Thread: What Makes .edu Domains so Special?

I always read that backlinks from .edu domains stand for a lot more than .com or .net. I have always wondered why this is, and never really found an answer.

Originally Posted by bozonessinc

I think google uses that as a ranking for more important domains since it is used for educational purposes. Google's thought must be that it will contain more informal information that you are looking for.

Plus .edu domains are watched, they have to be registered by a licensed institute, whereas anyone can register a dot com. So Google assumes the links will be watched as while

That makes sense, since I figured not anybody could just register a .edu domain. I wonder if Google gives them higher PR values and such because of the heightened TLD value.

People think that EDUs are supposed to be unbiased and therefore Google would give more "weight" to an EDU link than if the link was from a .com or a .net domain.

It's totally not the case anymore. The TLD (.com, .net, .gov, .edu. etc.) does not matter, they're all pretty much treated the same: it's the actual links that the page linking to your site has that matters. I have .EDU links from a professor's classroom instruction page and I can tell you that it hasn't helped my site out one bit. But, I have some other .EDU links that are really good, and it's only because those links have great links.

>>Should anyone be allowed to buy a .edu?
No, they should be reserved for REAL educational institutions.

there's only one .edu domain that you can actually buy, though, america.edu. The guy who owns it has it for sale, I believe, and anyone can buy it because it's "grandfathered in" or something like that. Otherwise, there are strict guidelines about buying and owning EDUs.

So realistically, backlinks from .edu domains really don't weigh any more than .com or .gov domains? Seems weird how all marketers will make a big deal about it when it really doesn't mean anything

i'm not sure too. but maybe because its a TLD.
and .edu are usually verified colleges and institute that's why its reliable. so it gets good ranks