Question about changing registration info

I'm wondering if anyone has any insight on whether or not changing the registration info to private on one of my domains that is doing very, very well can hurt me in any way. Right now I have great positioning in Google, and I don't want to do anything that could affect that. Any info would help a great deal!

I wouldn't do it without a very good reason myslef. Read the article quoted in this thread http://forums.seochat.com/google-optimization-7/interesting-notes-from-a-q-a-session-with-matt-cutts-190317.html and although your domain is not expired unless you have a good reason to do it I would not risk it. But my view is purely speculation as I have no personal experience of this. Others may be able to advise you better..

Good luck

Thanks very much. I read the posts, and it seems like they're talking about when a domain is registered to a new user. If you just change the contact or "who is" info, then isn't it known that domain isn't changing hands? And therefore wouldn't be reset? I'm not pushing the domain, or changing any of my information with godaddy. The main concern I have is whether or not registering as private will be detrimental to my site since it seems that google now may look into the who is information.

If you or someone you know has changed the registration information only on any domain, please let me know! I'd like to find out if the site was affected in any way by this change and/or the way the search engines view the "who is" info and in how much detail. I guess I'm just stuck trying to decide whether or not Google would see a domain with anonymous "who is" info and think that something was up with that site, or if they really even take the time to manually look into this type of information, as I don't believe was done in the past. And if it was, I'm led to believe that this type of site crawling must have been done manually and not to any great extent.

I guess what it comes down to, and the answer I'm really looking for is this: Can I change my "who is" information to my already very successful domain, and only this information, keeping it in the same place where my domain has been hosted, and simply change the "who is" information available to the public into a private registration without being penalized in any way

I'd say just use a fake name if you're worried about your comp. messing with you. You only NEED an actual email addy at this point. There is a bill that's in the process of trying to be passed that ban's this, but for now you're in clear...If you have other intentions please elaborate further.

I certainly have few domains with private registration, however, it is usually when I'm nervous about technique I may have used (typically in the past)...

In light of Cutts latest comments at the round table it sounds like as long as you don't have more than one domain targeting the same KW, small networks of self owned sites, deemed relevant, can't hurt you all that much...and in some cases can be overlooked/ignored all together

Good questions though MeganM

You must be able to read minds MadisonSEO....I just read that article today and it worried me more about the possible weight that the actual registration information of a site can hold. Wouldn't this mean that Google IS in fact manually crawling sites and looking into their "who is" information. The ban is to prevent phishing, and anyone accused of this "crime" can be charged up to $6 million and jail time as well. This seems a little harsh to me, subsequently making the decision to switch my registration info or register any new domains as private, much more difficult. But I can't help wondering that if (which to me sounds like a BIG if), this bill does somehow pass, how can they possibly check to see if all the "who is" info for every domain on the internet actually lists the persons/business' real address, email and other info? To me, it seems like a lot of wasted time and energy that could be spent much more beneficially in other areas of the search engines and those who write the algo's and so forth. Maybe I'm totally off on that one, but to me it seems like a lot of wasted time on Google's part.

Please let me know if you have any insight on the original question, it would help out a lot if anyone has done this or knows not to, or knows it's okay. Thanks!