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In a dilemma over hosting

by lorraineb
10 replies
Hi all,

I hope I'm posting in the right place for this query. I need some advice please.

I currently use Hostgator and am on their 'baby' plan. I have somewhere in the region of 10 websites all operating on the same plan. I have found out that there are also somewhere in the region of 140 other websites all using the same dns. If one of those websites was 'dodgy' and penalised by Google, could this have an impact on my rankings? (like being guilty through association?)

I don't know what SSL means, but I've been looking on Hostgator to see if upgrading my account to business plan would separate me from everyone else, and the difference between the baby and business plan seems to be private SSL with the business plan. I might be barking up the wrong tree, but I wondered if this is what I need.

I'm not in the position financially to go for vps at the moment, but looking for the next best thing.

My apologies if I look like I don't know what I'm talking about - but I hope I'm getting there

Many thanks.
#dilemma #hosting
  • Profile picture of the author clean99
    I can't be exaclty sure but I don't think Google will penalize you because someone else is screwing up.
    I have one of my own websites penalized but it didn't affect rankings of my other websites.
    hope that helps a little
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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    There are millions of sites that share the same servers without penalty from Google. I would only upgrade when it is necessary to upgrade due to bandwidth use or server load.
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  • Profile picture of the author WebMarketingDiva
    I have a few different Host Gator accounts on the shared plans, and have never had any problem with them.

    The only thing that I'd watch out for is that if you upgrade to a Baby plan for multiple sites... you don't want to put unlimited sites on one plan, unless you are using your own backup system for each site. Hostgator has an automatic backup system, but it only works if you limit the amount of files (100,000) and memory (20,000MB) you use. So keep an eye on those stats - they can be found in your CPanel, on the left side under "Backup Stats".

    Hope that helps!
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  • Profile picture of the author Jothika
    It would be absurd if Google penalised you. Surely, the sins of another website should not affect you. I think hostgator is the most reliable hosting service. Haven't tried others though.
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  • Profile picture of the author davejug1
    Actually it does have a chance of affecting you. If, for example, a site is a well known spammer then if you share the same IP address as them you yourself are going to have problems mailing. Other than mailing you should be alright. You can check your IP address here:

    Find IP address of a website - server ip lookup

    And you can run your IP address through the Spamhaus database here:

    http://www.spamhaus.org/lookup.lasso

    If you do mail and if your IP address is blacklisted then you can usually get a dedicated IP from your host for about $10 per year.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by lorraineb View Post

    If one of those websites was 'dodgy' and penalised by Google, could this have an impact on my rankings? (like being guilty through association?)
    No - you don't need to be concerned about this.

    As Dave mentions above, the only downside is if you're sharing a server with a known email spammer and you also want to send outgoing email that way, yourself.

    If that isn't an issue for you, I'd forget about upgrading for now, and return to it only if/when bandwidth use or server load necessitate that (and Hostgator will be quick to let you know, if that happens).
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  • Profile picture of the author Kingfish85
    No. There's no difference. If you upgrade your plan, you are still on the same server, whether you have a dedicated IP or not. Only thing you need an SSL for is if you're exchanging confidential details between users and your website. (https).

    A shared environment is a shared environment. Unless you upgrade to a VPS or Dedicated server, you'll ALWAYS be on the same servers as other sites.

    AND due to an ipv4 shortage, you're only able to obtain a dedicated IP for SSL certificates.
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  • Profile picture of the author Arroway
    Think about it this way: Google is a content machine; their product is delivering valuable content for what people are searching for. If they were to penalize one website and let this spread to other websites on the same server as the "guilty one", they would bombard their own efforts. Rest assured that the people at Google are not that bad at what they are doing

    Allen
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    Allen Arroway - marketer, philanthropist and passionate teacher.
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  • Profile picture of the author lorraineb
    Thanks all for your input. I've edited my original post as I realised I had made a mistake, but it doesn't seem to have impacted on the outcome of your answers. I knew I'd read somewhere about spamming, but didn't realise it was for emailing only, and had obviously got confused somewhere along the line. Everything's much clearer now, so thank you.
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  • Profile picture of the author Robert Bridgen
    No google will go after the website in question. To protect your websites change password often stops all the scams going on
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    http://robertbridgen.com/reviews
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