Google and Domain Ownership

[Ivan]

Hey, I am about to purchase multiple domains, and would like to target one industry with them. Not particularly the same keywords just the same industry.

There are over 15 domains. I've set WHOIS to public access. Will it in any way affect rankings of the site if they are all owned by me and Google knows about it (also possibly hosted on 1 or 2 servers)?

[tedster]

While Google has access to the Whois data (they are officially "a Registrar" as well as a partner with Domain Intelligence) our members have discussed this issue quite a bit. Common domain ownership, on its own, is not a primary factor in the algo, but it can be a supporting or secondary factor, if something that seems manipulative is going on on one oor more of the domains.

It's even OK to cross link the domains moderatley, as long as that is done to be helpful for the visitors. I work with several businesses who use a group of domains in the same industry and they have no ranking problems from this. They do, however, develop and promote each domain as a "stand-alone" offering rather than as way to leverage the SERPs.