Changing domain reigstrant - seo impact

[pauledwards]

Hi there if you get a domain off someone and change registrant details and hosting, to what extent does this affect the power of the site?

Any opinions of interest, many thanks.

[RyanKent]

I have never seen any published discussion of this topic from Google so we are left to speculation. We know Google is a domain registrar even though they don't sell the service. It therefore seems likely they acquired their license to have either more complete access to data or more direct access to the data.

It seems likely Google tracks registration details and uses the information as one of the 200+ metrics when evaluating a site. Some examples of valuable information:

• are the site's registration details public? Most "good" companies publish the information, while most shady companies keep it private. This is not a blanket statement, but it can be an indicator.

• an ownership change can signal a possible change of content or other significant change on the site

• does the ownership info match the About Us info? If so, the site is more transparent in nature

• Is the site registered by a business or individual?

These and other similar questions can be tracked and possibly used in Google's algorithm. The one aspect I am confident is not used is the amount of registration time. Whether you register a site for 1 yr or 10 yrs should not make any SEO difference.

The above information is my opinion on the matter, not SEO fact. I don't believe anyone outside of Google can respond authoritatively on this topic. You will likely have others sharing their personal stories. The challenge there is when the information is changed there are often numerous other changes made (content, site software, etc) combined with the normal changes that happen which can impact ranking as well.

[AlanMosley]

Matt Cutts has a vodeo on this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91XhqF6iZk0

[pauledwards]

Interesting video thanks. However he doesn't give any clues as to what Google look for to seperate a genuine domain transfer to someone just buying a site for links?

[AlanMosley]

Thats what i thought, i thought i would let you make up your mind.

[RyanKent]

Google responses are intentionally vague. They are designed to educate webmasters about items where they should and should not focus their attention. They are not designed to share the details of how Google internally detects manipulation. If they shared such details, clearly black hat SEOs would use that information to their advantage.

[pauledwards]

Well you would like to think an innocent domain transfer would not be seen as someone buying the site for link purposes then. I would hate someone to be branded like that when they weren't.

[RyanKent]

I agree. Clearly Google's systems are not designed to detect or penalize an innocent transfer. Using the video as an example, Matt Cutts clearly shared their systems were designed to catch spammer networks.

[AlanMosley]

No, I dont think you ned to worry
I doubt it is somthing automatic, i think it would be a manual thing