Value Of A Dedicated IP Address

[austtr]

Maybe not specifically related to Google SEO but I suspect most people who bought dedicated IP addresses back in the day (early 2000's) did so for SEO puposes and to avoid the risk of ending up on a shared IP address that Google found necessary to delist.

SE"s have come a long way since those days and I'm wondering if I should bother paying for dedicated IP's any longer. In a post Panda and Penguin world, the fate off sites seems to be impacted by a whole bunch of things, none of which seem to have anything to do with the IP address.

If we look at a few of the current popular web development apps (Squarespace, Weebly and similar), most, if not all, host your site on their servers and I'm sure there is a whole bunch of these sites sharing IP addresses. So it would seem that they attach no importance to sharing an IP address between multiple sites.

Are dedicated IP addresses a relic from a bygone era and no longer of any value?

[aakk9999]

I think it does not have any measurable SEO impact, although on the other hand choosing a bad hoster and having the same IP as bunch of spam websites + a mistake in server config may have adverse impact.

I think that if you choose a reputable hosting, it should be fine.

Do you use https on your site?

[webcentric]

I was just going to mention that if you have your own SSL cert on your site, there's probably no reason to worry about the SEO implications of a dedicated/static IP or a SSL cert. You're in the game whether they have an impact or not. The arguments against having SSL on your site (even if the only reason for having it is to protect your contact form) are so weak these days as to be irrelevant. Once you put SSL on your site (unless you use a shared cert) you've also swallowed a static IP pill so who cares about any trivial SEO boost you might or might not get. Protecting my login information and user's privacy is a much higher priority for me these days than praying for now mythical SEO factors to save my bacon.

[ergophobe]

>>if you have your own SSL cert on your site, there's probably no reason to worry about the SEO implications of a dedicated/static IP

Well if you have an SSL cert you have to either use SNI or have a dedicated IP. SNI won't work if you have visitors on WinXP and only works (generally speaking) for web servers (http over TLS), not, for example mail servers and FTP(?) or SSH(?) daemons.

We're finally getting to the point where that's not a concern, but until recently, the world wasn't SNI ready,so having a cert required a dedicated IP.

Otherwise as aakk9999 said.

More on SNI from about a year ago
[webmasterworld.com...]

Current list of "not supported"
[en.wikipedia.org...]

[austtr]

Do you use https on your site?

No... my site(s) were so badly mauled by Penguin ver 1, and have shown no sign of recovery after all of Google's recommended remedial work, that I had decided to take down my sites and move on. If Google had decided to eat my lunch there was not a lot I could do about it.

Nevertheless I decided to stop wallowing in self pity and try one more thing... to revamp my sites from the ground up with HTML5, CSS3 and responsive design... etc etc etc. I'll look at the https option as part of that project.

My natural cynicism says this is a waste of time and money (I can't afford Adwords and I'm dependent on free traffic off SERP's) but at least I'm not going to die wondering "what if".

[lucy24]

choosing a bad hoster and having the same IP as bunch of spam websites

And even then... If your pristine IP is aa.bb.cc.85 and there's a bunch of nasty spammy sites at aa.bb.cc.86 and aa.bb.cc.84, you have to assume the search engine will still know you live in a bad neighborhood. Assuming for the sake of discussion that you've reached that weird concatenation of circumstances where the search engine even needs to look more closely at your neighbors, at which point it's probably time to cut your losses anyway.

[AndyD]

I moved a site away from a shared service recently because after looking at some IP info, it was in the Spamhaus database. That was enough to convince me a move was required.

[fathom]

Contrary to some popular opinions Matt Cutts pointed this out 9 years ago and used a reference from 12 years ago to illustrate [mattcutts.com...]

Just because the worse spammer in the world is on your IP so long as you never link to him... you are safe!

I love John Mueller Analogy on this as well

If you’re going to the bank to cash a check, there’s nothing wrong with driving your own car. If you’re going to the bank to rob it, on the other hand, driving your own car is going to make it ridiculously easy for the police to find you. However, even if you steal a car before robbing the bank, the odds of you actually getting away with the crime aren’t exactly favorable. There are just too many ways to get caught and eliminating the most obvious, be it your car or IP addresses, is of minimal help.

The answer? Don’t rob the bank and the convenience of using your own car will never become an issue.

also

[cre8asiteforums.com...]

<added>mis-quote - that was actually John Mueller repeating a Ron Carnell quote</added>

[AndyD]

But, if the server is in the Spamhaus database, that might tell you something you wish to listen to.