Can Shared IP Hosting Affect SEO?

[cableghost]

I know that shared IP hosting can affect the performance of a site, or email, occasionally, I'm just wondering about any SEO affects.

Say Google slapped another site on the same shared IP, could my site(s) become targeted as well? Not certain if the specific port for my account is recognized.

-Scott

[Boris_yo]

I would also like to know this.

[IcedSEO-CEO]

I think that Google knows that shared hosting exists and that most mini sites uses it so they use specific ports to determine different sites/accounts on same shared hosting account so you don't get the punishment meant for another person.

Basically in Google, shared hosting won't affect your SEO but I can't same of Yahoo and Bing

[Brian Alaway]

Not from the scenario you proposed but if you were to build a link wheel all on the same ip then Google's smart enough to detect that and possibly devalue your links.

[PhilJenkins]

This is a very common question. I will answer this from two angles theory and practice

THEORY
I recall reading about this on Matt Cutts (unofficial face of Google) blog a LONG time ago, I think it was in 2005 but I am not too sure. He was supporting another google employee who had answered the question.

I cannot recall verbatim what was written, but what I took away was that Google DOES NOT discount your SEO efforts because you use a shared hosting service. There will be no difference. If however, you hosting service provider has configuration errors which are common or you are found to be involved in black hat SEO or other activities deemed questionable by Google, then SLAP.

To be honest, these factors apply whether or not you are on a shared hosting service.

PRACTICE
Fastforward 4 years later and this is still the case. I will use a friend of mine as he has exponentially more sites than I do,all on the same hosting service. The sites belong to him and his clients, some are even hosted for free. This has never affected his PR which keeps on improving over time and the more backlinks he builds. I mentioned the free hosting part because he will not host for free if it is affecting his daily bread:-P

So basically do not use cheap hosting as the chances are higher that they may have configuartion issues and you suffer the subsequent issues with them. Be careful where you get your links from - google studies linking pattern for example if you rent 1000 links for 7 months and suddenly stop, Google is bound to take a look and guess what happens.

Hope this helps.

[paulgl]

Originally Posted by cableghost

I know that shared IP hosting can affect the performance of a site, or email, occasionally, I'm just wondering about any SEO affects.

Say Google slapped another site on the same shared IP, could my site(s) become targeted as well? Not certain if the specific port for my account is recognized.

-Scott

Google did not slap your site due to shared hosting. The internet runs
on shared hosting. The warrior forum is on shared hosting.

Google slapped you due to reasons of violating some type of
good webmaster guidelines.

Paul

[Mike Anthony]

Originally Posted by paulgl

Google did not slap your site due to shared hosting. The internet runs
on shared hosting. The warrior forum is on shared hosting.

Really? I doubt that. I don't know of any busy forum that runs on shared hosting.

To answer the OP. It won't hurt you to have sites on the same IP but it won't help as much to link from one to the other. The internet protocol is really run on IPs. the domain names are just a way to easily map locations to more easily understood names. So google's technology can see that all your sties are on the same IP and discount some of the link strength.

[Boris_yo]

Originally Posted by Mike Anthony

So google's technology can see that all your sties are on the same IP and discount some of the link strength.

Even if i ignore GWT, Analytics, AdSense and have private WHOIS?

[paulgl]

Originally Posted by Mike Anthony

Really? I doubt that. I don't know of any busy forum that runs on shared hosting.

Oh Mike. Surely you jest...

Warriorforum is on the same server as several domains. Granted, not all
are used regularly, but they are still shared. A few I found that are
active are and on the same server as WF are:
extremereports.com
warriorforumvideos.com
dominantpower.net
protoad.com

Every one of those sites is indexed by google.

Should I mention forums.digitalpoint.com?
Yup. Shared hosting. I could get technical and say that subdomains
are treated as separate domains, then all subdomains of digitalpoint
are on the same server. But I don't need to. forums.digitalpoint.com
is on the same server as these 2 websites:
digitalpointads.com
shawnhogan.com

On a side note: Target.com shares the server with digitalpoint.com.
Hmmmmmmmm.

I'll bet wikipedia would like to know not to have shared hosting. Every
wiki they have is on the same IP. They have literally hundreds, like
wikibooks.org, wiktionary.org, wikibooks.org...

Does google hate wikipedia?

Paul

[Gary Becks]

There are some negative affects that could occur from using shared hosting but it is not really common as most larger hosting companies monitor this type of thing closely.

The main thing being the sharded ip flagged as spam for whatever reason. If/when this happens, every site hosted on the ip is affected by it.

[TurnkeyBusinessBlogs]

The best hosting we use right now is Hostgator Shared Hosting. Shared has never hurt a domain, unless you try to run Facebook and Wikipedia on the same block.

[Tashi Mortier]

Originally Posted by Gary Becks

The main thing being the sharded ip flagged as spam for whatever reason. If/when this happens, every site hosted on the ip is affected by it.

That is true, because the spam filters rely on IP addresses, and that's why many shared hosts don't allow newsletter scripts etc.

[socialbookmark]

If the IP your website is using from doesn't host spam or malware sites, its OK and your website doesn't loss ranking on Google because of hosting on this shared IP address. I can say that more than 50% of sites are hosted on shared IPs and Google doesn't penalize them only for hosting on a shared IP.

[Zeb]

It depends on your hosting provider as i understand it. Shared hosting can be safe or totally unsafe. If your site is hosted with other sites that has porn, malware, basically bad sites, your site might be affected.

How can you be sure that you're not sharing the same ip with these type of bad sites?
Check with your hosting provider. Read their terms about shared hosting. It should include that they don't accept those bad type sites in their shared hosting accounts.

Hostgator has these terms in their terms & conditions, as do many other popular hosts. But lookout for free type hosting providers. They might not care who hosts in their shared hosting.

[BenRacicot]

Originally Posted by Mike Anthony

Really? I doubt that. I don't know of any busy forum that runs on shared hosting.

To answer the OP. It won't hurt you to have sites on the same IP but it won't help as much to link from one to the other. The internet protocol is really run on IPs. the domain names are just a way to easily map locations to more easily understood names. So google's technology can see that all your sties are on the same IP and discount some of the link strength.

This makes the most sense. Anyone with more than one domain probably has shared hosting. Google knows everything so I would say that it is okay to have many websites. Why would they slap us for hosting several good sites just because of the same IP. However, the linkwheel issue mentioned here would definitely apply. I'm sure that creating 100 sites to have a sort of "inner network" of backlinks won't work for an admin running them all on the same IP. Again I say, Google knows everything so even doing this on the same server would most likely have an effect on a bajillion links circulating within itself.

So, the question I have: How do you create the most effective INNER NETWORK of backlinks to yourself without tipping off the SE?

[Captonles]

No i thing no problem with ShareIP According to Google Webmaster forum and tools help

[traveler90]

Originally Posted by BenRacicot

So, the question I have: How do you create the most effective INNER NETWORK of backlinks to yourself without tipping off the SE?

Get a reseller hosting account and use a different IP for every site. Don't use Google analytics, webmasters tools, adsense, or anything that would allow Google access to your site's info. You can then build a link network around your sites and Google won't know the difference- they won't have inner access to your pages (via google analytics, webmasters) and they won't know that all the sites are your own, because they have different IPs.

[Mark Hoffman]

They won't slap you for having the same ip as a site that got slapped, that could literally affect millions of sites negatively that did nothing wrong

[Kreative4]

If you don't have Porn/Warez etc site on the same IP, you are safe.

[PriceMaster]

It must definitely affect your IP address but if your other money-sites are running nothing fishy you should be safe.

[dburk]

Hi Scott,

IP addresses have nothing to do with SEO. It is just a scam cooked up by some dubious hosting companies to part the naive from their money.

Don't get duped!

[Kingfish85]

Originally Posted by dburk

Hi Scott,

IP addresses have nothing to do with SEO. It is just a scam cooked up by some dubious hosting companies to part the naive from their money.

Don't get duped!

This is 1,000% True. Most people don't seem to believe this.

[Melissa82]

Originally Posted by dburk

Hi Scott,

IP addresses have nothing to do with SEO. It is just a scam cooked up by some dubious hosting companies to part the naive from their money.

Don't get duped!

I don't think it's a scam by any means. With a separate C Class IP I can use the same backlink on each of my domains without any devaluation from Google. I'm finding the toughest part of SEO is getting quality backlinks either for free or inexpensively. Now, with SEO hosting once I find a quality link I point it to all my sites.

I pay $6 a month for SEO Hosting for my five sites. It's a no brainer for me!

[dburk]

Originally Posted by Melissa82

I don't think it's a scam by any means. With a separate C Class IP I can use the same backlink on each of my domains without any devaluation from Google. I'm finding the toughest part of SEO is getting quality backlinks either for free or inexpensively. Now, with SEO hosting once I find a quality link I point it to all my sites.

I pay $6 a month for SEO Hosting for my five sites. It's a no brainer for me!

Hi Melissa82,

Sorry, but you have been duped.

You could use the exact same backlink, using the exact same IP and get the exact same benefit ("without any devaluation from Google"), all without spending one extra penny.

The false premise, that there is a devaluation from the same IP address, is the lie that dubious hosting companies promulgate to scam you out of your money.

[paulgl]

Originally Posted by Kreative4

If you don't have Porn/Warez etc site on the same IP, you are safe.

That's a strange answer.

Porn sites and warez sites can have high PR and authority.

Not sure why people mix stuff up.

Remember, we are not talking adsense TOS.

The web is one big machine full of billions of indexed sites.

Porn, warez, illegal activity, etc. have tons of indexed
authoritative content. Nothing to do with SEO.

Just look at wikileaks...just to name one.

Google believes in a free and open internet.

Paul