Are there any proven benefits from using C Class IP's for SEO?

[scorpio9]

I just been over at webhostingtalk.com where there was a debate about the myth versus benefits of using C Class IP for SEO purposes, commonly called SEO hosting. In case you don't know, SEO hosting is the practice of using different "C Class IP" addresses to host websites so that they can be used to backlink to each other without incurring Search Engine penalties - i.e. it appears the sites are not owned by the same person and the backlinks are natural.

In "normal" hosting, typically, you'll get 1 shared IP address to host all you websites, if you try to backlink the sites to each other the Search Engines will penalize your sites because they are on the same IP, so to get around this many webmasters started using multiple unique "C Class IP" addresses for hosting websites.

Multiple unique "C Class IP" (aka SEO hosting) is one of those topics where you have two camps with vested interests, one side will tell you it does not work and it's a waste of time and money, the other side will tell you the opposite - quite often neither side have carried out any experiments or tests to prove the arguments either way.

What are your thoughts;
Have you ever used SEO Hosting?,
Did you get any Search Engine benefits from doing so?
It may have worked 7-8 years ago but does it still work today?
Have you got proof to prove it does or does not work?
Is it better to use Web 2.0, Blog Comments, Forum Signatures, etc for backlinks?

Interested to hear your views
Lee

[webapex]

There are enough other less expensive backlink sources, including the plethora of free social sites these days that make the expense of multiple IPs unnecessary. Maybe if you have a property with awesome pr that would be a significant backlink source it would make sense, but just getting one more pr1 backlink is not worth the hassle.

[bubbins1987]

Hey,

I've been testing this myself and I'm still undecided as to whether it makes a difference or not.

I've used multiple IPs over the last year for all of my websites, and recently combined all but one of my websites onto 1 IP. I've noticed no different in rankings and they have been on 1 IP for about 5 months now.

When it comes to linking these sites together, I think I'd prefer to do it when they were on separate IPs. Purely because I feel that Google would penalise my sites if they were all on the same IP and were linking together - separate IPs for this purpose makes sense.

Just my thoughts

Thanks
Eleanor

[mstewart]

this is somewhat of a greyhat tactic here and usually google finds a way to catch up with these kinds of trick... it may work for a while but eventually you could potentially loose out when google updates their algo

[John Hoff]

Just checking in on this topic, so like the original poster mentioned, seems like this topic is only speculative.

Anyone have any real data to go off of?

[Mike Anthony]

Originally Posted by John Hoff

Just checking in on this topic, so like the original poster mentioned, seems like this topic is only speculative.

Anyone have any real data to go off of?

Its not really speculative but based on at least one reality and that is that domain names are mapped to IP addresses. The only question is does Google actually take that mapping into consideration and in the advent of a manual review I would find it hard to believe that if all your links are coming from the same Ip they cannot see that and flag it.

I find that people that think SEO hosting is a scam are not thinking on a scale that it is used for to begin with. If you have just a few websites then there is no reason to use SEO hosting. If you have a hundred sites linking to your money site and they are all on the same Class C Ip its a dead giveaway that they are related.

Thing people have to realize is that you do not need to utilize SEO hosting . Its just a convenience. If you have multiple accounts with multiple hosts you almost certainly end up with different class IP addresses. In fact if it was a while since you ordered from a host if you get another account from them it will probably be another Class C IP as well.

Now managing 50+ or more separate hosting accounts can become a bear to manage and thats where SEO hosting comes in.

[paulgl]

Only if you're doing things wrong. And if you don't trust your
host. I have yet to encounter any name-brand host who was
globally penalized by google.

Plenty of big sites, and I've named literally dozens here, all interlink,
and yes, to the same pages, all on the same IP, non-class C even.

Why people don't try and copy the big boys is way beyond me.

If you choose to do bad things, there is no place to hide, class c
or not. If you are doing doing good things, no reason to hide.

I used to say you may need to host-diversify in case of a penalty
on a host. But as I said above, I have yet to hear anybody claim
that godaddy, hostgator, etc. have had any IP penalized.

Paul

[Mike Anthony]

Originally Posted by paulgl

Only if you're doing things wrong. And if you don't trust your
host. I have yet to encounter any name-brand host who was
globally penalized by google.

Paul this has nothing to do with hosts being penalized or even entire Class C Ips being banned. It has to do with being deindexed on a domain level based on an IP check of incoming links. Many domains have been deindexed for various reasons. You are mixing apples with oranges.

Plenty of big sites, and I've named literally dozens here, all interlink,
and yes, to the same pages, all on the same IP, non-class C even.

Why people don't try and copy the big boys is way beyond me.

Again I don't know what you are talking about. Many big sites with sister companies run on different servers and different Class C Ips and even across separate data centers. People using various sites to link to their other sites ARE copying the big boys.

If you choose to do bad things, there is no place to hide, class c
or not. If you are doing doing good things, no reason to hide.

Is this Google talking or are we talking about REALLy doing something wrong or bad. According to Cutts Google doesn't like article directory marketing but if I write a quality article (and I mean real quality not the standard line about quality by people with spinning) and distribute it there is nothing bad about it but Google claims to not like it in general.

When it comes to linking to other sites based on affiliation or monetary incentive Google allows that all the time for big companies (which again tend to run their sites on different class Ip addresses with different servers and datacenters). IBM will link To Microsoft when there is a financial partnerships. Adobe will link to its third party service providers. I have even seen Google linking from Youtube to partners with followed tags. Cross linking from one company to a sister company , one big site to another big sites is done all the time and I see big name sites ranking on the power of those links but yet Google CLAIMS that linking to another of your sites is manipulation.

So wrong by google standards? perhaps. but not on a moral ground. If I own a site how can Google tell me its wrong to link to another of my sites or that I should nofollow my own sites when on ocassion when it suits them they do not nofollow their partners?

[John Hoff]

@Mike Anthony

I realize a few things about this....

A) If we have our domains all sharing one hosting account, then they are all mapped to the same IP

B) Google is smarter then we think

C) The technology is certainly there where Google "could" check all of a website's (or money site/article) backlinks and figure out which ones are owned by the same person who's site is being linked to.

But still I think it's speculative to some degree without real data (or Matt telling us) that Google does this and penalizes sites as far as SEO goes.

I would imagine, of course, if one site had 2000 backlinks from 500 websites and they are all on the same IP, okay maybe a red flag.

But for the purposes I'm looking at, I'm just curious how much a difference I'd see SEO-wise if I had a money site and then 3 self hosted blogs where I post unique, but perhaps spun, articles them and then link to my money site from them.

To further the link structure, I would have a few 2.0 sites as well as HubPages and Ezine articles pointing to those self hosted blogs as well as the money site.

So I suppose what I'm really fishing for is the question of how much difference, in this scenario, would it make if my 3 self hosted blogs were on separate hosting IPs opposed to being on the same?