Sharing Server with Adult Sites

[languageusa]

I have been in the top 10 (page 1) on all major key terms for years. I am in the 50-60's (pages 5-6) on the same search terms this morning. I have recently changed the hosting service,
everything else remains the same. I don't think changing the host can trigger this decline. By the way, this host provides home for adult websites as well. If an innocent site (like mine -- language translation) shares a server with "bad guys", can it possibly affect its standing with Goodge? Any comments will be greatly appreciated.

[followgreg]

There might be other reasons - but I am one of those who believe that Google 'flags' 'spammy' registrars/hostings/dns's/IP ranges.

I would not host any sites along with a hosting that specializes in the adult business.

[Matt Probert]

There is nothing inherently "bad" about adult web sites. It is merely a subjective opinion - Islam considers a bikini to be pornographic, while in France the public are blaise about topless women, and in Scandinavia full nudity (and sex) is considered quite acceptable.

It is paranoid nonsense to think that because a hosting company hosts adult sites your own language translation site, or whatever, will be penalised.

Google is a successful, professional business. They don't have time for petty bigotry.

Matt

[tedster]

Agreed - from Google's viewpoint, there is nothing inherently "bad" about adult content in itself. But because there is the potential for big money through adult content, the field is very competitive. in order to compete, quite a few of the webmasters get pretty far away from following Google's guidleines -- and THAT can be a problem for another site that shares an IP address with this kind of neighborhood.

[SteveWh]

What constitutes a "neighborhood"?

As I understand it, Google considers a neighborhood to be sites that link to each other, which is something done intentionally.

A shared server might host 500 websites that have nothing to do with each other except for accidentally sharing disk space and an IP. No choice or intent on the part of the website owners.

It is difficult for me to believe that Google's approach could be so crude that it can't distinguish one website from another or would mistake physical proximity for the type of neighborhood they care about. It would de-rank every site on a shared server because it is statistically likely that every shared server has bad sites on it.

[tedster]

It's not that they "can't" distinguish between the sites, but that they sometimes don't -- especially with shared IP addresses. Also, if you keep company on the same server with neighbors who do agressive things, there are aome hacks out there with CPanel and the like that also make you vulnerable. You can end up hosting links to sites that you never intended to link to.