Hiding registration info from google

[member22]

Can not making public the address name and technical contact of a domain name hurt my google ranking ? and can the length of renewal of a domain name help me or hurt my rankings.

I read that is part of the data google reads to rank a website.

Thanks,

[tedster]

Anonymous registration is quite common for many legitimate reasons, and Google has made it clear that anonymous registration, on its own, cannot hurt you. I can certainly testify to having that experience in practice.

However, in combination with other factors that look suspicious, anonymous registration information can be part of a total picture that can cause a problem.

[aristotle]

Some owners of websites that advocate social causes or discuss controversial political or religious issues have received hate mail or even threats, and prefer to remain anonymous for that reason. It would be unfair for that to affect rankings.

This is also a reason why Google shouldn't allow incoming link patterns to negatively affect rankings, because otherwise someone who opposes a website's cause could create such a link pattern to try to harm it.

[Samizdata]

can the length of renewal of a domain name help me or hurt my rankings

I have seen this claimed by self-appointed SEO experts. I do not believe it.

The basis of the claim lies in a sentence in one of Google's patents:

the date when a domain expires in the future can be used as a factor in predicting the legitimacy of a domain

I suspect that - if it is used - it will only be a factor where other signs of illegitimacy are already present, and that it is unlikely to be be a consideration for any normal website. Registering for ten years should not give any advantage.

It is a fact that .uk domains can only be registered for two years, never more, never less. It seems clear that they have no advantage over a .com domain that is registered for one year.

It also seems clear that setting .com domains to automatically renew annually does no harm.

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