.us domain — meaning, price and how to register

What does .us mean?

The .us extension is the national domain of the United States — its place in the internet's address book is the same as .uk for Britain or .de for Germany. It was delegated in 1985, making it one of the earliest country-code top-level domains in the IANA root zone. For its first two decades it ran on a rigid geographic structure (think city.state.us), which was clumsy enough that few people used it. The modern, freely registrable second-level .us — the version where you can simply buy yourname.us — arrived in 2002, and the namespace has been administered on behalf of the US Department of Commerce ever since.

Despite being the home country code of the world's largest internet economy, .us has never displaced .com for American businesses, mostly because .com was already universal by the time .us opened up. What .us offers instead is an unambiguous, low-cost national signal: a .us address tells a visitor, plainly, that the site is American.

Who uses .us?

You will find .us used by US small businesses, local services, state and municipal projects, schools, and individuals who want a short patriotic handle. It also shows up on government-adjacent and civic sites, and it remains popular for vanity and redirect domains because short two-letter names are still available. The extension is overseen in the public interest, and the registry coordinates with US authorities on the namespace, which is part of why it is seen as a trustworthy "this is genuinely a US entity" marker.

That trust comes from a real gate: every .us holder must affirm a connection to the country. So while .us is open in spirit, it is not open in the way .com is — you cannot register one from anywhere with no ties to the United States.

.us registration rules and requirements

The defining rule of .us is the US Nexus requirement. To hold a .us domain you must fall into one of these categories: a US citizen or permanent resident; a US-based entity or organization (including a business incorporated in any US state or territory); or a foreign person or company that has a bona-fide presence in the United States — a real, regular activity here, not a token mailbox. You declare which category applies during registration, and the registry reserves the right to ask for supporting evidence and to suspend domains that fail an audit. There is no upfront document upload for most registrations, but a false Nexus claim can cost you the domain.

How much does a .us cost?

One of .us's genuine attractions is price. It is among the cheapest national domains you can buy, usually landing around $8 per year, and renewals stay low because there is no premium positioning around it. That makes it a sensible pick for a side project or a defensive registration where you want a US-flavoured name without paying a brandable-TLD premium.

Is .us good for SEO?

For a US audience, .us is fine and can even help slightly. Search engines read a country-code TLD as a geo-targeting signal, so a .us site is naturally associated with the United States — useful if your market is purely American. The flip side is the same coin: that geo-signal can work against you if you ever want to rank in other countries. There is no ranking penalty for .us, and crucially no algorithmic boost over a .com either; the real consideration is audience fit, not magic. See how to compare and choose a TLD for the trade-offs.

.us vs alternatives

For an American business the practical contest is .us against .com and .co. .com wins on universal recognition but is crowded; .co is a brandable global option; .us is the cheapest way to fly the flag and is often still available as a short exact-match name. Compared with other national codes like .uk or .ca, .us has a looser-feeling but still enforced presence rule. If you are American and the .com is gone, .us is a clean, honest fallback.