The Best Whois Lookup Service For International TLDs

by 3PRIME | Feb 20, 2015 | Articles

Ambushed By Spammy Links

In the last few weeks, I’ve noticed that someone has been trying to tamper with my client’s search engine rankings. The saboteur (most likely a competitor) is using an old school tactic by creating hundreds of spammy comment links using a phrase that my client wants to rank for as anchor text. According to Google, this spam tactic is ultimately futile:

“Google has an understanding of the link graph of the web, and has algorithmic ways of discovering those alterations and tackling them. At best, a link spammer might spend hours doing spammy linkdrops which would count for little or nothing because Google is pretty good at devaluing these types of links.”

An example of spammy comment links

In addition, most of these spammy links are nofollow links. Thus, the effort to sabotage my client’s rankings is all the more ineffective. I have yet to notice a drop in rankings or traffic. But I’d rather not take a chance risking a penalty from Google which is why I’m taking action now.

Using rmoov To Clean Up The Mess

Since I’m dealing with links from hundreds of different websites, I don’t have time to contact each individual webmaster to get these links removed. To make my life easier, I’m using a great tool call rmoov that allows you to automate the link removal process by taking the following steps:

• Add a list of URLs
• rmoov pulls contact information for each domain
• Customize email templates and start your campaign
• rmoov creates and sends email, follows up with reminders, automatically checks links, provides a reporting system for domain owners, marks domains cleaned up and auto-fills a record of every step straight into a Google doc so you can see what’s happening along the way.

Sha Menz, the lead software architect for rmoov, further highlights the benefits of using this tool:

“rmoov allows you to scale outreach but maintain manual control when necessary. You can customize emails for particular webmasters, submit forms. and report on your activities with ease.”

When you upload a list of websites, rmoov will usually find the Whois information for websites with top level domains (TLDs) that are widely used in the United States, such as .com, .org, .net, .edu, and .gov. But for TLDs used in other countries, you often have to find the webmaster’s contact information yourself.

Finding Whois Information For Foreign TLDs

As Media Temple explains, “a Whois search will provide information regarding a domain name, such as example.com. It may include information, such as domain ownership, where and when registered, expiration date, and the nameservers assigned to the domain”.

For URLs with American TLDs, I use Register.com’s Whois Lookup service. GoDaddy’s Whois Lookup service is also very reliable. Below is a screenshot of the Whois lookup for 3PRIME’s website:

Finding the contact information is easy for websites with American TLDs, regardless of what Whois lookup service you’re using. However, the same cannot be said when looking up information for websites with foreign TLDs for two reasons:

1. Some countries will release all necessary contact information for their respective TLD, while other countries will keep that information private. When I do a Whois lookup for a .nl (Netherlands) domain, I can usually find the website administrator’s name and email address. When I a Whois lookup for a .dk (Denmark) domain, I can usually find the website administrator’s name but not the email address. And when I do a Whois lookup for a .al (Albania) domain, I can’t find any useful information. For cases like this, you need to go to the website itself to find the necessary contact information.

2. In my experience, Whois lookup services (such as Register.com and GoDaddy) for domains with American TLDs are fairly consistent. Each Whois lookup service gives you the same information that the others give you. But once again, the same can’t be said for Whois lookup services targeting foreign TLDs. Some Whois lookup services claim they can find the Whois information for a variety of foreign TLDs. But from what I’ve seen, a Whois lookup service will find what I need for a domain with Country A’s TLD, but will find nothing useful when looking up a domain with Country B’s TLD. However, when I use a different Whois lookup service for a domain with Country B’s TLD, I can often find what I’m looking for.

The Best Whois Lookup Services

As I explained earlier, oftentimes rmoov was unable to find the Whois information for websites with foreign TLDs. Due to this, I had to find the best Whois lookup for each TLD I encountered. I have put together a comprehensive list of the best Whois lookup service for every TLD I encountered.

How It Works:

Click the TLD to go to the respective Whois lookup website.
Country: This field says what country the TLD is for.
Language: This field says what language the Whois lookup website is in.
Finds Emails: This field says whether you can find email addresses for the website’s administrator(s).
Comments: Any relevant information about the Whois lookup service.

.al

Country: Albania
Language: English
Finds emails: No
Comments: No matter what the URL is (ending with “.al” or “.com.al”), always leave out the “.al” when entering it in the URL field. This website (or any other .al Whois lookup services) is pretty much useless when it comes to offering any information about .al websites or their owners.

Trivia: Albania’s name in Albanian is Shqipëri. This roughly translates to “land of the understanding”.

.ar

Country: Argentina
Language: Spanish, but Google Translate works well
Finds emails: No
Comments: n/a

Trivia: Argentina is a Spanish word for “silvery”. This word originates from the Latin word for silver: argentum. Argentina is the 10th largest producer of silver in the world.

.au

Country: Australia
Language: English
Finds emails: Yes
Comments: n/a

Trivia: The name Australia comes from the Latin word australis, meaning southern. Since the early 20th century, the country has colloquially been referred to as Oz.

.br

Country: Brazil
Language: Portuguese (see Comments for more details)
Finds emails: Yes
Comments: Google Translate doesn’t work well for this website. The captcha is not easy to work with. It shows you a set of numbers or letters and gives you a question (always in Portuguese but easy to figure out) such as “How many letters?” or “What the consonants?”.

To properly operate the website, you need to first enter the URL into the top field. Then answer the captcha question. After you do that, hit enter. Do NOT click the green “Consult/Consultar” button on the right of the URL field. If you don’t follow these instructions, you’ll have to do the entire process over again.

Trivia: Brazil’s name comes from brazilwood (pau-brasil in Portuguese). Brazilwood is an endangered tree that was once plentiful on the Brazilian coastline.

.ch

Country: Switzerland
Language: English
Finds emails: No
Comments: n/a

Trivia: The TLD .ch comes from Confoederatio Helvetica (Latin for the Swiss Confederation, the country’s official name in English). Switzerland has four official names in each of its four official languages: Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft (German), Confédération Suisse (French), Confederazione Svizzera (Italian), and Confederaziun Svizra (Romansh).

.cl

Country: Chile
Language: Spanish, but Google Translate works well
Finds emails: No
Comments: n/a

Trivia: From the beginning of Spanish rule in 1535, Chile was spelled “Chili”. The name originated from a Native American language but no one has agreed on which one (Quechua, Aymara, or Mapuche). This spelling was in use in English until 1900.

.cz

Country: Czech Republic
Language: Czech, but Google Translate works well
Finds Emails: Yes
Comments: n/a

Trivia: Before Czechoslovakia split in 1993, the country used the TLD .cs. Slovakia’s TLD is now .sk.

.dk

Country: Denmark
Language: English
Finds emails: No, but usually gives phone numbers
Comments: n/a

Trivia: The name Denmark most likely comes from a combination of two Old Norse words: dhen (meaning “low” or flat”) and mǫrk (meaning “forest” or “borderland”).

.ee

Country: Estonia
Language: English
Finds Emails: Yes
Comments: Use the “Domain Search” feature on the top-left corner of the page to find the Whois information

Trivia: The TLD .ee comes from Eesti, the country’s name in Estonian.

.es

Country: Spain
Language: English
Finds emails: Yes
Comments: n/a

Trivia: The TLD .es comes from España, the country’s name in Castilian (the Spanish dialect most widely spoken in Spain).

.eu

Country: European Union
Language: English
Finds emails: Yes
Comments: n/a

Trivia: Founded in 1957, the European Union now has 28 members. The EU has 24 different names in its 24 official languages.

.fi

Country: Finland
Language: Finnish (see Comments for more details)
Finds emails: No
Comments: Google Translate isn’t perfect for this website. To do a Whois lookup, enter your URL and then click the orange “Etsi (Search)” button.

Trivia: The Republic of Finland has two official names: one in Finnish (Suomen tasavalta) and one in Swedish (Republiken Finland).

.gr

Country: Greece
Language: English
Finds emails: No
Comments: You can sometimes get the email for where the domain is registered but that’s not helpful for removing bad links

Trivia: The official name for Greece is the Hellenic Republic, or Ellīnikī́ Dīmokratía in Greek.

.hu

Country: Hungary
Language: English
Finds emails: Yes
Comments: After entering in the URL and clicking “Search”, click the blue “Applicant/registrant of the domain” to see the Whois information.

Trivia: The Republic of Hungary is called Magyar Köztársaság in Hungarian.

.ie

Country: Ireland
Language: English
Finds emails: No
Comments: n/a

Trivia: Ireland has two other official names: Éire in Irish and Airlann in Ulster-Scots (a dialect of English spoken in Northern Ireland).

.il

Country: Israel
Language: English
Finds emails: Yes
Comments: n/a

Trivia: Israel has 2 official names: one in Hebrew (Medīnat Yisrā’el) and one in Arabic (Dawlat Isrāʼīl). Both names mean “the State of Israel” in English.

.it

Country: Italy
Language: English
Finds emails: Yes
Comments: n/a

Trivia: The name Italy comes from the Latin word italia, meaning “calf land”. Many ancient Southern Italian tribes had the bull as their symbol.

.jp

Country: Japan
Language: English
Finds emails: Yes
Comments: n/a

Trivia: Japan’s official name is Nihon-koku (or the less common Nippon-koku). Both names mean “[the] State of Japan”.

.ke

Country: Kenya
Language: English
Finds emails: No
Comments: n/a

Trivia: Kenya is named after Mt. Kenya, the highest mountain in Kenya and the 2nd highest peak in Africa. Mt. Kenya’s name comes from the Kikuyu word kere nyaga, meaning “white mountain”.

.mx

Country: Mexico
Language: English
Finds emails: No
Comments: n/a

Trivia: Mexico comes from Mēxihco, a Nahuatl name for Valley of Mexico. The Valley of Mexico was the heartland of the Aztec Empire and is now where Mexico City is located.

.nl

Country: Netherlands
Language: Dutch, but Google Translate works well
Finds emails: Yes
Comments: For some reason, a plurality of my links were .nl websites so I ended up using this Whois service often. The Whois lookup will shut you out after doing 15 searches within 24 hours. I’m sure other Whois lookup services have similar limits but I never used them long enough to find out.

Trivia: The Netherlands and Holland are not interchangeable names. The Netherlands is made up of 12 provinces. Two of the provinces are named North Holland and South Holland. Calling the Netherlands “Holland” is like calling the United States “Dakota” or “Carolina”.

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The Best Whois Lookup Service For International TLDs

Ambushed By Spammy Links

Using rmoov To Clean Up The Mess

Finding Whois Information For Foreign TLDs

The Best Whois Lookup Services

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