Those of you unfamiliar with the term, Whois privacy is a service offered by most domain registrars that protects your domain name from people that perform a reverse lookup on your domain name.
It is, essentially, a way to protect your personal information from being available for all to see. Domains with Whois privacy enabled do not reveal the details (like name and contact information) about the registrant — which could be either you, or your business.
Instead the registration information displays the name and contact details of either your domain registrar, or in other cases companies that offer these privacy services like WhoisGuard, WhoisProtect, among others.
Now, wind back the calendar by a few years and you will find that most people recommended usage of a Whois privacy service. Or, you know, registering with a domain registrar that provided these services for free or as value add.
Thing is that this strategy might have worked back then, but using these options now actually reduces your credibility a little — of course, spammers and scammers have the most legitimate reasons to hide their contact information.
But for the regular online marketer? Not so much.
There are some that now opine that search engines and email spam filters take this domain data into consideration. Some even suggest not doing business with an online store that hides Whois information, as that is a sure fire path towards suspicion.
However, for most online marketers, these are risks worth taking.
Not every consumer looks up Whois information before placing an order. And enabling this privacy also affords users that is working from their home peace of mind. Imagine a creepy character showing up on in front of your door, uninvited, just because you do not have the luxury of a physical office building.
Plus, not revealing personal information also helps prevent spam emails and scam calls.
A small level of protection this way is better than having your information publicly available for everyone to see, even if it means some setbacks with newsletter delivery and search engine result pages. At least for the majority of online marketers.