But Wait.. I thought Google Caught This Stuff

[jbgilbert]

Can't drop a URL, but a search of Google for "xxxxxxxxxx" should locate you a somewhat fishy site that is on a particular IP address and has a bunch of inbound links from a bunch more sites on the EXACT same IP address.

Pretty obvious "mini-network" I'd say... Yet, the rankings persist ( top rankings too).

All these years of hearing the ole "never interlink sites that reside in the same class C block, much less the same IP address".

Any comments?
Any answers as to why Google has not oicked up on this?
Has Google abandoned this check?

[GuyFromChicago]

All these years of hearing the ole "never interlink sites that reside in the same class C block, much less the same IP address".


I have sites on the same IP interlinked and they get good Google rankings - the rankings actually improved with the most recent Google update. I interlink when it makes sense for my users, regardless of IP.

[mcanerin]

The problem with the same IP being considered automatically spam is that there are many cases of the "town web host" in smaller, less internet-penetrated areas. In this case, the local ISP offers their clients cheap, shared IP webspace, and most take the offer out of good faith and with no intention to create a local link farm or SE spam cartel.

In this case, the best independant and most authoritative resources on the best "pizza website in chilliwhack" may very well be a directory owned by someone else in the town. Discounting these may remove a valuable resource.

Of course, I'm not for one moment saying that a bunch of interlinking sites on the same IP is not suspicious - but you need more than that, IMO. For one thing, pretty much every SEO and successful spammer "knows" that you should have your sites on different class C addresses - which ironically may indicate that the sites on the same IP may NOT be related. <confused>.

SEO's almost always tell owners of multiple websites to move their sites to different class C's. If I were a paranoid SE engineer, I would consider a related site with crosslinks that moved to a different class C a pretty good red flag for an indication of a relationship (ie knowledge of the server setup and IP indicates more than purely casual knowledge of a sites existance).

Yes, it's suspicious, but by itself not authoritative. There needs to be something else, I think.

Ian