.edu vs .com - Google Trust

[dailypress]

One of my .com sites that is over 3 years old gets a few google referrals despite the fact that it has good backlinks and a pretty decent PR.

I now host some pages on a .edu server for some organization within a school(i.e. popular_university.edu/foldername) and receive a decent amount of traffic from search engines.

Unfortunately I cant make a profit from this site because I do not own it, however, i analyze the traffic through Google Analytics and realized that Google trusts .edu and maybe .gov sites more than .com

Just wanted to share my thought and experience working with a .edu organization.

Good day! :)

[pageoneresults]

Thanks dailypress. I like to see these topics surface. They typically generate some good discussion from both sides of the fence. ;)

Trusted TLDs
.EDU and .GOV - Trusted Top Level Domains
[webmasterworld.com...]

[jdancing]

Based on what link buyer's pay, EDU domains are worth about 10 times the value of a comparable .COMs

But EDUs can at least be found. There are many students out to make some easy money.

.GOV are much more rare.

I have yet to see a .GOV sold, However, I bet a nice PR7 .GOV home page link would sell for $3000+ per month.

Hey I have an idea on how we can lower taxes!

[tedster]

I've heard Matt Cutts discuss this live. As I recall, he stated that it is not the TLD itself that creates the trust. Instead, almost all of these domains tend to align naturally with the trust factors that Google examines. So it's the domains' histories and behavior and backlinks that do it, not the TLD on its own.

In the .edu area, there are some grandfathered domains that are not in anyway your traditional .edu organization. Some of them began selling links in the past year and they did lose their ability to pass PR.

Also, with the flood of parasite hosted links on some .edu sites, I wouldn't be surprised to see those pages, or even just those links, ignored by Google over time. Matt clearly stated that Google has the ability to zero in to the individual link, and parasite hosting on a .edu would be a perfect reason to do that,

[whitenight]

Key statements made in the OP is "about 3 years old".

How old is the .edu site?

How old is generally any .gov or .edu?

Considering they were, again generally, the only people putting up pages 14 years ago, and linking to other .gov/.edu pages, its easy to confuse TLD with "age trust".

Don't know how much more "trusted" you can get right now than wiki.
which is an org. But it is only 6 years old, which is relatively young compared to some sites.

Which brings us back to where they get their links from.
Even older "completely trusted" sites like .edus and .govs that have existed for more than a decade.

[orionsweb]

To register a .edu you must be on a list of accredited educational institutions in North America: more information [educause.edu...]

.gov is administered by the United States Government and is reserved for approved Government organizations ONLY. More info: [dotgov.gov...]

Yes they are awesome TLDs to have, as they rank very well however unless you are the government or an acredited educational facility you can't use them.

[tedster]

The eligibility change I wrote about for .edu domains happened in 2001.

11.How long can I retain registration of a .edu name under the “grandfather” provisions of the Cooperative Agreement?

Instututions and organizations with .edu domains prior to October 2001 will be allowed to retain those domains so long as they maintain proper administrative control.

[educause.edu...]

The eligibility requirements, prior to educause taking over, were a lot looser.

[orionsweb]

Oh very cool I didn't realize there was a grandfather clause on .edu..

Around 2002 we tried to get a .edu for a school I was teaching at (private IT school) but the process for accreditation was expensive and a nightmare so we just scraped it.

[jdancing]

Matt clearly stated that Google has the ability to zero in to the individual link, and parasite hosting on a .edu would be a perfect reason to do that

Matt said so it must be true ummm ... yeah right.

Rather than listen to MC propaganda, I tend to focus on patterns of what the major SEOs are doing and they are buying more links than ever.

Additionally, if they can get contextual links on hosted pages or within website text (edu or not) they are buying all they can possibly find.

[trakkerguy]

I tend to focus on patterns of what the major SEOs are doing and they are buying more links than ever

jdancing - care to drop a hint about how you come across such info? "patterns" doesn't sound like word of mouth.

[tedster]

OK - I really don't want to see yet another thread go into paid links territory - this thread is about trust and the .edu/.gov top level domain space.

And as regards that topic, I still think the trust comes from other factors, not the domain extension itself. I base this not only on Matt's comments but also on seeing the apparent lack-of-trust given to some of those rare, grandfathered .edu's that don't really represent a true educational institution.