Have you been wondering about how to register edu domain name. Would you like to grab one for your educational institute? In this article, I’m showing you the facts about those fancy .edu domains.
These fancy .edu domain are to be only assigned for accredited educational institutes. And they’re not intended for individuals to use. To be specific, US-based institutions only are allowed to get .edu domain name.
To give you a quick examples, here are some popular institutional sites; Stanford.edu, Harvard.edu and Yale.edu. As you can see, they’re all US-based educational institutes.
And since not anyone can get .edu domain name, Getting a backlink from a .edu domain will significantly boost your SEO rankings. Google loves these high-quality accredited sites.
What is .edu Domain Name?
The .edu is a domain extension. There are many domain TLD extensions available such as; .com, .net, .org. There are even new gTLDs available like; .club, .cheap, .photography, ..etc.
But a few of the domain extensions are having limitations to use. It’s exactly like .edu domain name. It’s main purpose is to serve educational institutes inside the US. And still students can get a .edu email address.
Criteria & Eligibility [US]:
There is a strict list of criterias and conditions an educational institute should pass to get the domain name. And it’s only available for post-secondary institutions such as universities and colleges.
US-based Institutions can use ‘EduCause’. It’s a non-profit organizations that can be used to lookup and how to register edu domain name. You can find more about the eligibility criteria and guidelines here ‘eligibility FAQ‘.
How’s it for Organizations Outside US:
If you’ve an eduational institue outside the USA, You still can get a .edu domain name from EduCause. In this case, Your organization should be accredited by the US law or the federal government.
On the other hand, You can get national domains from your country’s registrar. In Egypt, the standard educational domain is like; .edu.eg. In india, It’s like; .ac.in or .edu.in.
How To Register edu Domain Name?
You’ve to meet certain criteria to obtain a .edu domain name. Here, I’m shortlisting the places where you can register .edu domain name inside the US or outside the US.
– EduCause: A non-profit organization allows US-based institutes on how to register edu domain name in the USA. First, you should look up the domain name you want to register. You can check List of Nationally Recognized Accrediting Agencies.
– Ernet: This is how to register edu domain in India. You can register domains like; .ac.in or .edu.in. There’re specific criteria to meet before being allowed to use these domains. You can check the Gov.in Guidelines on the criteria you need to set.
– EgRegistry: This is how to register edu domain name in Egypt. You can register educational domains like; .edu.eg from there. There are specific guidelines & policies to get the official domain for your national educational institute.
SEO & .edu Domains:
It’s true! Google and other search engines love .edu domains. That’s because these domains are always having a high PageRank. Because they’re belonging to educational institutes and accredited universities.
If you’ve managed to grab a backlink from a .edu domain name. Your PageRank will improve. And accordingly, your overall search engine rankings will be boosted significatnyly.
Yet, It’s hard to get such links! Why may Stanford link back to your website? The chances are very little unless you’re having a kicking-ass content site with tons of accurate information and details.
Buying .edu Backlinks:
Most of the online .edu backlinking services are students selling a link on their school profiles. It sounds interesting that may make you to purchase these links right away.
But it’s not that easy. Most of these students blogs or profiles are on sub-domains or even on sub-directories. And there, its like any other backlink from any other website.
Basically, these student pages doesn’t have any PageRank. The backlinks are not coming from the main website. Thus, you need to be careful before buying such links blindly.
Conclusion:
That was all about how to register edu domain name. Getting such a domain name is not easy. There are certain policies you need to follow in order to be qualified for a .edu domain.
Furthemore, the .edu domains are interesting for SEO purposes. Google gives a huge value for websites that are having backlinks from .edu domains. Also, this domain extension (.edu) is not recognized by ICANN.
That was everything about how to register edu domain name. Have you been trying to register one before? What are the challenges you’ve got to see?
Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. I would love to hear back from you. Also, make sure to share this article with those who may find it useful.
I usually never leave a comment on a blog etc.
But I was absolutely compelled to leave one on yours.
This is one of the few absolutely honest non-biased opinion pieces I have read. And I have read quite a few, most of which are essentially propaganda for one or the other domain registrar or domain host or other service provider. Thanks for your honest feedback.
PS: Can you make a similar comparison about the better known domain hosts as well (SiteGround, DreamHost, BlueHost etc.)? Thanks very much.