Flippa says Google Penalizes for blocked whois

[AFI]

Has anyone heard this before? I think they are crazy. I've got one domain of mine blocked for a good reason (it is religious themed and I've got other adult names on my servers and I don't want them mixed somehow) and I'm trying to sell it on Flippa and Flippa gives this big warning that Google may be penalizing it because I have the whois blocked.

Yet I'm #1 on Google for my main keyword beating out some pretty stiff competition from huge sites on the topic. Has anyone heard of this Google penalty before?

[digitalproductreporter]

do you have a link to this?

i've never heard of it

[AFI]

Right here.
https://flippa.com/help/blocked-whois-warning

[jasonmorgan]

Yet I'm #1 on Google for my main keyword beating out some pretty stiff competition from huge sites on the topic.

There is your proof right there.

I also don't believe it's true. The mysterious google algorithm leads to some kooky SEO ideas.

[AFI]

Originally Posted by jasonmorgan

There is your proof right there.

I also don't believe it's true. The mysterious google algorithm leads to some kooky SEO ideas.

Pretty much what I was thinking.

[paulgl]

Here's the quote from flippa:

"Google is reputed to penalize sites which have use these privacy services."

There is no basis for that statement, nor does it claim it it's true. You
can say anything like that. Google could care less anyway.

But notice the quote says "privacy services." Having your whois private
is not really using a privacy service. It's just a feature. So, maybe they
are referring to some other nefarious privacy service, blocking for
reasons that are not kosher.

You have to also realize that many domains have that privacy built-in,
and some domains you can't do privacy.

In this case, there is no man behind the google curtain checking whois
status.

Paul

[AFI]

No they were definitely talking about a blocked Whois because I have my Whois blocked for that domain and they felt the need to "warn" potential buyers about that.

[WareTime]

I think Flippa is clearly wrong. The only way they will change that is if enough people complain and quit selling there. Are they the only / best game in town?

[russells]

I've been doing SEO for other people, and my own sites for nearly 3 years and this is the first I've heard of such a penalty.

Thanks for sharing. I'll do some digging around to see what I can come up with.

~Russ

[bgmacaw]

It's BS. There's no reason for them to do so and many reasons why not.

Of course, it does help sell a domain if the whois info is available so it's to Flippa's advantage to scare sellers into not using private whois info.

[paulgl]

Originally Posted by AFI

No they were definitely talking about a blocked Whois because I have my Whois blocked for that domain and they felt the need to "warn" potential buyers about that.

There is no basis for warning people you have it blocked.
For one, they can do history and other research on the domain.
That alone is not rocket science.

I suppose going through a domain broker could allow a person to buy
a domain without knowing anything about the owner. But there would
be transfer details.

I'm not even sure flippa would allow a broker, since the true owner
would not be allowed to get "cold feet" on the sale. I don't think
a broker could guarantee that.

Flippa has their own rules:

*The seller must have the right and good faith intention to sell the item listed.

*The seller must provide full details of the item for sale, and must not intentionally hide information from public view.

Having private whois info is not nefarious nor bad.

Paul

[enterpryzman]

I own many domains and about a year ago, I bought some ( 50 or 60 ) through GoDaddy and they give privacy for free in some cases, which I accepted.

These domains are mostly just WP sites that I have never even built up to finish. They are mostly local in nature and they all rank high in search as of today for the keywords.

I say it's complete BS.

Enterpryzman

[iAmNameLess]

I've heard of this quite often actually. I think the only reason to ever worry about it is if they do a secondary analysis on your site. So if you spam out backlinks for 10 of your sites, and it all has the same whois info, you will be penalized. If there is no whois info then you will be penalized.

Anyway, that is the theory behind it. Don't hold that to be truth, you know how people claim they have been banned or deindexed from google when there site is 1 month old and they only build 5 links a day.

[Tony Dean]

Flippa has finally flipped!

I would not use them.

[dburk]

Originally Posted by iAmNameLess

I've heard of this quite often actually. I think the only reason to ever worry about it is if they do a secondary analysis on your site. So if you spam out backlinks for 10 of your sites, and it all has the same whois info, you will be penalized. If there is no whois info then you will be penalized..

Hi iAmNameLess,

Are you sure about this? I have been in this business for many years and have never seen anything that suggests your assertion is true.

For one, search engines have no way to know where the spam originated from or who originated the spam, therefore they have no way to know who, or which website should be penalized.

Since they have absolutely no way to know the origin of the spam, how would whois data play a role? If they assumed all spam originates from the target of said spam it would be a reliable method of targeting your competitors for penalties. Trust me, that doesn't work.

From my experience the only web pages that get punished for spam are the web pages that allow the spam to be posted and remain on the page. Those pages seem to have the trust reduced which devalues those backlinks.

[iAmNameLess]

Originally Posted by dburk

Hi iAmNameLess,

Are you sure about this? I have been in this business for many years and have never seen anything that suggests your assertion is true.

For one, search engines have no way to know where the spam originated from or who originated the spam, therefore they have no way to know who, or which website should be penalized.

Since they have absolutely no way to know the origin of the spam, how would whois data play a role? If they assumed all spam originates from the target of said spam it would be a reliable method of targeting your competitors for penalties. Trust me, that doesn't work.

From my experience the only web pages that get punished for spam are the web pages that allow the spam to be posted and remain on the page. Those pages seem to have the trust reduced which devalues those backlinks.

Yes, this is what I am talking about when I say secondary analysis. They can easily see the IP's of posts and comments, though they are hidden fields for the rest of us. I'm not sure if you realize, but I could run an ip and half the time get their actual address, first, and last name. So lets say google does a secondary analysis, of some spam. They see the IP you posted, run the IP through software, they get your name, number, ISP, DNS... they run a whois. THAT IS THE THEORY.

Now, keep in mind that I said don't treat this as gold, or truth. Flippa isn't the only one that has claimed this, I have seen it quite a few times. Not to me personally, but reports and claims of other people as well. I understand the possibility of it, and I believe the possibility, if you're spamming a lot and not using proxies, then you're going to get busted if you have a whois account blocked.

I'm sure there is some truth to it in some cases. I'm sure 99.9% of the people with a blocked whois, is perfectly fine. And who knows, the other people with a blocked whois and making these claims, maybe there was something else going on that caused it. Who knows?