Does the same IP address devalue links between the sites?

[boromir27]

Google checks IP address of domains and give them less weight if both have same IP and link to each other?

[internetheaven]

Does the same IP address devalue links between the sites?

"Yes" is the short answer.

[boromir27]

What about the long answer?

[tedster]

That's your personal homework assignment. Studying this recent patents would be a good starting place:

Document Scoring Based on Link-Based Criteria [appft1.uspto.gov] [April 26, 2007 - Anurag Acharya]

[Robert Charlton]

Here's another longer answer which might apply...

Ranking search results by reranking the results based on local inter-connectivity [patft.uspto.gov]
US Patent #6,526,440
Krishna Bharat; January 30, 2001; Assignee: Google, Inc.

[Reno]

I have a slight variation to boromir27's question. Let's say you have 5 individual registered domain name websites, which have related content but NOT identical content, so each site is unique.

All 5 domains are at the same registrar.

You put the first website up at an online hosting service which does a very good job, so when the second is ready, it is hosted there also, under a separate account (but owned by the same person).

Ditto for the 3rd, 4th, 5th -- over the course of 12 months all 5 sites end up at the same ISP.

So.... same registrar; same hosting service; same owner; related but not duplicate content -- will Google see that as reason to apply less ranking? (all other factors being equal)

I have a feeling that a lot of webmasters end up using the same hosting service when they find one that is consistently dependable, so I imagine I'm not alone in this scenario. Appreciate any feedback -- I never could figure this out in any definitive sort of way...

........................

[internetheaven]

What about the long answer?

The long answer involves several other questions. This particular question normally arises from one of these types of situations:

1. someone is offering to sell you 1000 backlinks but they all come from websites on the same IP and you wondered if it was worth the money.

2. you have a bunch of parked domains on the same IP and you wonder if linking them all to your actual site will boost your rankings.

3. you have a bunch of sites on the same IP and you want to interlink them all.

etc. etc. etc.

The real issue is not the answer to the question but the question itself. There is no reason for you to delve into this question deeply as your time would be better looking into other linking methods to boost rankings.

[marketingmagic]

Yup this will get you in trouble in the long run - been there done that and I even went so far as to create unique class c addresses - still didn't work.

Hostings cheap, get yourself setup with multiple hosting accounts if you've got multiple domains. Not much good for those with 30+ domains though due to cost.

[internetheaven]

Nice assumptions...

I love to be amazed, please do tell me your situation that does not fit within the scope suggested? Maybe there is more to your question.

[cangoou]

Hostings cheap, get yourself setup with multiple hosting accounts if you've got multiple domains.

Wouldn't Google be able to check the registrants name and conclude that the domains are connected just by the whois-info? I thought some years ago Google bought some kind of whois-service. So it would be easy for Google to tell that all the domains belong to the same person/company no matter if the IP differs.

Another idea would be that google sees the connection through the same AdSense-account thats perhaps used on all the pages.

What do you think about that?

[digitalv]

So those of us who are with large hosts with load balancers and have thousands of sites on the same IP address are basically screwed and can't link to anyone who hosts with us?

Google is getting way too powerful here...

[sem4u]

Google is a registrar so it can check data to do with domain names.

It would be good if a few more people could chime in on the IP issue.

I used to look after a few sites that were owned by the same company, were hosted on the same IP, but had completely different content as they were all for very different company divisions. Most of them were interlinked to each other from each page (sitewide). After a while we decided to use the "no follow" tag for these links, but it didn't make any difference, and the sites still rank well.

I would be interested to hear from anyone running a legit network of sites, that were all hosted on one IP, and are now on separate IPs, blocks even. Did rankings go up?

[HuskyPup]

In my experience of all the sites I run I must say that I do not agree with the majority of the above so long as each site has relevant and unique content even if they are crosslinked, in the same widget genre, all registered by the same person/company/whatever, etc.

I do not seem to have suffered any penalties from both Search and AdSense perspectives. Sure a Google -950 duplication penalty last year for something I should've cleaned up before however nothing else that I am aware.

Maybe because all my sites are pretty much white hat?

Please dont jump down my throat and claim it will all go pear-shaped, this is simply my 15+ years experience, way before G was even thought of!

[HuskyPup]

sem4u - This backs-up your observations.

[bouncybunny]

I don't think anyone is suggesting that there is any penalty for simply linking to another site on the same IP address (or if you are, please shout now). I've seen plenty of posts on here before from people who host multiple sites that link to each other in various ways with no apparent ill effect.

It's more of a common sense thing to me. If a dozen sites from he same IP all link to one other site then there must be a question as to whether they would pass the same 'trust'. So, in my opinion, probably no harm, but also probably limited benefit.

For what it's worth, I host all my client's sites on the same server and the many of them link to my site. It's natural, I designed the sites and they want to have a link at the bottom saying who the design company is.

[marketingmagic]

You'll only get in trouble when you're running a network of sites and are cross linking them all (or most) in a linking scheme. Linking a few related sites together might be a different story, but personally I stay away from any sort of cross linking within the same IP range - it's just not worth the risk. If you need links get them the right way and then you can sleep at night.

[wheel]

I wouldn't do it as a networking scheme specifically - but if it's relatively natural, go ahead. My hosting clients all link to my main site. That main site links to my discussion forum and directories, all on the same C class. No problem ranking on any of those things - discussion forum, hosting, directory etc.

However all of my sites, while within the same market, have plenty of unique content. I'd like to think that the volume and uniqueness are what makes it OK.