When you register a domain, the registrar obtains your identifying information.
However, if you do not wish to list the names, addresses, phone numbers, etc. of your website contacts, you can choose Domain Privacy Protection Who is Let the whole world see it.
There are many valid reasons why people want to protect their online privacy.
But does WhoIs information (or using domain privacy) have any impact on SEO?
Claim: WhoIs information is a ranking factor
Some of the questions raised around the potential impact of domain privacy on SEO include:
- Does hiding your WHOIS information hurt your site’s rankings?
- If we have a large number of sites in our network but use domain privacy, will Google consider links passed back and forth as legitimate links?
- Are WhoIs a trust factor for Google?
Evidence of WhoIs information as a ranking factor
When Google became the domain registrar in January 2005, SEO professionals immediately wondered how registration information was used in ranking algorithms.
Barry Schwartz note next month A Google spokesperson fanned the flames with comments to The New York Times:
“While we currently have no plans to register domain names, we believe this information can help us improve the quality of our search results.”
For several years, there was no real consensus in the industry, as SEO professionals and webmasters shared conflicting experiences and advice on forums.
In 2007, an industry blogger cited Matt Cutts as the basis for this article recommend:
“If you don’t have a legitimate need, don’t hide behind a domain privacy service.
Evidence suggests that search engines can penetrate this “wall” anyway, which makes your site less trustworthy for the average (albeit tech-savvy) visitor/customer.
Make sure whois data matches the contact details in your website and privacy policy. “
as Loren Baker said at the time:
“Don’t want to get spam in your inbox, mailbox, phone box, and maybe even through your XBox, are you telling search engines that your site isn’t trustworthy? I’m not sure that’s the case.”
The blogger above made this suggestion based on what Matt Katz writes Site review he did at Pubcon in 2006:
“Most of the pages are pay-per-click (PPC) parked pages compared to any real content, and when I look at their whois, they all come with a ‘whois privacy protection service’.
This is rather unusual.
Having a ton of sites isn’t necessarily a bad thing, having a PPC site isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and turning on whois privacy isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but once you put a few of these factors together, you’re going to be talking a lot about having only one site Left and right people are completely different types of webmasters. “
Even so, there’s no evidence that “hiding” behind domain privacy protections and choosing to exclude your home address from the WhoIs database has any effect on rankings.
As Katz said, the spam team might see it as a red flag. But what he said was that it came along with other factors.
That was a long time ago, so let’s find out more.
In 2016, an SEO professional published a case study on a fairly reputable website claiming WhoIs is a trust factor, which he can attest to.
Specifically, he said, the address you use in your WhoIs contact information must be the same as the general area your website serves.
Turning on domain privacy protection or using a mailing/physical address outside of the area your site is intended to serve will destroy your rankings. The story goes like this.
At this point, we have to look at the broader context of the state of Google.
By then, Google has entered (or gone through) many iterations of identity detection and verification methods – Google+, AuthorshipIPv6 etc.
this whiteboard friday A May 2014 episode with Cyrus Shepard took us back to the various signals and clues Google used to determine who controlled which sites even then.
These algorithms are much more sophisticated than we were in 2005 when we had these conversations.
Given that SEO pros are just presenting a story with no supporting evidence, it’s hard to believe Google’s anecdotal experience in 2016 treating WhoIs/domain privacy as a trust factor in its ranking algorithm.
Evidence against Whois information as a ranking factor
So let’s find out more.
In 2019, John Mueller tweeted in response to a question about whether domain privacy settings affect SEO. He is very clear:
No, you can use the privacy settings however you want.
— 🍌 John 🍌 (@JohnMu) April 3, 2019
And today, Google has only one 2% Market share of domain name registrations.
They don’t have enough data to gain any reliability as a search signal.
In 2021, Mueller again ask (This time on Reddit) Whether domain privacy settings affect SEO or rankings.
His answer was: “No.”
WhoIs Information as a Ranking Factor: Our Verdict
There is no evidence that Google has ever used domain privacy protection as a ranking factor.
Maybe they plan to return in 2005 when they first become domain registrars.
Maybe they even did it on short notice.
But not for long, if so – they certainly wouldn’t be using it today.
Having said that, if you are trying to mask the identity of the site owner to create a link network or otherwise Manipulate search rankingsyou’ve entered the realm of web spam.
it puts you at risk Manual punishment if detected.
Google recognizes that online privacy is important, and people choose to keep their personal information out of WhoIs for every good reason.
WhoIs are not a ranking factor.
Featured image: Robin Biong/Search Engine Magazine
