number of resource links from scholarship pages, some people still can’t find true value in adopting the strategy for their link building campaign.

This may not mean scholarship links have no value but show that these are less valuable than any other links in the website’s backlink profile. There are also ways in which a scholarship link building campaign does not fit a business.

 

3 Ways People Incorrectly Use Scholarship Link Building

1. NICHE AUDIENCE

If your brand targets a specific audience (customer service representatives or neurologists), you may not find enough niche scholarship pages about customer service or neurology.

There is, of course,, another way to use scholarship link building to your advantage: to go abroad with your targeting — create a scholarship page for business students or medical students, for example.

If you do that, your scholarship links may be less valuable for your business. Relevance is extremely important, so I recommend you use highly relevant links for your scholarship program.

2. WEEDING OUT HIGH SCHOOL PAGES

Your scholarship program has its own requirements for students – i.e. the company that offers the scholarship will only accept applications from college students.

When starting a scholarship program for link building, I found SEOs not catering to college and high school students, which is fine if it’s a personal reason. However, if you can target both, you’ll increase your chances of collecting more scholarship links pages than usual.

 

If you already have a scholarship program that targets high school students, you may add to your link prospecting list new high school scholarship pages by searching for them using the following search queries:

• site:.us ~resources “high school” scholarship
• site:.org ~resources “high school” scholarship
• site:.net ~resources “high school” scholarship
• site:k12.ny.us ~resources “scholarship”

3. NO FILTERING

It’s easy to get lazy and collect any scholarship pages you may find.

That’s not how you increase your response and conversion rates. Spend a few seconds checking the scholarship page if it’s worth reaching out based on obtainability.

Assess if the page links out to other scholarship programs by commercial websites. Whose audience does the scholarship resource page cater to? If it caters to law students and your target is just medical students, acquiring a link from the page is impossible.

Alternatives to Scholarship Links

Not all businesses can utilize scholarship link building as part of their link acquisition arsenal, so there are alternatives to going for the same kind of audience – students and teachers. They are usually the people you’ll be conversing with to get links from .edu and high school pages, and they should own the email address you’re contacting for a link request.

Here are some alternatives to scholarship links that can improve the quality and quantity of your backlink profile.

1. EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE PAGES 

I’ve covered this in my post about do follow backlinks, and this has been a valuable strategy for tapping a resource type of page that is not mostly getting pitched by SEOs and webmasters.

Building backlinks from primary schools is simple. It only requires an educational content piece that addresses a need of a student in terms of a subject topic and behavioral concerns.

 

You can also serve teachers with your teaching content (e.g. ESL content piece) that can lead you to earn links from teaching and curriculum pages.   

2. LOCAL HOUSING RESOURCES PAGES 

One local link building tactic that is worth investing your time and effort in is acquiring links from local housing resource pages.

Whether it is a summer housing or off-campus housing page, it is highly valued to get a link that can generate exposure to brands these pages linked out to. It’s a semi-automated lead generation since these pages directly recommend rental offerings available within an area.

If you’re in the real estate industry, i.e., a local apartment brand, or a housing or rental service company, you can take advantage of such a strategy by targeting these local housing pages.

 

These terms can help you start with your link prospecting process:

• “Off-campus” housing [city] “resources”
• “Student housing” [city] “resources”
• “Internship housing” [city] “resources”

3. COLLEGE TOWN BLOGS

Students have their own network of blogs (not the student blogs of .edu websites), by which they get some help from their school advisers.

I’ve found that college town blogs are looking for unique external contributions. These blogs are co-owned by students from different universities.

It’s not like run-of-the-mill guest blogging, where you can pitch any generic content you can think of. You have to glance and read at least a few recent articles published on the college town blog to get some knowledge about what topic works best and can resonate with their target readers.

 

Aside from editorial links from relevant blogs that accepted your guest contributions, you can also easily submit your content works to the college town blog to get another link and diversify your backlink profile.

If It Doesn’t Work, Try Another One

The good thing in the SEO industry is that we can all experiment on what type of links we will acquire for a particular website — allowing us to reflect and assess results from our past and current link building campaign.

While doing so, we can take another approach and see if another link building strategy that hasn’t been abused much can work for us. Through testing, hard work, and proper strategy, one can discover a tactic that can work effectively year after year for a link building campaign.

 

Scholarship Links Frequently Asked Questions

How do I find hidden scholarships?

To find hidden scholarships, start by utilizing online search engines and scholarship databases such as Fastweb, Scholarships.com, and Chegg. Additionally, contact your school’s financial aid office, local community organizations, and professional associations for potential scholarship opportunities. By casting a wide net and staying proactive, you can increase your chances of uncovering hidden scholarships.

Is Fastweb scholarship legit?

Yes, Fastweb scholarship is legit. You can trust that all the scholarships you find on Fastweb are 100% legitimate and reliable options for funding your education.

What is the largest scholarship database?

The Fast Web Scholarship Search offers the largest scholarship database with over 30 million registered users. As the most accurate and popular free scholarship search site, it provides students extensive opportunities to find financial aid for their education.

Is scholarship com a legit site?

Yes, Scholarships.com is a legitimate organization that offers scholarships and financial aid resources to students. Their website is trusted and widely recognized in the education community, making it a reliable source for finding scholarships.