seo question

[Kristian]

Does registering a domain as private matter?

[Kristian]

Anyone know? If memory serves I believe it has a negative effect with google. That is also my gut instinct, especially with all the spammers and their splogs registering privately, through proxies.

[jrap]

I have at least a dozen private domains, and have not noticed any negative effects from any of the search engines.

[Manowar]

Some people say it does

[DamageX]

Anyone know? If memory serves I believe it has a negative effect with google. That is also my gut instinct, especially with all the spammers and their splogs registering privately, through proxies.

I have a feeling that such a practice would earn you a penalty only if combined with other practices deemed not to be fair play by them. Otherwise, dealing a penalty to all private-whois domain names would be throwing away the baby with the bathwater... Of course, I could be wrong, but that's what my common sense tells me would be logical to consider.

[ssp]

Once again, Manowar provides the world with the definitive answer.

[Kristian]

I have a feeling that such a practice would earn you a penalty only if combined with other practices deemed not to be fair play by them. Otherwise, dealing a penalty to all private-whois domain names would be throwing away the baby with the bathwater... Of course, I could be wrong, but that's what my common sense tells me would be logical to consider.

That makes a lot of sense to me too. Unless anyone can provide something concrete against this view, I'll go with this and hope for the best.

[baddog]

never heard it does, but I will try to remember to ask and get back to you

[Kristian]

never heard it does, but I will try to remember to ask and get back to you

thanks baddog. i went ahead with the privacy but would still like to have some facts.

[baddog]

thanks baddog. i went ahead with the privacy but would still like to have some facts.

Well, have to give you a firm "I don't know." Never really tested it. We had a couple that were private for a short period of time, but they aren't any longer so can't really say.

Sorry.

[SmokeyTheBear]

here would be my opinion.. when you need to figure something out about how google ranks.. just mock up a theoretical situation in your head..

If google had 2 sites that were "tied" in rank for everything , one had a whois with unique details ( i.e. a unique owner ) and one had a whois that also showed up on 1000 other domains, what site would likely be the most valid ?

[Trax]

Rabbitsreviews is using Domains by Proxy
nuff said

[suesheboy]

bad idea if you are looking to long term SE traffic.

[SmokeyTheBear]

Rabbitsreviews is using Domains by Proxy
nuff said

only if the question is .. can a site be successfull and have a masked owner ?

I dont think anyone questions that.. The question was does it affect rank. Its quite obvious its not a "huge" factor in ranking.. but i certainly wouldnt say it has NO effect just yet..

[StatsJunky]

The real question is does google check things like whois info for domains? Aside from the basic things like the registration date and dns servers? That would be a huge amount of data to keep track of besides the simple numbers.

[woj]

Having hidden whois can't help it, and MAY give your site a slight penalty, so why risk it?

[WiredGuy]

I would think that how long the domain has been registered is worth more than the privacy feature. I can't say forsure though on whether the privacy thing hurts or not. Quite a few of my domains have privacy on them and they don't seem to be penalized for it.
WG

[Juilan]

think I remember something in the google patent about penalizing it...

[Kevsh]

Wow, an SEO question where no one claims to know the answer. ;)

Seriously, a very good point and worth looking into.

[PussyTeenies]

it doesn't matter
since google spiders the ip class and backlinks and keywords
never once heard of a googlebot doing a =whois on a domain first

[Linkster]

Google does use whois information - two years ago when buying DMOZ expireds was all the rage for backlinks they applied for and were recently approved as a Registrar. This gave them access to the whois with their bots, and so far all I can see that it has been used for has been for what some people call a sandbox - something I dont personally agree exists - but is an effect of a domain that someone uses being previously owned and a dampening effect for the new owner to prevent old links from counting.

(The "sandbox" appeared at the same time coincidently as the dampening effect for the prior registered domains so to me they have always just been the same thing)

As far as private registrations, I believe Matt Cutts mentioned that in his blog some time ago - http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/false-whois-data/ and basically distinguished between fake info and private info for his suggestions for reporting domains.

[bdld]

i haven't seen whois-privacy affect rankings, maybe in the future but not now. there are two other whois factors that affect domains though.

[QuadsZilla]

It has absolutely no baring in Google, Yahoo, or MSN. Any reports to the contrary are rubbish. Registering as private is preferred in case you want to sell the domain later, because changing the domain contact owner CAN have an effect (if it remains private, there is no visible change to the SEs)

[Nookster]

I have at least a dozen private domains, and have not noticed any negative effects from any of the search engines.

I agree