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Two sites on the same server/IP and same subject linking to each other

by Skribblez
12 replies
Let's say I have two sites on the same server/IP. They are both about warcraft. One site is about warcraft leveling and the other is about warcraft gold.

I want the leveling site to rank for leveling terms and the gold site to rank for gold terms. Is it ok for me to link these sites (sitewide links) to each other to sort of "help each other out" even though they're on the same IP?

I've been reading a bunch of stuff that suggests it's better to get another host for the other site because Google doesn't really like sites on the same IP linking to each other?

Please, someone help clear this up for me. I don't really want to get another host for my other site if I don't have to..

Thanks
#linking #server or ip #sites #subject
  • Profile picture of the author James Schramko
    You can link them but they will most likely cancel out from the same IP.

    (When I have tested this and run reports my 'same site links' get backed out.)

    I would get another IP address if you want to do that. Also consider only linking one to the other one way and not back.
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  • Profile picture of the author dvduval
    I have some situations where I have multiple sites on the same IP about a similar subject, and I have no problem getting traffic from google. In my case, the sites are pretty established on have been around for a few years.
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  • Profile picture of the author James Schramko
    I don't think it hurts- I just don't think it is good as having unique IP's
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  • Profile picture of the author Paul Buckley
    I think people get WAY too bogged down in the minutiae of SEO. Basic SEO for a site takes very little time and effort (maybe an hour or so at the first and a tip of the hat to it when you add content) and nothing more is really needed. Your effort should be concentrated on getting quality back links, which is a long-term project, and building a list.

    It will be a year or more before search engines generate more than half of your traffic (unless you are paying for it) if you are concentrating on the other more effective traffic strategies at your disposal.
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    • Profile picture of the author jbode
      Originally Posted by Paul Buckley View Post

      I think people get WAY too bogged down in the minutiae of SEO. Basic SEO for a site takes very little time and effort (maybe an hour or so at the first and a tip of the hat to it when you add content) and nothing more is really needed. Your effort should be concentrated on getting quality back links, which is a long-term project, and building a list.

      It will be a year or more before search engines generate more than half of your traffic (unless you are paying for it) if you are concentrating on the other more effective traffic strategies at your disposal.
      If you are doing SEO correctly, it shouldn't take a year to get more than half your traffic from search engines, I've had search engine traffic in a month or less with most of my sites.

      The key to SEO is making it look natural to the search engines using a combination or keyword phrases and types of links. Don't work too much about the minor details of how much quality a link is worth.

      Top quality links are in text links with anchor text linking to a related page on your site all with all of these having the same or very similar keywords. From an authority site (high pr).

      But the combination of many smaller easier to get links will be effective as well.
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  • Profile picture of the author wayfarer
    If it is natural for the two sites to link to each other, go ahead and do it. If it is done in an artificial manner, or in a way that isn't helpful to the user experience, why bother? Those links aren't going to be very helpful to your rankings if it is done reciprocally, and even one-way links won't mean much if there isn't good text in the anchor of the link, as well as the content of the page, that is related to the material being linked to.

    I am highly skeptical that the IP address issue will make even the slightest difference. Many sites share the same IP address, and there is no way to prove that both are owned by the same entity. Therefore, IMO, it is highly illogical for Google or anyone else to make IP a factor to weight rankings, when it is so obviously not a reliable measurement.
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    • Profile picture of the author James Schramko
      Originally Posted by wayfarer View Post

      If it is natural for the two sites to link to each other, go ahead and do it. If it is done in an artificial manner, or in a way that isn't helpful to the user experience, why bother? Those links aren't going to be very helpful to your rankings if it is done reciprocally, and even one-way links won't mean much if there isn't good text in the anchor of the link, as well as the content of the page, that is related to the material being linked to.

      I am highly skeptical that the IP address issue will make even the slightest difference. Many sites share the same IP address, and there is no way to prove that both are owned by the same entity. Therefore, IMO, it is highly illogical for Google or anyone else to make IP a factor to weight rankings, when it is so obviously not a reliable measurement.

      It is very easy for Google to work out if they are the same entity and I think they do discount same entity relationships.
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      • Profile picture of the author wayfarer
        Originally Posted by James Schramko View Post

        It is very easy for Google to work out if they are the same entity and I think they do discount same entity relationships.
        If the same entity is registered as owner, it would be possible to connect two sites in that manner, and Google would be able to work out the relationship just by looking at the nameservers. If that is the case, any IP address you have will make no difference, because the nameservers will tell all.

        IP address does not seem reliable to me whatsoever, because you can have 100s of sites together on a shared-server environment, that have no relationship whatsoever, and it wouldn't be fair to the sites to have their links downgraded if they happen to have similar material and a natural reason to be linked together.

        Another way to link entity relationships could be through Google's human auditor system. Google has admitted that the opinions of human auditors are often used to adjust the weight of certain ranking factors.

        I do agree that entity relationships could play a role in SERPS, but I think that IP alone is pretty meaningless when you consider how many shared-server environments there are in existance.

        If you are overly worried about all this, you could just admit the sites are part of the same network, by linking to them in the header of each site. Then, NOFOLLOW the links so that they don't pass any juice whatsoever, and promote the site in other ways.
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  • Profile picture of the author dvduval
    Agreed. IP address is just one of over 100 factors influencing ranking, so if there is an effect, it is minimal, unless of course you are employing some sort of black hat strategy.
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  • Profile picture of the author James Schramko
    They see your Gmail, Analytics, PPC, browsing habits etc.... They probably know a lot more about you than you expect.

    It is good practice to spread accounts around servers. SEO Hosting - SEO Web Hosting with cPanel and Multiple Class C IP Addresses offers multiple IP addresses on one shared WHM. It is an excellent solution.
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    • Profile picture of the author IowaGal
      Originally Posted by James Schramko View Post

      It is good practice to spread accounts around servers. SEO Hosting - SEO Web Hosting with cPanel and Multiple Class C IP Addresses offers multiple IP addresses on one shared WHM. It is an excellent solution.
      James is exactly right. If you insist on linking your sites together (which I don't recommend), you must be using different Class C blocks within your IP addresses.

      To illustrate this a bit, the Class C block is the 3rd set of three digits in any IP address:

      123.456.789.000

      The "789" in bold above is the Class C block.

      The easiest way to go about this is to host one of your sites on another web host.

      Secondly, if you didn't register your whois information as private then it will be very easy for the search engines to spot that you're linking your own sites together.

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      • Profile picture of the author dmderoeck
        I posted a similar question and did not get any takers...

        What about if you are currently on one IP and want to switch to C Class IP's. Does it hurt your current SE indexing when you change from one IP to another? In other words, are your SERPs damaged at all by switching to a new IP or set of IP's? The domains obviously stay the same, but what affects does it have on the SE's, do they need to "catch up"?
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