Google Rankings and Subnet Masks

Any connection?

[Rollo]

I've seen it bantered around the baord that there is some corralation between SERPS and such things as dedeicated IPs vs. shared Ips, as well that it's better to get your IPs as far apart as possible when you run a large network fo sites (c class or better)...

I was wondering if anyone had any input on optimal subnet mask settings or if they could conceivably matter at all? I have no idea.

[alphacooler]

I made quite a few posts about this very issue about 1-2mo's ago. I searched for a good solid host that let me spread my sites across diff. c-class ip's. If I were writing the G algo I sure as hell would look for commonly operated sites within the same industry...makes damned good sense to me. Many people say this claim is ridiculous, but I prefer to error on the safe side.

goodluck

[digitalv]

I don't see why any search engine in their right mind would consider the IP address when ranking pages these days. No one gets a dedicated IP address unless they know to ask for it, and if you're with a large hosting company chances are your site shares an IP with thousands of other customers. While everyone reading this knows what we're talking about, the typical small business owner has no idea what the difference between a dedicated and shared IP address is, they just signed up for web hosting and followed their hosts direction.

Among small businesses (and those of you who attend chamber of commerce meetings, etc. will know what I'm saying) they often share information about who they're hosting with, who designed their site, etc. and you'll find that many businesses that are related to each other all host with the same company and thus would have the same IP address. If those businesses link to each other's sites, as they often do, any search engine that would code this to set up a red flag and potentially earn some kind of penalty is looking at the web the wrong way.

The search engine's job is to display relevant results, not to police the Internet De-listing sites because they happen to have the same or same-range IP addresses is not the mark of a good search engine. If the content is relevant to the search, why should it matter whether they're all part of the same network or run by the same webmaster? That's not Google's job.