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This is (still) merely speculation, but surmise founded on a number of informed guesses offering a reasonable degree of plausibility: Google may be in the process of buying GoDaddy, the world’s #1 domain registrar.

Nor is this a mere figment of yours truly’s fevered imagination. In fact, there’s quite a buzz surrounding this rumor (and let’s reiterate: rumor is all it presently can claim to be).

E.g. Frank Schilling is pointing it out here:

More Fuel For the “Google-Daddy Merger” Fire

Domain Name Wire had a piece on this last month: GoDaddy Files Patent for “Domain Name Expiration Protection”

In this overall puzzle of events, Google’s patent discussed here would make perfect sense if they were actually to buy out GoDaddy or any other major registrar for that matter.

Then there is eWeek backgrounding the entire affair in great detail: Google-GoDaddy Marriage on Tap? This article is well worth a read and really too long to summarize here without doing it injustice, so please read it in its entirety.

There’s also Michael Zielinski on Seeking Alpha offering a short piece listing the bullets: Google to Acquire the World’s Largest Domain Name Registrar?

Finally, there’s eWeek’s Google Watch with a summary piece by Clint Boulton, titled: Google for GoDaddy?

Now of course Google has been a registrar since 2003 already, a fact many webmasters don’t seem to be aware of - which is hardly surprising as they’ve restricted themselves to exclusively adminstering their own domains, not offering open registration services to anyone.

Black Hats Impacted?

So what implications could all this have for the black hat SEO community, assuming that Google and Godaddy did indeed merge? Quite possibly devastating ones!

Because while the rest of the online mainstream media are focusing on a multitude of aspects involved, ranging from the impact this anticipated move may have e.g. on Google’s SERPS (as in: deleting trusted vintage domains after a switch of owners), their apps, etc., expectably nobody seems to be considering the implications it would have for black hat SEOs.

Let’s say you’re holding a couple of hundred domains with GoDaddy, all hidden behind their domains-by-proxy privacy feature (which comes at a price more often than not exceeding the actual domain registration itself unless you buy in bulk), using them for cloaking. The very last thing you would want to see is Google getting hold of your real registration details…

But there’s more. Along with GoDaddy would come their Domain Name Aftermarket (TDNAM), a prime resource for catching expiring domains that are still indexed or even enjoy a high PageRank value. As one commentator has it, gobbling up the world’s #1 domain registrar would allow Google to detect switch of ownership in real time, making it possible to adjust web sites’ rankings. (Which is what a part of their new patents are about, after all - so this would make a lot of sense from their point of view.)

What’s a poor black hat SEO to do, then? At time of writing, three immediate solutions come to mind:

Either forsake GoDaddy registrations immediately or spread your risks by using multiple, competing registrars. And take note of the fact that there’s no point in simply signing up with any of GoDaddy’s affiliate partners who are merely piggybacking on Big GD’s status. For example, ↗ Namecheap.com … is a GD subsidiary and therefore wouldn’t qualify.

Hide-your-tracks strategy #1: Even when opting for GoDaddy’s Whois privacy service, make sure the account you’re doing it from isn’t in your own name. Use straw men (friends, family members, co-workers, nominees, your solicitor, etc.) but be aware that it will be they who would be considered to be the legal domain holders in case there’s a dispute!

Hide-your-tracks strategy #2: Register your account under a corporate identity (or several). Go offshore, if viable: Even for US citizens there’s absolutely nothing illegal about owning an offshore company incorporated in Panama, the Bahamas, the Channel Islands, Gibraltar, Cyprus or even Andorra - as long as you declare it in your tax return statement and don’t try to hide it from the Internal Revenue Service, you’ll be a-ok. (This is not about tax minimization let alone - illegal - tax evasion, it’s about hiding your domain ownership from Google, remember!) For corporate addresses, you can use maildrop services available across the world.

Note: If you’re seriously interested in an offshore incorporation solution, please contact me directly via e-mail - see footer of the page - to connect you: While I’m not workin in this industry any longer, I do still have some reliable established contacts who may be able to help you.

Hide-your-tracks strategy #3: Become a registrar yourself! Ok, maybe that’s a bit over the top for the average black hat SEO but for all you high flyin’ big players out there it may actually be entirely feasible. Here’s a short overview of the advantages this offers:

1. Full control over your domain equity - register what, when and how you want. No worries about domains being deleted or not extended, etc.
2. Full control over your Whois privacy - contrary to popular belief, there is no central domain ownership database beyond Whois accessible to all registrars. Thus, if your Whois entries are proxied (e.g. by referencing your own registrar entity as the registering party), actual ownership cannot be discerned by others.
3. No logging of Whois searches by third parties. This can be invaluable if you’re in the domaining business and want to check out interesting domain names, expiration dates, owners data, etc. without raising red flags all over the place.
4. Buy domain names at registrar prices, e.g. pay only $6 for a .com, $4.24 for a .net or $5.75 for a .info domain (plus Icann fees of $0.25 per individual domain transaction).
5. Domain tasting (aka kiting): Register domains at wholesale pricing and if these domains are deleted within the first 5 days of registration, get a refund. This allows you to check your domains’ monetization value (e.g. via type-in traffic) or even short sell them (e.g. by auctioning your kited portfolio or parts of it before you finally decide on buying for keeps or to pass on to your own buyers).

What’s even better: You don’t have to go the full mile financially to enjoy registrar status anymore. Here’s a novel service (actually an industry first) that allows you to lease an ICANN approved registrar with all the benefits involved:

Lease a Registrar Program

It offes an easy-to-use interface enabling you registrar-level control over domains with all the bells and whistles.

Obviously, it’s not targeting the black hat SEO industry specifically, but the BH advantages it offers should be obvious from the above.

Your financial transactions will be between you and the registry directly, added to which there is a leasing fee that is determined by the size of the portfolio being managed and the type of domains owned.

Expect that leasing fee to be about $2000 a month, but as this isn’t hewn in stone we suggest you contact them directly for a definitive quote.

Note that we aren’t affiliated with them in any way, this is an unsolicited pointer and we haven’t signed up for their service (which hasn’t been fully launched yet, as we understand it) but we’re seriously considering our options. Which may be what you’ll want to do, too.

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