SEO and a dedicated IP address vs shared/virtual

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Albert Wiersch
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SEO and a dedicated IP address vs shared/virtual

Post by Albert Wiersch »

I was researching some SEO issues and came upon the question of whether having a dedicated IP address for your website/domain helps SEO. This is in comparison to when many domains are hosted on one IP address.

The conclusion seems to be mostly no, but there could be exceptions, and some might argue that the answer is that it's "inconclusive".

This is a good URL that goes over some of the issues of a dedicated IP vs shared:
http://www.zippykid.com/2013/02/21/do-y ... s-for-seo/

Now there are benefits to a dedicated IP and server vs. shared, and those include performance & speed, security, and SSL capability. You definitely don't want a slow website as it will probably affect your search engine rankings as well as the user experience. You also don't want someone hacking into the server through someone else's account as it could affect the performance and security of all the hosted sites.

Sharing an IP with others could also increase the risk that that IP is blocked or blacklisted. For example, if someone sends spam using it.

But when it comes to SEO, the issue to worry about mostly seems to be if your site is on the same IP as a bunch of spammy sites, in which case it could definitely be affected. However, for most people, being on a dedicated IP or not is far less important than many other factors... and probably not important enough to worry about (at least for SEO purposes).
Albert Wiersch, CSS HTML Validator Developer • Download CSS HTML Validator FREE Trial