Shared hosting risk low rankings?

[asusplay]

I have all my sites on shared hosting as it is obviously a lot cheaper. However having a read a few threads I'm getting the impression that my websites are at the mercy of what other unknown sites sitting ont the same server are doing. So hypothetically if another website I'm sharing the server with gets penalised or banned could my sites suffer too? The problem I don't know who I'm sharing with...

Is the solution to have them on a dedicated server?

What about these virtual dedicated servers? They seem to be less expensive and have their own IPs, could that be a solution?

[tedster]

I think you only have the potential for getting penalized or banned if a LOT of websites that share your IP are in some kind of trouble,. Even then, if your contact information is different, you can still escape being painted with the same brush. This kind of penalty doesn't happen all that often. I have quite a few clients on shared hosting and they are not seeing problems.

All that said, a dedicated IP is a better signal of quality and it helps you avoid all kinds of negative possibility.

[dauction]

after 6 years on shared hosting bringing $xx,#*$! income I just went to a VDS hosting set-up - still dirt cheap $59 a month .

Finally had some idiot screwing around on the shared hosting that brought it down a couple times.. that was my signal to move up one grade of hosting

[Asia_Expat]

My sites don't even come close to the sort of traffic that would slow down shared hosting. However, I have my own basic dedicated server because...

a ) Kudos
b ) Possibility of search engine favour
c ) Don't get the daily slowdowns when 1000 other sites are doing a backup.
d ) When serious traffic comes, I haven't got to worry about an urgent upgrade, fiddling around with loads of /pathhere/paththere/etc/etc/ changes.
e ) It's a snip at 70 GBP per month (around 120 $US)
f ) I dumped my girlfriend recently , so have much more disposable income now ;-)

In fact, I have 2 servers, one in Germany and the other in Hong Kong (I have some .hk TLD sites).