Banning by IP address or domain?

[Jon12345]

If Google et al decide to ban your site, do they do it by IP address or domain?

Thanks,

Jon

[msr986]

Most of the time Google bans by URL, however they have been known to ban by IP. If you are using virtual hosting, it is possible to be banned if your IP address is also used for spam sites, AFAIK

[Jesse_Smith]

Google hasn't done IP banning in a long time.

I asked GoogleGuy this question...

Do you just ban domains, or also IP addresses? If your domain is on an IP address that has hundreds of domains on it, and one of those domains does big time spamming and the IP address get's banned, what's the best way to get unbanned, since you can't include any evidence in the E-mail that you tried to get rid of anything, like hidden text links, since you did nothing wrong in the first place?

And here's his reply...

Jesse_Smith, the things you mentioned are good reasons why IP address penalties are usually not a good idea. All the comments about manual penalties apply, plus it's easy for a bad guy to switch to a different IP. I haven't seen an IP-based penalty in a long time.