Is the "IP" as important as they say it is? The SEO silver bullet?

[lakruwan]

I've read various articles on the net stating the importance of the IP when it comes to SEO. If that's true what of the following statements when a shared IP is used.

1. What happens when one web site gets banned and in doing so penalizing the IP?
2. Is it fair that a web site using ethical SEO techniques is affected because it is being hosted in a "bad" neighborhood?
3. Does interlinking websites on the the same shared IP cause search engines to view them as a cluster and consequently loose link weight? i.e. links originating from a single C Block.

I've always had questions in regards to the above statements. I'd like to know what everyone else thinks of these. May be someone who's experimented with linking using different IP's can tell me if it is a worthwhile effort.

[BuckfastMonk]

Google is usually only ever concerned with a domain name and not an IP address so you will be fine on a shared hosting package

[NewKidOnTheBlock]

How do you know?

[Marcia]

Originally Posted by NewKidOnTheBlock

How do you know?

NK, come on - how does anyone know anything about SEO?

We can know some things by reading IR papers, by our own experience and observation, and from th experience and observations of others whose opinions we value and/or trust.

Basically, it's mostly learned from experience.

[beu]

Originally Posted by NewKidOnTheBlock

How do you know?

um... PageRank is assigned by domain name not IP.

[lakruwan]

Is everyone agreeing that Google looks at your domain name only? If so why are people talking about the importance of IP's. I agree SEO is mostly experience, i just want to know if theres any truth to it.

[beu]

Originally Posted by lakruwan

Is everyone agreeing that Google looks at your domain name only? If so why are people talking about the importance of IP's. I agree SEO is mostly experience, i just want to know if theres any truth to it.

"Actually, Google handles virtually hosted domains and their links just the same as domains on unique IP addresses. If your ISP does virtual hosting correctly, you'll never see a difference between the two cases. We do see a small percentage of ISPs every month that misconfigure their virtual hosting, which might account for this persistent misperception--thanks for giving me the chance to dispel a myth!"

-Google Director of Technology Craig Silverstein Slashdot interview

[Marcia]

Now, linking between sites owned and/or run by the same person that reside on the same C-class may not be the best idea. But there's nothing definite, just suspicions based on some observation, which is why many people spread their sites out to different c-blocks.

[NewKidOnTheBlock]

@Marcia: I know, there aren't too many things known for a fact in SEO :-).

I was just curious why he would say that IP addresses aren't too important, when everybody says you should make a point of not linking between your own domains hosted on the same class c ip addresses, etc., as it might be seen as spam.

And all those tools which display how many different class c ip addresses the links to a website come from, but few, that simply show how many different domains the links are coming from. Maybe the class c ip address analyzing instead of only looking at how many domain names links are coming from is a bit over the top (unless it's a link farm)?

@beu:

um... PageRank is assigned by domain name not IP.

I'm not sure, if this would be very convincing with so many people stating, that it's more complicated than simply PR.

"Actually, Google handles virtually hosted domains and their links just the same as domains on unique IP addresses. If your ISP does virtual hosting correctly, you'll never see a difference between the two cases. We do see a small percentage of ISPs every month that misconfigure their virtual hosting, which might account for this persistent misperception--thanks for giving me the chance to dispel a myth!"

-Google Director of Technology Craig Silverstein Slashdot interview

This one, however, is more convincing :-) thx beu

[beu]

Originally Posted by NewKidOnTheBlock

@Marcia: I know, there aren't too many things known for a fact in SEO :-).

I was just curious why he would say that IP addresses aren't too important, when everybody says you should make a point of not linking between your own domains hosted on the same class c ip addresses, etc., as it might be seen as spam.

Hey NKOTB no problem!

By the way, I was meaning PageRank on the grand scale.

One other point, linking between your own domains hosted on any server might be seen as spam because search engines are privy to ICANN domain name registration information.

[BuckfastMonk]

Originally Posted by NewKidOnTheBlock

@Marcia: I know, there aren't too many things known for a fact in SEO :-).

I was just curious why he would say that IP addresses aren't too important, when everybody says you should make a point of not linking between your own domains hosted on the same class c ip addresses, etc., as it might be seen as spam.

Sorry, are you referring to me? If you are, you clearly need a new set of glasses

[NewKidOnTheBlock]

lakruwan:

Does interlinking websites on the the same shared IP cause search engines to view them as a cluster and consequently loose link weight? i.e. links originating from a single C Block.

BuckfastMonk:

Google is usually only ever concerned with a domain name and not an IP address

Me:

I was just curious why he would say that IP addresses aren't too important

You:

Sorry, are you referring to me? If you are, you clearly need a new set of glasses

I'm sorry, but I can't see where I got you wrong? Could you please explain it? Should I have said 'different class C IP addresses' instead of 'IP addresses'?

I don't need a new set of glasses, however you just reminded me I have to go out and buy some new shoes :-)

[BuckfastMonk]

Not once did I say that "IP addresses are not too important". I would appreciate if you wouldn't misquote me

Anyhow, lets roll this back because I can see were you are confused.

The original quote clearly describes the posters concern over a shared IP. Do we agree? Ok good . . . can I therefore assume that the poster would be on a shared hosting account? Ok good . . .


what of the following statements when a shared IP is used

What happens when one web site gets banned and in doing so penalizing the IP?

My response - Google is usually only ever concerned with a domain name and not an IP address so you will be fine on a shared hosting package

Is it fair that a web site using ethical SEO techniques is affected because it is being hosted in a "bad" neighborhood?

My response - Google is usually only ever concerned with a domain name and not an IP address so you will be fine on a shared hosting package

Does interlinking websites on the the same shared IP cause search engines to view them as a cluster and consequently loose link weight? i.e. links originating from a single C Block.

Ah ok. . . I see the confusion. Perhaps I should have made this distinction a little clearer but I had assumed people could work that bit out

[Marcia]

There are other ways engines can determine common ownership or connections between sites than just the IP or c-class, linking patterns being among them.

Also, whether it's fair or not, sometimes it's expedient, if there are some "seriously bad" sites on a server, to just ban or penalize the whole lot and move on. Google may not do that, but that's not to say that another engine doesn't.

[BuckfastMonk]

Yes thats true Marcia. I can recall the whole process with searchking and from memory this is the only case I know of that was entirely wiped (or as good as). Who knows what could happen

[lakruwan]

So from what i can gather, i guess you should be ok even if you're on a shared IP. Thanks for the input everyone.

[NewKidOnTheBlock]

I'm sorry..but take it easy mate ;-)

[BuckfastMonk]

I am taking it "easy". I don't like being misquoted, I wouldn't imagine anyone would

[mcanerin]

Google DOES care about IP with regard to geolocation, in the case of gTLD's, so making statements about IP not mattering at all are wrong because they are overly broad and don't look at other issues like marketing in a global economy, IMO.

Now, if you are talking only about marketing your .com from Boston to New York, then please continue with the debate...

As for Shared VS Dedicated IPs, there are several general advantages for dedicated IP's, but none that are overriding for SEO purposes. I ran my sites off a single shared IP for years with no problems.

There are entire towns/cities that only have a single local ISP using a shared IP - and of course since they link to other sites in the town, you'd think this would be a classic case of them all being deleted as a link farm or something - nope.

I understand that IP is looked at for spam fighting, but is not a criteria by itself. Naturally professional spammers spread sites and their IP's around, so it would be silly to assume that you would get a "get out of spamming free" card by switching IP addresses.

I have personally seen clients who had very similar sites that benefited from moving to separate IP's. I've also had clients that had a dozen sites across a dozen different class C's and they had still been nailed.

In the case of the one where moving the IP worked, the sites really were different and had different customers, but would often show up for the same keywords (ie Florida driving X and florida driving Y, where X and Y where actually totally different things). In this case, they got hit for the "florida driving" part, even though that actually wasn't their keyword. Separating the sites helped.

In the other case, I came in a to find a group of what I would describe as "feeder" or "attraction" mini-sites sites, and they had been very careful to separate them as far as IP. In this case, it didn't help one bit, and the rankings only improved after I combined the sites into one proper one.

For the average site, my experience is that it really doesn't matter if it's shared or not. It only becomes an issue if you begin to push the spam envelope, at which point I would suggest you have other problems other than your IP...

Ian

[BuckfastMonk]

Yes thank you Ian, I am well aware of that and agree totally with your post.

I never argured against any of the points that you have made and never said that an IP address in any respect is not important.

My arguement was simply that on a shared hosting account, google will not ban/peanlise your IP due to others on the same shared account playing silly, they are only concerned with a domain name in this case.

Do you agree? (maybe I am missing something here )