Do you change the WHOIS when you buy a site or keep it for SEO purposes?

[3Six]

There is a lot of conflicting advice around on this and I guess there's no one answer YMMV and all that. But what do you guys do? Do you change the WHOIS immediately on taking over a new site or do you keep it for SEO reasons?

[WSYSBroker]

Most buyers insist on changing the WHOIS as this is one of the main ways to ensure that the domain name is transferred over. Sure, there other ways to ensure the domain & website is transferred over, but for first time buyers of online real estate, they usually use the WHOIS information as the collateral when in escrow.

[Clinton]

There is an in-between solution. You can change just the email address and then slowly over time change all the other details bit by bit.

What I tend to do is just change the whole lot if it's a big, reputed site on the grounds that Google appreciates that big companies get bought and sold all the time.

If you do have to make a lot of WHOIS changes at once, I'd suggest changing everything except the owner's name. Google is more likely to sit up and take notice if the owner has changed than if the owner has "moved house".

[LukeMoulton]

Clinton's recommendation seems to agree with what I've read over at SEOmoz. SEO agencies who buy sites suggest changing everything gradually and Clinton's name change recommendation seems like a sensible one.

[3Six]

Most buyers insist on changing the WHOIS as this is one of the main ways to ensure that the domain name is transferred over.

If the buyer wants it then fine but the problem is when I am buying a site and the seller insists on changing it!

[DomainMagnate]

I don't think you can lose any SEO value by changing whois. I've never noticed anything like that and frankly that doesn't make much sense for google to implement a penalty like that - after all what's so bad about buying a site?

I always change the whois right away. There are many reasons why you wouldn't want the old one to stay.

[Clinton]

Some escrow companies insist on the WHOIS changes to recognise a valid transaction and release the funds.