Beware of Search Engine Registration scams
You may receive emails claiming that the visibility of your domain names on search engines is at risk and that you should pay to secure your website ranking through a domain search engine registration service.
These alarming “notices” are essentially scams that take advantage of unsuspecting people using familiar-sounding terminology.
The most luring aspect of these email alerts is that they look sincere and express urgency. Moreover, the emails are worded to sound official with a call to immediate action. They are often personalised with your name and contact details and appear formal.
In reality, these scammers hunt registrant details from public Whois records. For this reason, you will often receive an influx of such emails after registering or updating the records of a domain.
Note: Since the implementation of GDPR on 25 May 2018, Whois records are no longer publicly visible, which should drastically reduce this type of spam.
Domain registration vs Search registration
Domain registration is a legitimate service and is the process of registering a domain into your “ownership” through a registrar, such as ZACR.
“Domain name search engine registration“, however, is not required. The mails inform you that you need to register your domain with Search Engines in order for them to “find” and rank your website. This is not true. While it is possible to submit your new website to Google or Bing to kick-start it for visibility, there is no fee.
Are you on Google?
Inclusion in Google’s search results is free and easy; you don’t even need to submit your site to Google. Google is a fully automated search engine that uses software known as “web crawlers” that explore the web on a regular basis to find sites to add to their index. In fact, the vast majority of sites listed in their results aren’t manually submitted for inclusion, but found and added automatically when their bots crawl the web.
