Idea: Making Google think you have less domains than you really do.

I appreciate your input, but I'm looking for a "for sure" answer, not a "probably" answer.

 

I currently run 73 web sites, all of which have been live for over 18 months. All 73 sites have unique content, but are driven from the same CMS with the same template. We use AdSense across all the sites from the same account, the domains are all registered to the same company, and we submit sitemaps daily from the same account too.

The sites rank great in Google, and I have nothing to hide. If Google penalise me for having more than X sites alone, I'd laugh hard and go study forestry instead.

 

Xig,

Thanks for the info. Very interesting.

Are the sites hosted on the same IP? Do you link any of them together? I'd be interested to know if you use your existing sites to help launch any new ones (ie helping to avoid sandbox by linking to your established websites).

Thanks
db

 

Hi

As an owner of over 65 domains and 50 fully developed sites and a nice chunk ranking quite well on Google SERPs for high competition keywords I would say Matts not talking about myself and others

I think he is speaking about having multiple websites with the same content.

I have had many potential SEO clients who wanted me to SEO 10 or 20 sites all in the exact same category.....Their thought was to try and suck up as much of the front pages results for their keyword terms.

 

There are no definite answers with Google so you will have to use your own judgement.

"With no risk, there can be no gain"

PS for Kevinn and PoloShirt

Google has been a domain registar for a while now and can see behind private domain registrations. No magic tricks from Matt Cutts he is nothing but a Google engineer puppet

 

Yes, they're all on the same IP address. Each site links to about 5-10 other sites, which in turn link to other sites .. to create an even distribution of linking between them all.

Some sites were sandboxed when they launched, others weren't. We tend not to see any decent traffic for 6-12 months anyway, we let community involvement and inbound links occur naturally. I've found it works well for long-term solid growth.

 

Cant you just use the whois guard?? But anyway.. thats really silly if google really penalizes sites for this...

 

No Google is a domain registar and therefore can see behind privacy locks.

Xig

Something I have preached and practiced for years...Sites need to "bake"

Not many have patience for that though and shoot themselves in the foot with artificial link building...

Works for me if others won't listen...makes it easier to get past them on the way up ......

Good post!

 

How many times has it been said in this thread? Google can see behind that.

What you would need to do is put them in different LLCs with different mailing addresses.

 

There can only be a penalization in linking to each other as any site on the web except ded hosted sites are hosted with hundreds or thousands of other sites. How does google know which site is yours? By inter-linking them all. If you don't do it you are okay. Also spamming lifts red flags. And the whole server is watched which means spamming on one can get a whole server of spam sites penalized or banned whether or not they inter-link.

 

Just for the record

.com domain registration information is stored by the registrar in their own private database.

What ever information is displayed in the public whois is the only information anyone can retrieve about a domain legally. If the details are proxied or hidden then you need to go through the registrar who are acting on behalf of the registrant.

Just because google is a registrar does not mean they have access to other registrars databases. The only information they have is whats publicly available on the whois which u and i can access and the details of their domains registered under registrar account.

Even the registry doesn't have access to the contact details as they only store in their database the registration dates, authorisation code, nameserver details.

 

exactly.

I think its not that hard to google to find the different sites a person owns though. If they use various google services such as:
adsense
adwords
sitemaps
etc.

plus the linking between sites and other site similarities .

I like to concentrate on a few sites and keep some in a 'semi-developed' state.
If something goes wrong, I can switch focus & not start from scratch.

 

I believe you are wrong.

ICAAN http://www.icann.org/ maintains the database of domain names and owners.

Each registar searches ICAAN (not their own database) to determine if a domain is registered and to whom.

Hope this helps.

 

Well that's why I said you use DIFFERENT Adsense accounts, LLCs, mailing addresses, and don't cross link.

You keep them all completely separate. Ideally, I think it would be very possible for anyone intelligent person to avoid having Google know what you're up to. If you go through all the trouble of LLCs, Adsense accounts, etc, and then use them ALL on one sitemaps accounts, well that person would be an idiot.

 

Privacy protected domains are registered in the name of a third party, right?
So if google wants that info, the 3rd party service (not a registry?) would have to give it up.

"ICANN holds a complete list of domain registries in the world. One can find the legal user of a domain name by looking in the WHOIS database held by most domain registries"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_system

"Information about who is responsible for domain names is publicly available to allow rapid resolution of technical problems and to permit enforcement of consumer protection, trademark, and other laws. The registrar will make this information available to the public on a "Whois" site. It is however possible to register a domain in the name of a third party, as long as they agree to accept responsibility -- ask your registrar for further details."
http://www.icann.org/faq/#whois

 

I worked for 2 registrars for 3 years in total.

I can assure you that registrant details are not kept by the registry for .com domains. They only have technical information which includes reg period, nameserver info and auth codes and status.

Have a look here.

http://www.icann.org/faq/

To access information regarding registered domains; please go to the InterNIC Registry Whois Service. For some top-level domains, the results of a successful search will contain only technical information about the registered domain name and referral information for the registrar of the domain name. In the Shared Registration System model, registrars are responsible for maintaining Whois domain name contact information. Please refer to the registrar's Whois service for additional information.

SRS model refers to .com and .net domains.

What you see at this whois is whats in the registry.

http://www.internic.net/whois.html

Of course .org, .info, etc domains are different as they are on the EPP model in which the registry stores the registrant contact information.

 

assuming your idea works, won't google still recognize duplicate content?

 

I could just change the whois info and make email addresses that forward email to my own in case someone wants to buy. In fact nobody is going to write via Snail mail, so there is no real significance of the Whois registration address

IT

 

Who said I'm using duplicate content?

I'm not trying to do anything against the rules, I'm just trying to stay under the radar.

 

In my opinion, if it's a big company wanting to buy one of your sites, they will probably use snail mail.

Smaller companies or individuals, probably email.