I have searched for an answer to this query and got conflicting results…
If I have 3 websites which are related in that they are different branches of the same business with different but similar products, and the websites are linked, is there a disadvantage from an SEO point of view to having them hosted on the same server with the same IP address?
[FONT=verdana]There might be a small disadvantage, but I doubt if it’s worth worrying about.
In general, Google (and possibly other search engines) will give less weight to an incoming link if it’s from a site that is obviously related. So, where there are several sites hosted on the same server, with the same IP address, and where there are other signs that they are operated by the same company (e.g. similar names in the URLs or page titles), then Google will consider them to be related to each other, and might therefore give less value to any links between them.
That said, the net effect on the sites’ performance is not likely to be very significant - probably not enough to justify the effort of setting up multiple servers or dealing with several hosting companies. It might be better to put that effort into attracting high-quality links from unrelated sites.
Mike[/FONT]
Yes its a real deficit for site with same IP address. But same server doesn’t matter.
This is a myth actually that having separate IP Addresses improves SEO and more over according to the rules and regulations set out by RIPE it is not even a valid justification to obtain a Dedicated IP.
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Can you explain that? What has RIPE got to do with SEO? And what are these “rules and regulations”?
As far as I know, RIPE doesn’t impose any rules on site operators. And companies are free to host their sites on separate servers, with separate IP addresses, or not, as they see fit.
If I’ve misunderstood your statement, perhaps you could clarify it.
Mike[/FONT]
I was implying that if you host your sites on the same server and want each site to have a dedicated IP address, you would have to offer a valid justification to your provider for the additional IP addresses and “need ip for SEO” is not considered to be a valid justification by RIPE.
[FONT=verdana]I certainly didn’t know that. I’ll take your word for it.
But the original question didn’t necessarily talk about hosting the sites on the same server with different IP addresses. I took it to mean that he wanted to know if there was a benefit in hosting on different servers.
Mike
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The central body distributing IP addresses ran out of IPv4 addresses in 2011 and it probably will not be much longer before the last of them work their way down the heirarchy to be allocated to hosting providers and ISPs. Once that point is reached the only way to give someone their own IPv4 address will be when someone else no longer needs it. That’s why the restrictions for being able to get your own IPv4 address are getting more and more restrictive.
The internet is in the process of being converted to use IPv6 addresses now that the IPv4 ones have run out. Once your provider has switched to using IPv6 instead of IPv4 you should have no problem getting a few million IP addresses to do whatever you like with. Once the entire internet is switched to IPv6 there will be no reason why two web pages will need to share the same IP address.
Thanks for your information about IPv4 and IPv6, as I was new to this term, I leaned something new today.
Yup, this won’t help you in terms of SEO.
If your 3 websites are on different c-class ip’s then there will be no confliction and the weight of link is so cool and authority. If not then they will give you less weight otherwise their is no effect on your SERP of websites.
The concept of different classes of IP address was scrapped many years ago when the addresses ran short and had to be allocated in different ways. It is even less meaningful now that they have completely run out.