We know Google says there is no pro or con to using private domain registration for SEO or Google ranking purposes. But Fabrice Canel from Microsoft Bing has hinted that it might be a ranking signal for Bing.
Fabrice Canel said on Twitter, "Whois data helps us establish trust and gain knowledge." It is hard to know for sure if he is referencing how it helps people "establish trust and gain knowledge" or if he is saying it helps Bing Search "establish trust and gain knowledge." I suspect it is Bing, since he was asked about Bing but I did ask for clarification.
Michael Adediran asked, "Does domain WHOIS privacy setting affect SEO? Should we make the whois information for our domain public for gaining trust from Bing bots? Would appreciate a response."
Fabrice replied in a generalized way, saying, "Whether or not you should utilize Whois largely depends on your situation. If you are in the process of starting a website from the ground up. Neglecting the small details could be detrimental to your success. Whois data helps us establishing trust and gaining knowledge."
Here are those tweets:
Whether or not you should utilize Whois largely depends on your situation. If you are in the process of starting a website from the ground up. Neglecting the small details could be detrimental to your success. Whois data helps us establishinng trust and gaining knowledge.
— Fabrice Canel (@facan) April 11, 2023
I did ask for clarification and since I am offline when this is publishing, I recommend you click through to see if Fabrice clarified yet or not:
Are you saying private domain registration has some sort of impact on Bing search rankings?
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) April 11, 2023
When Google was asked this a few years ago, John Mueller said "it doesn't change anything." John latter added that "making a domain registration private doesn't make the domain a part of a link network."
Update:
More than the meta keywords 😉 and less than most of everything else. When dealing with many new domains on a daily basis, having dependable ownership information (individual or organization) with a positive track record can assist our machine learning in building trust.
— Fabrice Canel (@facan) April 12, 2023
Forum discussion at Twitter.
Note: This was pre-written and scheduled to be posted today, I am currently offline for Passover.
