I'm going to buy an established website that already ranks in Google for its keyword. However, I'm afraid as when I buy it, its SERP might drop or it might even go into the sandbox (it ranks for a competitive keyword). I'm especially worried this could happen due to the change in the whois data - domain owner and the nameservers change (and domain registrar as well maybe). Does Google notice changes in the whois data as well? And the nameservers change too?
i dont think this is affected, ive bought several sites over the years and SERP has not changed (dramatically). Hopefully you wont experience any problems at all. What site is it you are buying (if we may know?)
Do't worry,the rank will little changged ,but if you do well.it can go up in few days.not focus on the whois.
Google definitely gonna look at your whois data to determine the geographical location of the site. What you could do is, try to find out where the current hosting server is located (from whois may be), then buy a hosting package from the same geographical area or possibly from the same company. Because if your server is changed to a different geo location, chances are very high your serp ranking will drop for a while.
I seen serp drops due to the fact that the previous owner is linking their network of sites and drop the links after the sale.
Back links does not have any relation with SERP's Ranking. You are going wrong. You are buying a website at that time little bit fluctuation will occur in Ranking, but believe me there won't be any major SERP ranking changes for your website.
Quality is more important then quanity QUOTE=chaitanya.seo;6837385]Back links does not have any relation with SERP's Ranking. You are going wrong. You are buying a website at that time little bit fluctuation will occur in Ranking, but believe me there won't be any major SERP ranking changes for your website.[/QUOTE] Anchor text and backlinks are two of the most important factors in ranking
You got wrong, For which you would like to talk about is "Link Popularity" not "Back link" Web page having only 3 back links having rankings in millions of competition in Google. Check out this link. and now search with keyword web based accounting system, see competition and site on 7th Rank. now search in Google.co.in with FAS competition is 16,000,000 rank on 8 th pos. cygnet-infotech.com/financial-accounting-software-fas.htm Let me know web page having 3 back links and all those are from my website itself, how it could be there in top of the SE's ranking? Got it ? Still if you think back links are needed for getting higher ranking than it's now time to goes down your rankings. Anchor text and backlinks are two of the most important factors in ranking[/QUOTE]
Thanks for your reply. So Google looks on the nameservers - the IP (hosting) location, but not my name and address, etc. in the whois data? However, if the site is hosted with an US web host and I just move the domain to an other US host, I should be fine, right?
Your name and address does not matter I think. What matters is the location of the hosting server. If current hosting is in US, and you buy hosting from US you can expect less drop in SERP rank. Try to minimize the down time while you are transferring the website. You have to update your DNS, MX (for email, if you use any email program on server) records. DNS generally takes 1 hour to 24 hours to update and propagate. Use DNS TTL properly to have less downtime. Plan the whole thing first, talk to somebody expert in this. Here is an article you may read, this will give you an overview: cosmocentral.com/post/Changing-Hosting---Will-you-Loose-PR-or-SERPS.aspx
Now that's the funniest thing i have ever heard, i hope you never offer SEO. bogart is right, it's common a websites rank may be propped up somewhat by links from the original owners other domains. After the sale, they may remove the links causing a drop in rankings. webcosmo is also right about the geo-location, try and keep the site in the same datacenter if possible. If not, try and choose a location close to the original. But the name and contact details assigned to the Whois won't matter.
Dude, you should not offer people SEO service at all. Back links does not have any relation with SERP's Ranking. Where in heaven you got this from???
[/QUOTE] "web based accounting system" is a long tail keyword and also could have different variations. I am sure you could rank well with a few QUALITY & RELATED backlinks for that kind of keywords. Try the same technique for a more competitive keywords you will see what you said is right or wrong.
You don't have to change all the whois data at once for the contact information. You could stagger it over some weeks to see if it really affects your ranking. Also google will look to see what other sites are on your new IP and if there are some spammy ones that may hurt your SERPs.