Registering domains under different names - SEO benefit?

[Shane]

Say I have a few domains registered under my company name which all relate to my business. Each of them have unique content and each of them link to my main business website which does pretty well rankings wise.

If I was purchasing another domain to put more unique content on, along with a link to my main site, is there any benefit in registering the domain under a different entity?

Basically wondering if Google checks whois details and penalises a 2nd/3rd/4th etc website in the same niche if the registrant is the same.

 

[Shane]

And another thing - any benefit to hosting the sites with different hosts?

FWIW, there are quite a few searches where two of my sites will be on page 1, both with the same registrant details and same host. So I'm hesitant to start mucking around with different hosts and registrant details unless I can be fairly sure it will be of benefit.

Thanks.

 

[soj]

I would say you should go for the different host if you will be linking to the main site, as for registering the domains under different entities, I don't know if Google has decent access to .au registry details. But it wouldn't hurt if you were to do it that way, if you have another entity which is allowed to register/own that domain then go for it.