Shared and Dedicated IP addresses - Do they affect SEO?
Posted 2nd April 2009 at 05:08 AM by Amanti Code
Tags seo, server configuration
In the topics of internet marketing and search engine optimisation (seo) I’ve often been asked the question of whether people should use a shared IP or a dedicated IP, and what the difference is between them and how it, if it does, affects their search engine rankings. Can such website technical issues hinder organic search rankings?
My position on this subject matter is always to advise moving to a dedicated IP if you’re not already, mainly for the etiquette purposes of your own website. In most instances it will incur a small extra fee from your hosting provider, but its purpose is worth its value. In the following I will explain the three fundamental questions raised about shared and dedicated IP addresses. First, what are they? Secondly, can they affect my website and search engine rankings? And finally, what you can do about them.
The differences separating the two are both physical and virtual, the latter being more significant to your interests. Shared IP addresses, also referred to as ‘name-based virtual hosting’, is simply a single server with one IP address serving more than one hostname (domain name). This means when you register hosting on a shared IP address, other host names will be connected to the same IP.
Whereas a Dedicated IP address, also referred to as ‘IP-based virtual hosting’, is essentially a single web server serving a single webhost on a single IP. Therefore hosting on a dedicated IP address means the IP allocated to you will only be connected to your hostname; no others will share that IP address.
Get the full shared dedicated ip article at amanticode.com
Can a shared IP affect your website? If you have a dynamic website requiring user and real-time sever interaction such as dealing with online transactions, it’s highly likely you’ll need an SSL certificate rather than a shared certificate which can only be obtained by having a dedicated IP. For eCommerce website owners and account managers this is a preferred method of server side configuration.
In addition to the subject of security, having your hostname connecting to a shared IP, improperly configured, risks the possibility of others sharing the IP having system-wide access to your server side files.
Another important feature to note about shared IP addresses is that, if your site is not listed at the top of the name host list your site is likely to miss out on traffic that was supposed to go to your site. This is because, when a user surfs the web their browser makes the queries and retrieves the information provided by the web server. If the web server does not return information about your hostname it will return information about another host name connected with the same IP.
Dedicated IP findings: After conducting tests and research across the web to support my theory about shared and dedicated IP web crawling, I found having a website hosted on a dedicated IP is more likely to get crawled more often, by more search engines, more frequently. It also means more pages of your website are more likely to become indexed in the search engines. It makes sense as the search engine spiders have less server hosts to visit in the same duration of their visit.
Can a shared or dedicated IP affect search engine rankings? This debate continues among experts and professionals across the search engine community. Some argue dedicated IP’s are better for search engine rankings while others argue very little to no difference. However, according to Google officials this is what they’ve stated.
In a 2003 interview with Slashdot, Google Director of Technology Craig Silverstein answered:
Google’s software engineer Matt Cutts revisited this question three years later and stated in his blog post “Myth busting: virtual hosts vs. dedicated IP addresses”
For the best seo software review online check out the seo software comparison lens.
My position on this subject matter is always to advise moving to a dedicated IP if you’re not already, mainly for the etiquette purposes of your own website. In most instances it will incur a small extra fee from your hosting provider, but its purpose is worth its value. In the following I will explain the three fundamental questions raised about shared and dedicated IP addresses. First, what are they? Secondly, can they affect my website and search engine rankings? And finally, what you can do about them.
The differences separating the two are both physical and virtual, the latter being more significant to your interests. Shared IP addresses, also referred to as ‘name-based virtual hosting’, is simply a single server with one IP address serving more than one hostname (domain name). This means when you register hosting on a shared IP address, other host names will be connected to the same IP.
Whereas a Dedicated IP address, also referred to as ‘IP-based virtual hosting’, is essentially a single web server serving a single webhost on a single IP. Therefore hosting on a dedicated IP address means the IP allocated to you will only be connected to your hostname; no others will share that IP address.
Get the full shared dedicated ip article at amanticode.com
Can a shared IP affect your website? If you have a dynamic website requiring user and real-time sever interaction such as dealing with online transactions, it’s highly likely you’ll need an SSL certificate rather than a shared certificate which can only be obtained by having a dedicated IP. For eCommerce website owners and account managers this is a preferred method of server side configuration.
In addition to the subject of security, having your hostname connecting to a shared IP, improperly configured, risks the possibility of others sharing the IP having system-wide access to your server side files.
Another important feature to note about shared IP addresses is that, if your site is not listed at the top of the name host list your site is likely to miss out on traffic that was supposed to go to your site. This is because, when a user surfs the web their browser makes the queries and retrieves the information provided by the web server. If the web server does not return information about your hostname it will return information about another host name connected with the same IP.
Dedicated IP findings: After conducting tests and research across the web to support my theory about shared and dedicated IP web crawling, I found having a website hosted on a dedicated IP is more likely to get crawled more often, by more search engines, more frequently. It also means more pages of your website are more likely to become indexed in the search engines. It makes sense as the search engine spiders have less server hosts to visit in the same duration of their visit.
Can a shared or dedicated IP affect search engine rankings? This debate continues among experts and professionals across the search engine community. Some argue dedicated IP’s are better for search engine rankings while others argue very little to no difference. However, according to Google officials this is what they’ve stated.
In a 2003 interview with Slashdot, Google Director of Technology Craig Silverstein answered:
“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.”
Google’s software engineer Matt Cutts revisited this question three years later and stated in his blog post “Myth busting: virtual hosts vs. dedicated IP addresses”
“There is no PageRank difference whatsoever between these two cases (virtual hosting vs. a dedicated IP)…I’m happy to affirm that this statement which was true in 2003 is still true now. Links to virtually hosted domains are treated the same as links to domains on dedicated IP addresses.”
So what should you do about them? The first thing I would not recommend is to do nothing. While the above has been said about search engine rankings from Google officials, they have also mentioned previously, site owners should avoid linking to ‘dirty’ IP’s and ensure their site is hosted on a clean C Block. To do this you can contact your webhosts to provide you with this information and to move your site if necessary. I would also recommend if you wish to keep with a shared IP to ask your web hosting provider to move your name host to the top of the list.For the best seo software review online check out the seo software comparison lens.
