WHOIS-info a ranking factor?
-
Hi
How important is it to configure your domain info in the same way as the contact info of your website? I heard having a long expiry date on the domain and having proper contact info helps create domain trust?
Any tips on this? Info on how to set this up in an optimal way?
Thanks in advance
Fredrik
-
I don't believe there is any ranking benefit at all. The only benefits are as stated above the ability to corroborate spam signals and or verify ownership info. As a general rule I would make sure that all info anywhere on the web regarding you has consistency and an established NAP (Name,Address, Phone) format. My grandfather told me to always where a belt and suspenders if you want to be prepared for anything. And I apply that to my views on consistency.
-
I rent websites out to some companies, i have sites that are in good positions and have designed and ranked for clients who pay me monthly. These domains are in my name, the website has their address details on it and doesnt harm our rankings.
And what about those websites who hide their whois details ? Will they not rank ?
I have to say i dont think that will ever be the case as there must be a huge amount of people who own websites who have their whois details hidden for one reason or another.
-
Having the same WHOIS info as contact info on the site would possible be a sign of authenticity i guess? More on topic here:
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-question-do-whois-privacy-services-harm-seo/5874/
-
As a ranking factor? I'd be very surprised if it did. What would be the benefit of that?
-
Thanks for great input.
What about the ownership info? I heard that its a plus if contact details and info match that of the website. Any ideas on that?
Fredrik
-
I don't think that the who-is information has a direct effect as such.
Who-is records would very likely be something that could use to corroborate spam signals. However I don't think that is what you are referring to.
There is certainly a strong correlation between domain age and rankings, however I don't believe that either the length of time a domain has been registered or the registration length (future) are direct factors.
1 year registrations are pretty common is legitimate sites. Many tlds in fact only offer one period of registration. 2 years is quite common on that respect.
Domain age most likely correlates for 2 reasons: Firstly old domains that don't do well are less likely to be around. Secondly they have had time to do well and pick up real quality signals such as authoritative links.
-
Ardmar first the Domain age surely have some Impact on ranking for sure in my experience.
Domain Registration yup also play its role a bit in an inch ranking better.Most of the guys register domain for one year.Search engines can not trust them as much as they are here today may not be here tomorrow.Domain Registration for longer period is a bonus but these are factors that push up your rank an inch.Very small change/benefit you got.
What matter these days is how much value your content provide to your users.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Desktop Ranking Disappeared After URL Change; Mobile Ranking Improved
A client's developer moved a site onto a new (WordPress) CMS, where the only change was URLs - the front end code stayed the same. The site is 10+ years old and previously had fantastic rankings (#1-4) with inner pages for some relatively generic search phrases (eg 10,000 searches / month in the UK, per Keyword Planner). Now, on Desktop searches the site isn't appearing anywhere in the 300+ results for a key search phrase, where it used to rank between #2-4; however over the last 3 weeks on Mobile the site ranks better than before, even though the site isn't at all mobile-friendly (it's over 10 years old). During the move, there were some errors by their developer: mistakenly left in a sitewide rel=canonical tag referring to the homepage 3-4 301s before finally reaching new URLs a lot of 301s missed (250+ crawl errors appeared in Search Console) page content differentiation by parameter, instead of individual URLs For example, the page that used to rank for the targeted phrase, this left 4 different URLs indexed, with the same content. To tackle this, we have so far: put in correct rel=canonical tags set up Search Console to recognise URL parameter as differentiating content fixed all crawl errors appearing in Search Console added a link direct to the problem page, direct from the homepage stopped duplicate content being indexed (including for the page in question) ensured the page load speed is still good (< 0.75s) Ranking for Desktop over Mobile would make sense, but not Mobile over Desktop! I'd really appreciate any advice on how to tackle this. Thanks!
Technical SEO | | magicdust0 -
Best way to change URL for already ranking pages
Hello. I have a lot of pages that I'm optimising. The ones I'm focusing on right now is already ranking, but the URLs could be better (they don't include the keywords right now). However I'm worried that if I change the URLs they will drop in rankings or have to start over. I would of course set up 301 redirect, but is there more I need to do? What is the best way to change URL for already ranking pages?
Technical SEO | | GoMentor0 -
Ranking in other countries.
Hi, To rank in Dubai and UK is it just a matter of mentioning it in a blog post or more technical things need to be setup? we have two sites one empty which i have 301 to the main site would you use the other site for dubia? Regards
Technical SEO | | ReSEOlve0 -
Why is my site ranking so poorly compared to my competition?
I own a car shipping business (www.carshippingcarriers.com) and I was ranking very high last year, but around the end of August our site lost a TON of rank. Afterwards I had my SEO team at the time (no longer working with them) do a complete overhaul of the website (rewrote content, combined many pages together so no duplicate content issue, made it mobile friendly, etc.. Since then we continue to still lose rankings on Google. Yahoo and Bing seem to keep performing decently, but Google we are getting destroyed. I have been a member of Moz for a few months and I have been using the open site to check my competitors and their linking profile. One in particular, www.joescarshipping.com, has been ranking extremely well and the site looks horrible, doesn't have many links, hardly a social media presence, etc.. Compared my my website which has ton of content, articles on our website, social profile is great (tons of Google+ usage), not a ton of links so a decent amount of links, etc.. Why would a company like that be ranking so high while I keep falling? Any advice or reasoning as to what is wrong or what could be done to get better rankings? I am just at my wits end on this matter. 😕
Technical SEO | | Dutko23851 -
My Rankings Keep Going Down - Needs some more ideas on why...
Hi Everyone, I have been working on the website www.PetsSpark.com for a while now. I used to be on the first page for many of my keywords, now I am lucky if i am on the 2nd or 3rd. I stopped my SEO efforts for about 3 months while making changes to the website, its whithin these 3 months that I started dropping from the first page. The biggest thing I notice is the "type" of website now ranking for my main keywords. Mostly Forums, Blogs, or Product Review websites. Take for instance Dog Tear Stain Remover. I used to rank at about #5 for this keyword and now i rank at #20. I'm not sure if my loss of ranking is a combination of things like who Google is letting rank now or if there is something wrong on my website, etc. Can anyone give me a little insight?? Please.... I will also be happy to give more information about what has been going on if needed.
Technical SEO | | DTOSI0 -
Ranking product reviews with same keywords and similar
How you would approach keyword optimization for content that people are searching for, and has the same product name, but with the network name on the end, and it’s basically a different phone on each network – or in other cases, it’s almost an identical phone but may have very minor differences. For example, iPhone 4S- sprint vs. iPhone 4S - verizon vs. iPhone 4S at&t How you would attempt to rank for the search terms?
Technical SEO | | kcorten0 -
Photography site still not ranking well after over year
I have a photography business In the Orlando Fl market. I have noticed my site: joeyvalyphotography.com Does not rank even In the top 50, for my strongest keyword: Orlando Wedding Photographer However, the keyword Orlando engagement Photography/photographer Ranks Very well, and has been rising I'm rank very rapidly over the last two weeks. I'm not sure why my main keyword is not going anywhere, and what my next move should be. I'm considering spending few fhousand dollars on a n seo company, however I though I could learn how to improve my keyword ranking on my own to no avail. Any and all tips, suggestions, advice, will be greatly appreciated.
Technical SEO | | gaji0 -
Frequent updating of pages on website to rank better
Will updating each page often for example everyday or few days, rank the page and/or website better in google. The reason I ask is that I made 18 websites about three months ago and the traffic initially was alot higher and has fallen little by little thru the 3 months. Also how well my pages rank has also fallen. I just put out the websites, have done nothing else. No linking, etc. No updates. It is evident that without new links coming in, the website will fall in rank ie., link aquistion velocity But my question is if I update the pages and change content frequently will this improve my position in google and other search engines. The traffic on websites over the three months if graphed sort of looks like a stair case going down.
Technical SEO | | mickey110