4 ms·

SEO: Don't Use Private Registration

26 points by mmaunder 15y ago

patio11 15y ago
Private registration is unlikely to be the reason why your site isn't ranking, modulo fairly specific past events prior to the private registration. (e.g. "I bought an expired domain for it's links, changed all the content, and then switched on private registration. Now it doesn't rank for anything.") I sympathize with "I made a change, something happened, this whole field feels like voodoo, please tell me my change mattered." You're trying to black-box guess emergent behavior of a very complicated algorithm. In some circumstances that's the best alternative, but for this specific issue, the weight of past experiences personally or known to me is not in your favor.
- mmaunder 15y ago
  I don't usually respond to trolls, but thought I'd respond to yours since the quotes you've used are misleading: I didn't buy an expired domain. It doesn't feel like voodoo. I've been breaking web apps since you were 12. Aren't we all black-box guessing Google? Aren't you?
  - tedunangst 15y ago
    If I'm not mistaken, I don't think web apps existed when patio11 was 12.
    - nostrademons 15y ago
      I think Patrick's around my age (late 20s). Age 12 was right around the mid-1990s, which was right around when the first webapps (ViaWeb, Amazon.com, EBay, Altavista) were introduced.
  - michael_dorfman 15y ago
    I don't usually respond to trolls Dude, did you just call Patio11 a troll? And then claim that you've been breaking web apps since he was 12? Just when you think you've seen it all...
    - deleted 15y ago
      [deleted]
  - patio11 15y ago
    I apologize: I often use quotes to mark imagined dialogue. The first was supposed to be read as counter-factual: if a hypothetical person had done that, then yeah, it would make sense that having private domain registration could possibly tip them over into a penalty. I'm working on the assumption that you didn't do that, which means that I very much doubt it was the causational element in your case.
    - mmaunder 15y ago
      Patio you're obviously a good guy and my sincere apologies for taking your comments the wrong way. It was immediately after I had pre-breakfast coffee which usually puts me on edge and makes me type before I think. Sorry mate.
      - patio11 15y ago
        No problem. We all have times like that.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
vaksel 15y ago
it's bullshit, there are plenty of private registration websites ranking #1 for plenty of competitive keywords
gohat 15y ago
I've been doing SEO for 4 years (with some success) and this may be the first time I heard that private registration is bad for search results.
nekitamo 15y ago
It's bullshit. I have dozens of websites ranking #1 for various keywords, and they are all whoisguard protected.
scottkrager 15y ago
It's stuff like this that gives SEO such a bad rap. No data to back up the claim. Not even a visual. I ate a burrito for lunch today and traffic is through the roof! Must be the burrito! Sigh.
- Urgo 15y ago
  Oh! Chicken, beef or steak? And from what store?! :) Totally agree.
- eli 15y ago
  Agreed. I'm currently working on a small project to replace Google Custom Search with a proper Apache Solr set up. Unfortunately the project manager heard at an SEO conference that Google punishes you for using competing in-site search products.
- workhorse 15y ago
  lol, I am going to use that line.
RealGeek 15y ago
I have experimented extensively with various domain registrations parameters in correlation to SERPs. In my opinion, private registration does not have any effect. The only domain parameter that seems to have effect is the length of domain registration. Your domain is likely to have more trust value if the domain is registered for 5 or more years.
larrys 15y ago
Exactly how much it matters I can't say. But I can say that it does matter. Why? Because for one thing a whois record with valid info is cached in various places and creates unique info which is repackaged on other websites that get slurped. Next, we run a whois server for our registrar and it does get hit by google bot every single day. Along the same lines the registrar you use for your domain also matters. None of this means that you can't rank well with private registration. But unless you've got a specific reason to have privacy on your records there is no question that it is an advantage (for seo and other reasons) to have your info public (not to mention if it's private you stand a greater chance of losing your domain name..)
programminggeek 15y ago
Google uses phrases like "hundreds of signals" to make people start to worry about meaningless crap like private registration or .com vs. .org vs. .net and so on.
ksolanki 15y ago
I find it amusing that Google, that started out (and still is) as a search engine, now has so much power as to influence the content in the web via the almost-necessary SEO gimmicks. May be, just may be, it's time to go to user-generated user-moderated directory of web links. Yes? or No?

26 points by mmaunder 15y ago

Private registration is unlikely to be the reason why your site isn't ranking, modulo fairly specific past events prior to the private registration. (e.g. "I bought an expired domain for it's links, changed all the content, and then switched on private registration. Now it doesn't rank for anything.") I sympathize with "I made a change, something happened, this whole field feels like voodoo, please tell me my change mattered." You're trying to black-box guess emergent behavior of a very complicated algorithm. In some circumstances that's the best alternative, but for this specific issue, the weight of past experiences personally or known to me is not in your favor.

mmaunder 15y ago
I don't usually respond to trolls, but thought I'd respond to yours since the quotes you've used are misleading: I didn't buy an expired domain. It doesn't feel like voodoo. I've been breaking web apps since you were 12. Aren't we all black-box guessing Google? Aren't you?
- tedunangst 15y ago
  If I'm not mistaken, I don't think web apps existed when patio11 was 12.
  - nostrademons 15y ago
    I think Patrick's around my age (late 20s). Age 12 was right around the mid-1990s, which was right around when the first webapps (ViaWeb, Amazon.com, EBay, Altavista) were introduced.
- michael_dorfman 15y ago
  I don't usually respond to trolls Dude, did you just call Patio11 a troll? And then claim that you've been breaking web apps since he was 12? Just when you think you've seen it all...
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
- patio11 15y ago
  I apologize: I often use quotes to mark imagined dialogue. The first was supposed to be read as counter-factual: if a hypothetical person had done that, then yeah, it would make sense that having private domain registration could possibly tip them over into a penalty. I'm working on the assumption that you didn't do that, which means that I very much doubt it was the causational element in your case.
  - mmaunder 15y ago
    Patio you're obviously a good guy and my sincere apologies for taking your comments the wrong way. It was immediately after I had pre-breakfast coffee which usually puts me on edge and makes me type before I think. Sorry mate.
    - patio11 15y ago
      No problem. We all have times like that.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]

vaksel 15y ago

it's bullshit, there are plenty of private registration websites ranking #1 for plenty of competitive keywords

gohat 15y ago

I've been doing SEO for 4 years (with some success) and this may be the first time I heard that private registration is bad for search results.

nekitamo 15y ago

It's bullshit. I have dozens of websites ranking #1 for various keywords, and they are all whoisguard protected.

scottkrager 15y ago

It's stuff like this that gives SEO such a bad rap. No data to back up the claim. Not even a visual. I ate a burrito for lunch today and traffic is through the roof! Must be the burrito! Sigh.

Urgo 15y ago
Oh! Chicken, beef or steak? And from what store?! :) Totally agree.
eli 15y ago
Agreed. I'm currently working on a small project to replace Google Custom Search with a proper Apache Solr set up. Unfortunately the project manager heard at an SEO conference that Google punishes you for using competing in-site search products.
workhorse 15y ago
lol, I am going to use that line.

RealGeek 15y ago

I have experimented extensively with various domain registrations parameters in correlation to SERPs. In my opinion, private registration does not have any effect. The only domain parameter that seems to have effect is the length of domain registration. Your domain is likely to have more trust value if the domain is registered for 5 or more years.

larrys 15y ago

Exactly how much it matters I can't say. But I can say that it does matter. Why? Because for one thing a whois record with valid info is cached in various places and creates unique info which is repackaged on other websites that get slurped. Next, we run a whois server for our registrar and it does get hit by google bot every single day. Along the same lines the registrar you use for your domain also matters. None of this means that you can't rank well with private registration. But unless you've got a specific reason to have privacy on your records there is no question that it is an advantage (for seo and other reasons) to have your info public (not to mention if it's private you stand a greater chance of losing your domain name..)

programminggeek 15y ago

Google uses phrases like "hundreds of signals" to make people start to worry about meaningless crap like private registration or .com vs. .org vs. .net and so on.

ksolanki 15y ago

I find it amusing that Google, that started out (and still is) as a search engine, now has so much power as to influence the content in the web via the almost-necessary SEO gimmicks. May be, just may be, it's time to go to user-generated user-moderated directory of web links. Yes? or No?